The sound of drumming filtered
through the trees and called the people from their cars. Toting folding chairs and slathered in bug spray, they came from the parking lot — some young, some old; some in pairs, some alone; many in Tevas, a few barefoot. Without speaking, they set their chairs in a circle in a leafy clearing in McLean’s Turkey Run Park. They grabbed drums laid out on a patterned blanket, gripped the instruments between their knees and joined in the pounding.
“Your hands know what to do,” intoned
professional drum circle facilitator Katy Gaughan. “Just drum! There is no right way and no wrong way.”
On a hot and muggy Sunday, Church of the Wild was about to begin.
The church, which meets once a month in parks across the District, Maryland and Virginia, draws about 50 congregants. Services, presided over by the Rev. Sarah Anders, typically run an hour and a half. Worshipers drum, sing and listen to recitations of poetry in an effort to connect with nature and fulfill the
church’s stated goal: honoring “the mutual indwelling of the Divine with the Earth and all of its beings.”
Anders doesn’t preach a sermon — instead, attendees wander through their surroundings in total silence for about half an hour.
“We don’t say the G-o-d word a lot,” Anders said. “The emphasis is on God as a universal force. . . . Our mission is to help people come more into their spirits and their hearts.”
Anders established the church in partnership with Beth
Norcross, founding director of the Center for Spirituality in Nature and an adjunct faculty member at the Wesley Theological Seminary in the District. Church of the Wild...
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