How Nature Invites us into the Sacredbased on the book Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz
Introducing the reading for our Fall Series
September 5th through November 7th, 2024
Church of the Wild: The 2024 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner
in “Religion / Spirituality of Western Thought” Category.
Purchase at Chaucer’s SB or Amazon
Whether disillusioned by the dominant church or unfulfilled by traditional expressions of faith, many of us long for a deeper spirituality. Victoria Loorz certainly did. Coping with an unraveling vocation, identity, and planet, Loorz turned to the wanderings of spiritual leaders and the sanctuary of the natural world, eventually cofounding the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild.
With an ecospiritual lens on biblical narratives and a fresh look at a community larger than our own species, Church of the Wild uncovers the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it–and calling it church.
Purchase at Chaucer’s SB or Amazon
Becoming Forest As a companion book for this series, we recommend Becoming Forest, an eco-spiritual novel by physician Michael Kearney, one of our series speakers.
“Drawing on personal experiences with Celtic, Native American, and Tibetan Buddhist lore and practices, Dr. Michael Kearney skillfully tells the story of a spiritual journey. We coexist in relation to all living beings, and Becoming Forest reminds us of this deep belonging.”
—Leah Stokes, Professor of Environmental Politics, UC Santa Barbara, author of Short Circuiting Policy
Ten Thursday mornings via Zoom. Series tuition: $75
Please join us and bring a new friend who will be heartened by the journey.
Click here for the backstory of the series.
We invite you to register today for this inspiring program.
Dates of Program: September 5th thru November 7th, 2024
Ten Thursday mornings – 10:00am – 11:30
How: Zoom Platform
Fee: $75.00 The Thomas Heck Memorial Fund is available to those needing scholarship aid, and we encourage donations to the fund from those who are interested supporting our operating costs and each other.
Our work continues by virtue of many contributions.
Please select additional donation option below if your circumstances allow.
Click following button to pay fee & reserve your place today.
additional donation of any amount.
OR make a check made payable to WORD AND LIFE and mail it to:
Word and Life
c/o Joe Schneider
533 Tallant Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
WHEN MAILING CHECK: Please be sure to included a note with
your email address so we can email you your weekly Zoom links.
| DATE | TOPIC AND CHAPTER(S) | SPEAKER |
|
Session 1: |
Reflecting on and responding to the Prologue |
|
|
|
||
|
Session 2: |
Reflecting on and responding to Chapter 2: |
|
|
|
||
|
Session 3: |
Reflecting on and responding to Chapter 3: |
|
|
Session 4: |
Reflecting on and responding to Chapter 4: |
|
|
Session 5: |
Reflecting on and responding to Chapter 5: |
|
|
Session 6: |
KEYNOTE SPEAKER -- Overview of book, |
|
|
Session 7: |
Reflecting on and responding to Chapter 6: |
|
|
Session 8: |
Reflecting on and responding to Chapter 7: |
|
|
Session 9: |
Reflecting on and responding to Chapter 8: |
|
|
Session 10: |
Reflecting on and responding to Chapter 9: |
|
Backstory of our Fall 2024 Series
In today’s chaotic public square, most references to Christianity speak of it as a kind of cultural ideology, increasingly termed Christian Nationalism, that acts to categorize and quantify Christian tradition by scissoring up a 2000 year-old stream of evolving faith into cultural memberships and loyalties with political implications.
Yet from its very beginning, in a turbulent political landscape not unlike our own, the writings of St. Paul in Phillipians 2:25 urge Christians to another level of understanding and spiritual practice: “Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus”. The book for our Fall Series suggests a profound attunement between the intelligence of the Christ mind and the living intelligence of wildness, itself.
In her remarkable book, Church of The Wild, author and Pastor Victoria Loorz cites the scriptural evidence of Jesus’ consistent journeying into the wilderness and his own silence for spiritual guidance rather than toward the libraries and conversations of the local temple authorities. She invites us to consider the deep Presence in the processes of creation and wilderness as embodying the ‘Logos” that informed the teachings of Jesus.
We need a larger and truth-filled context in which we can place today’s complexities – one that provides us with new perspectives that enable us to reconnect this severed world into transforming relationships – a way of knowing that strengthens us as ‘postholders’ of common faiths that can secure the ‘edgepath’ that our author believes we’re called to traverse.
We look forward to finding that deeper context together with you as we read Victoria Loorz ‘ book, Church Of The Wild, and then gather together from September 5th to Nov. 7 to hear 10 outstanding speakers explore its inspiring findings and implications.
List of Presenters (in order of date of presentation)
Session 1 — Sept. 5 Speaker — Rev. Elizabeth Rechter
Elizabeth has been an Episcopal priest serving in parish ministry since 1991. She is an experienced teacher, retreat leader, and spiritual director and served as Executive Director of the Stillpoint Center for Christian Spiritualty from 2016 to 2023. Having experienced the gift of Spiritual Direction throughout her 30 plus years of ministry, she wishes to help share this ministry to a widening circle in a world in great need of spiritual listening companions. Her spirituality is formed by the Rule of St. Benedict, Contemplative Prayer and she is a trained facilitator in BioSpiritual Focusing, the spiritual practice of connecting with the Wisdom of the body.
Session 2 — Sept. 12 Speaker — Michael Kearney, MD
Michael Kearney has worked for over 40 years as a palliative care and hospice physician, sitting at the bedsides of people who are seriously ill and dying. He recently retired from his full time clinical work to dedicate himself to teaching through the newly founded Becoming Forest Project. He and his wife, Radhule, live in Santa Barbara, California.
Purchase at Chaucer’s SB or Amazon
Becoming Forest As a companion book for this series, we recommend Becoming Forest, an eco-spiritual novel by physician Michael Kearney, one of our series speakers.
“Drawing on personal experiences with Celtic, Native American, and Tibetan Buddhist lore and practices, Dr. Michael Kearney skillfully tells the story of a spiritual journey. We coexist in relation to all living beings, and Becoming Forest reminds us of this deep belonging.”
—Leah Stokes, Professor of Environmental Politics, UC Santa Barbara, author of Short Circuiting Policy
Session 3 — Sept. 19 Speaker — Tim Burnette
Tim writes and teaches in philosophy, theology, cosmology, and decolonial mysticism. He earned his doctorate from Claremont School of Theology, where he studied process metaphysics and compassion. He has hosted the Theopoetics Podcast and currently curates the Way Collective, which is a contemplative community for love and liberation in Santa Barbara, CA. He is a partner, father, musician, athlete, and avid reader. He agrees with Kurt Vonnegut that you can see all kinds of things from the edge that you can’t see from the center. Although…sometimes it helps to be centered out on the edge as well.
Session 4 — Sept. 26 Speaker — Katherine Collis
Katherine Collis is a retreat leader and spiritual counselor with a background in gerontology, human development and spiritual psychology. Her focus is on life transitions and the awakening of the soul.
For 35 years she has led retreats and pilgrimages to the Isle of Iona in Scotland. She is a Findhorn Fellow, co-founder and minister of the Lorian Association and a Millionth Circle convener and group facilitator.
After a nearly a decade of working closely with Santa Barbara’s La Casa de Maria and the Center for Spiritual Renewal until their closure 4 years ago, she is now in private practice and teaching on-line.
Session 5 — Oct. 3 Speaker — Heather Ruce
Heather Ruce, M.A. is a wisdom spiritual director with a background as a therapist and training in a neurophysiology-based approach to nervous system resilience called ‘Organic Intelligence.’
She works with individuals as well as facilitating wisdom circles and retreats focused on learning and practicing the Wisdom Tradition in order to awaken and live out a path of conscious love.
Session 6 — Oct. 10 — KEYNOTE SPEAKER — Rev. Victoria Loorz
Victoria Loorz, MDiv, is a “wild church pastor,” an “eco-spiritual director” and co-founder of several transformation-focused organizations focused on the integration of nature and spirituality. She feels most alive when collaborating with Mystery and kindred spirits to create opportunities for people to re-member themselves back into intimate, sacred relationship with the rest of the living world.
After twenty years as a pastor of indoor churches, she launched the first Church of the Wild, in Ojai CA and began to meet others with the same sense of call to leave building and expand the Beloved Community beyond our own species. She then co-founded the ecumenical Wild Church Network.
Victoria is co-founder and director of Seminary of the Wild, which is focused on a deep-dive yearlong Eco-Ministry Certificate program for all those who feel called by Earth and Spirit to “restore the great conversation.” (Thomas Berry)
Victoria’s young adult children — Alec and Olivia — are wise, creative, tender souls, dedicated to creating a more inclusive, compassionate, and just world.
Session 7 — Oct. 17 Speaker — Rev. Steve Jacobsen
Steve Jacobsen earned a BA in European History from UCSB, a Masters of Divinity from Princeton Seminary and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Seattle University. He served as a Presbyterian pastor for 30 years, with the last 16 in Goleta.
From 2008-2014 he was Executive Director at Hospice of Santa Barbara; from 2014 to May, 2018 he was Director at La Casa de Maria. He has published a book and 11 articles on the relationship of spirituality to various aspects of daily life, including secular work, leadership and digital technology.
He has been active in interfaith projects with Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist communities. Since “being “released into the wild” and retiring in 2018, he has served as an Interim Pastor, first at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian and now at Summerland Presbyterian. He writes a weekly blog, “Pocket Epiphanies” at www.drjsb.com
Session 8 — Oct. 24 Speaker — Joseph Bruchac, PhD
A citizen of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation and a member of their Elder Council, Joseph Bruchac has authored over 180 books in numerous genres. His poems, fiction, and essays have appeared in hundreds of publications from American Poetry Review, Parabola, and National Geographic to Scholastic Scope and Highlights for Children. His ground-breaking book Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), which uses Native stories to teach science, has sold over a million copies an adopted in schools throughout the US and Canada.
A graduate of Cornell University, he received his Master’s Degree in Literature from Syracuse University and his Ph.D. from the Union Institute (Ohio). His numerous awards include a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, a CCLM Editors Fellowship, a NYS Writing Fellowship, the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. A traditional Native musician and storyteller, he has been featured at the National Storytelling Festival and the British Storytelling Festival and performed traditional indigenous music with drum and flute at Caffe Lena, the Old Songs Festival, the Flurry Festival and numerous other venues.
Session 9 — Oct. 31 Speaker — Mary Ann Evans, PhD
“Mary Ann Evans is one of the wisest and most fully grounded and accomplished psychotherapeutic/wisdom counsellors in our network…” Cynthia Bourgeault
Mary Ann Evans, Ph.D, neuropsychologist, has a rich and varied career in the psychological and educational arenas spanning over 50 years and specializing in work with individuals who experience emotional, social, medical and learning challenges. She has presented her innovative work on brain plasticity and transformation extensively at conferences around the world and in the United States.
She has been a neuropsychologist in Santa Barbara since 1989, working at the Rehabilitation Institute and Behavioral Wellness, as well as in private practice. Her work in personal healing and transformation is embodied through her dedication to partnering with horses in her program “Horse Wisdom for the Soul”.
Her spiritual journey has encompassed the exploration of many contemplative traditions, and she was most recently a student in Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation’s Living School. She has spent 20 years as a dedicated student in the Christian Wisdom Tradition, and her deepest spiritual awakening has come through resonance with Cynthia Bourgeault’s teachings about the heart of Christianity.
Session 10 — Nov. 7 Speaker — Fr. Jim Clarke, PhD
Fr. Jim Clarke Ph.D. is presently a consultant for the Spiritual and Human Formation for the Permanent Diaconate candidates and their wives for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He is also an Associate Spiritual Director at the Cardinal Manning House of Prayer for Priests. With a rich academic background in Theology, Depth Psychology, Counseling, Education, and Mythology, Fr. Clarke is the author of five books and two CD/DVD series. He is a popular Retreat Director and Conference speaker throughout the Southern California area and beyond.