Wild Church
On the third Sunday of the month at 9:30am we have Wild Church. Wild Church is a contemplative style gathering outdoors in the cathedral of God's creation. It follows a loose structure of: liturgy, silence, prompted reflection, sharing, communion. We begin with our wild church liturgy and then sit in silence for 5 minutes, listening to God, nature and our own selves. Then each month we have a content card based on a theme that we give you, and then you have about 20 minutes to go wander, sit, rest, explore and engage with the poems, prayers, quotes on the card. After that we come back together to share what resonated with us and then we have communion together. It kind of functions like a mini-retreat space.
What to bring: You will need to bring a chair or picnic rug, and an empty cup for communion.
What about kids? Each month kids over 5 are looked after, they go off and play games, and have some space to connect with God in creation. However due to the uncontained nature of Wild Church, kids under 5 are welcome, but they need to stay with their parents.
Where: Wild Church moves between 3 locations, this means across the year we experience each place in every season. Our 3 locations are:
- Wollongong Botanic Gardens - enter through gate 2 on Murphy's ave, we'll either be down in the Woodland garden if it's hot and dry (down the path and to the left), or if it's cool and has been rainy we'll be on the left of the gate, on higher ground up under two giant trees where there's a picnic table.
- MM beach - we meet at the north end of MM beach, on the grass where Darcy Rd meets Gloucester Blvd. There's always plenty of street parking nearby.
- Byarong Park Mt Keira - Byarong park is just a few hundred meters up Mt Keira from the school and the fire station. There's a little parking lot you can turn into, and then we meet on the southern side of the park space.
