Welcome to Becoming Sacred Space

I have held many roles in my life, most recently as priest and pastor of a church that meets in the woods. Before that, forester, ecologist, conservationist, community organizer, activist, lobbyist, entrepreneur, executive, fundraiser, advocate, teacher. Never before have I called myself writer; that is what I am becoming.

The thread that holds all these roles together in one life is this: I long to heal the wounds of relationship among people and the land. So in that sense I suppose I am and have been, a healer. Perhaps a healer of souls, for if we heal the wounds of our souls, the wounds of our bodies may follow.

I live in Canterbury, New Hampshire, in the northeastern corner of the United States, among the trees and all creatures of 106 acres of scruffy woods and wetlands. The woods, too, are healing, from destructive logging, most recently in 2011 just before I landed here.

The first time I walked in these woods after becoming their guardian, in 2012, the Voice returned. Five years earlier, it had called me. “Priest,” it had said. “You are to be a priest.” No matter that I didn’t want any such thing, had never been to church, wasn’t raised in any religious tradition. The Voice didn’t care. And, despite all my misgivings and all my resistance, I knew it was True.

When the Voice returned, that day in the woods, it spoke with new instructions: “Start a church.” I listened. In Latin, the word for listen, to give ear to, is obedire. From that root comes our word, obey. I obeyed. In 2014, this cutover piece of woods off a small dirt road in a small town in a small state in the corner of the country began to be a church.

With all its wounds, this land is now a kind of church where the land—the Earth herself—is the sacred space. With trees, people, and all the creatures and beings, we are learning what it means to once again become sacred space.

It is from this land that I will write. Writing is a new practice for me, so I’ll be learning as we go. I expect to post approximately once a week. I’ll share experiences and reflections about traditions, practices, ideas, and places. I will travel. I will share stories.

I do not know where the journey will take us. I am grateful for your company.

Stephen