Lenten Quiet Morning: Rewilding Lent

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Pastor Jen Rude

The rewilding movement is an ecological strategy that seeks to restore healthy and sustainable ecosystems by returning land to a natural, uncultivated state, and increasing biodiversity through processes like reintroducing keystone species.

Lenten Quiet Mornings are a long tradition at Christ Church and previous events have focused on many aspects of creation care, as well as other mission imperatives, and were by noted theologians, hymn writers, and poets, including two Mornings led by the late nationally recognized hymn writer, Susan Palo Cherwien.

During this time of guided reflection and meditation we considered whether some of the principles of rewilding invite us to engage the season of Lent and our lives of faith in some new ways? And/or, maybe some old, wild ways?

In this Lenten Quiet Morning, led by the Rev. Jen Rude, University Pastor at Pacific Lutheran University, we listened to the wisdom of the rewilding movement, interacted with God’s scriptures of creation and the Gospel, and pondered the ways God might be rewilding us with a focus on three specific faith practices: centering prayer, lament, and lectio divina.

Each faith practice included an image for meditation, a reflection by Pastor Jen, and twenty minutes of private meditation in a place of each person’s choosing: Trinity Chapel, the church, the Library, the courtyard, or a walk in the neighborhood. Those last two were not a choice of many due to the cold temperatures!