These contributions are by participants in the Burning Bush Forest Church, 2026 book study. We read and shared reflections about the book, ‘Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re In with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power’ by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, published as a
revised edition, in 2022.
​
With reference to Chapter 6, ‘A Different Kind of Power,’ on pp. 112-13 we responded to these
lines. “Recognizing ourselves as part of the larger web of life expands our view. Just as we can
experience our pain for the world as the Earth crying within us, we can experience the earth
thinking within us as a guiding impulse pulling us in a particular direction. We can view this as
co-intelligence, an ability to think and feel with our world. Developing a partnership with the
Earth involves listening for guiding signals and taking them seriously when we hear them.”

“If Earth could speak to us, what would she say? We can take a step toward finding out by
imagining Earth leaving a voice mail for us. Start a voice mail to yourself. ‘This is your
mother Gaia ...’”

1)
This is your mother Gaia. I delight in the delight you take in me, which fills you at times with
wonder;

• our early morning visits while you sit in your bedroom window alcove, greeting the dawn
• the early signs of budding trees in Spring
• your regular walks in the nearby forest to check in on Spring flowers appearing
• the dazzling sunlight through frost-coated trees
• the beauty of freshly fallen snow –
• your eagerly awaited return of the hummingbirds

I notice that you become more child-like in your eagerness to witness these signs.
I also see your efforts to live with a smaller footprint. The steps you have taken are not merely
"ethical checkmarks" on a scoresheet; they are expressions of the mutual relationship we enjoy.
Yet, there is more work to be done. I am in crisis, as are future generations. I want you to know
that you are not alone in this work; you are part of a much larger and deeper web of global
interconnections than you can see beyond your personal actions. Thank you for taking the time to read and learn. And don't give up! Future generations will be grateful for these actions on behalf of your shared habitat.

2)
This is your mother, Gaia, writing. Don’t worry about how, but the when is now. Some work /
play / connection is already started. For millennia, your Relations – the tree people, water, four
legged, flying, two legged and swimming siblings - have been in Conversation - mostly with the
original Turtle Island part of the human relatives. But there is room and you will figure it out.
Don’t get distracted! The distractions have their own power. Resist Empire and all the extracted loot! Remember who you are and that you belong to me. Connect and practice wisely! With Love, G.

3)
Dear one, this is your mother Gaia. Remember to breathe. You don’t need to accomplish too
much. You can spend more time with people, with yourself, and with me. All will be well.

4)
There is no time to waste. I am feeling humans' destructive steps walking toward my tipping
point. My tipping point means humans cannot survive as part of me. I am resilient. I will survive.
Humans, define your success by honouring your interconnectedness with me, your Mother, Gaia. Work collaboratively. Connect deeply to the web of life.

5)
Dear Child,
This is your mother, Gaia, calling. I haven’t heard from you much lately – really not consistently
since you were a kid. In fact, I don’t hear from many of my children of your species anymore.
Try spending more time in nature --- that might help remind you to call.
The real reason I am calling is to offer a warning. The beautiful gifts I have provided your
species have, for the most part, been misused and exploited. Humans have taken far more than their share, and even among themselves, many have taken more than others. This is not
sustainable and the great web of life, in all of its inter-connections is being harmed, in many
cases irrevocably.
In light of what some of you are calling The Great Turning, my advice is to build your resilience
– learn how to grow food and save seeds for next year’s harvest; build things with your hands;
gather with like-minded people and create strong communities; learn how to mediate conflict and make healthy community decisions; teach those who come after you to love and respect the earth; and practice gratitude, daily.
If your species is lucky it may survive – other species have not faired so well. Use wisely the
gifts I have given you. You will need creativity to innovate, love to build community, and 
resilience to weather the hardships. You will experience grief but also love. You will face
tremendous challenges but also successes.
Go forth and forge a new way of being human, as one species among many in our web of life.
Good luck, call soon, call often.
Mother Gaia

6)
This is your mother Gaia calling. You know we’ve crossed 7 of 9 planetary boundaries and that I am in poor health. The excess of novel entities such as micro- and nano plastics, PFAS and other chemicals are making me sick and as GHGs increase, my fever is worsening. I grieve that I can no longer be a mother to so many species and individuals of those species who have disappeared.
As tipping points approach and I lose ecosystem functioning, I fear the loss of more, including
many human individuals and perhaps the human species. I appreciate that you keep trying to
connect with my creatures and to see beauty. You are aware that hope means being active with your gifts and to keep contributing, regardless of outcome, even knowing the outcome may be dire. We persist with patience as long as we can.

7)
This is your mother, Gaia. Times are tough, I know, for you and me both. There is so much
hubris among humans, so much greed, indifference, and blindness. It breaks my heart. I notice, though, what you all are up to with forest church, and I love spending time with you there on holy ground. Keep your eyes and heart open and pay attention to the beauty and the brokenness around you. Look for acts and signs of hope, and join in. Come alongside the ways that lead to life. You'll find me there. Gaia.

On February 15 we co-hosted a Climate Emergency Vigil with Faith Climate Justice Waterloo Region. It was a beautiful February afternoon, and we reflected on this quote from Andreas Weber's book Matter and Desire:

For our wandering time, we reflected on the ways we love the Earth, and in particular, this place and the waters and creatures that we share it with. We also wondered about how it changes us if we believe that the Earth loves us back. 

We also learned that we are on the precipice of using all the water in the Waterloo Moraine – the lifeblood of Waterloo Region. There is no more water for expansion of housing or businesses.  How do we love our watershed, and how does that love affect how we live here?

We were given three calls to action: ​learning about a local “Blueprint for a Bluebelt in Waterloo Region,” along with calls to sign these letters to our federal government, Give Peace A Chance, and Turn Debt into Hope.  

Our first worship gathering of 2026 found us in fluffy fresh snow. The air was brisk but there was little wind. We gathered around a circle near the banks of Laurel Creek which was partially ice covered but still flowing. The sound of flowing water almost blocked out the sound of the traffic flowing on the expressway in the distance.

This place has become a sacred place for us. We have gathered here monthly for worship, along this particular bend in Laurel Creek, for much of the past ten. It is our sanctuary, and we have watched it change over the seasons and years. At one time, there was a dead Beech tree standing right here that was eventually cut down. The stump was left, and we used it as an altar, and the log sat just over here for years and we used it as a bench, a table, and for serving communion. This summer, it completely decayed and returned to the earth. 

In Genesis 28:16, Jacob was on a journey and stopped to sleep for the night under the stars, using a stone for a pillow. As he slept he had a dream in which God showed up and gave him a message. When he woke up in the morning he said, ' Surely, God was in this place and I didn't even know it.' And then he built an altar to honour God’s presence.

Barbara Brown Taylor writes in her book, An Altar in the World, "Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars."
​
Surely, God is here in this place. And, surely there are altars everywhere.

Our invitation is to look for altars: places thick with divine possibility, something that invites you to pause and pay attention, something that makes you wonder, something that reminds you that God is present, even in the dead of winter!

Walking through the forest at Bechtel Park in a mid-August heat wave, I noticed many signs of stress and damage on the plants in the forest. 

I respectfully found a few items that seemed appropriate to use in the making of a mandala down by our worship spot along Laurel Creek. When I make mandalas, I like the simple, repetitive nature of the circular pattern. It feels complete and whole. I also like the ephemeral nature of them - it will succumb to the elements, or to disturbances by other creatures. It is a celebration of creation, decay, and decomposition. 

As I walked back to the parking lot, I reflected on how nothing in nature is wasted. Everything that comes into existence eventually returns to the earth, offering back nourishment for new life to arise again. The circle of life.

At our March worship gathering we explored the synchronicity between the church season of Lent (which means to lengthen) and the Spring Equinox when the balance of daylight tips to longer days.

Lent is 40 days for waking up from winter’s ‘death’ to spring’s ‘resurrection.’ 40 days for wandering in the wilderness like the Israelites, slowing down and moving at the pace of our soul so we can better listen to and meet God. 

We are living in a time of chaos and events that cause a lot of uncertainty and stress. How can we use this season of Lent to wake up to and walk in life-giving light and love, anchoring us through unsettling times?

This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.”
— Jeremiah 6:16
​
This month, as you find yourself wandering outdoors, ask yourself these questions: 

• What do you notice waking up?
• What wants you to slow down and notice/listen?
• Where/how is God showing up?
• What does your soul need in order to find rest? 
• How can you walk in the good way?

Our February theme invites us to reflect on the kinds of love that we and our world need at this time. We were not able to meet together in person due to a winter storm warning, but these are the readings and reflection questions we would have used. I hope you can take some time to go on your own self-guided forest church this month!

In a time of upheaval and uncertainty, how do we let love be our guide? This month we are faced with hearts, flowers, and chocolate, with poetry and cards to celebrate romantic love. But love is also relentless, fearless, courageous, bold, inclusive, generous, honest, joyful, wholehearted.
In a time of upheaval and uncertainty, how do we let love be our guide? This month we are faced with hearts, flowers, and chocolate, with poetry and cards to celebrate romantic love. But love is also relentless, fearless, courageous, bold, inclusive, generous, honest, joyful, wholehearted. How would you describe the love that you need to see in the world today?

Gathering & Grounding - Pause for a moment to ground yourself where you are. Take some deep breaths, look around, listen, feel the air and snow on your skin. Tune into a sense of the sacred presence with you.

Readings & Reflections - take these readings onto the land with you:
“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13: 6-7  

For further reading, you can look at Dianna Butler Bass's Substack post titled Love Relentlessly.

Wandering & Wondering - as you wander, or sit cozily indoors, consider these questions: 

• What message of love do you need to hear today?
• What kind of love do you think the world (or a specific being you encounter today) needs right now?
• What kind of love do you think the world (or a specific being you encounter today) can offer you?
• What examples of love do you observe happening around you, in both human ways and more-than-human ways?​

We gathered along the banks of our beloved Laurel Creek in the snowy sub-zero temperatures of January. This poem invited us into reflecting on the mind of winter, and we contemplated the similarities with the invitation in Philippians 2:5-7 to 'adopt the mind of Christ.' What do you think? What might you discover if you see the trees, creek, or creatures here on their terms rather than ours?  What might God want you do learn by regarding winter? 

Due Regard by Wallace Stevens.

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing themself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. 

Maybe what we need isn't self-care.
Maybe what we truly need is
grounding, connection, and
entanglement with all that is.
We are not created for
independence or self-reliance.

Maybe we need to open our being
to the gift of life around us, and
remember we are not alone.
We are light and love from others
and for others, our souls nourished
by touch, reaching out in need,
receiving the goodness of 
ordinary beauty
seeping through the cracks.

Celebrate the sun shining on your face, 
water wetting your lips,
gravity hugging you close to the earth,
air filling your lungs,
honey sweetening your tongue,
birds cheering your spirit,
nighttime welcoming your rest,
friends and family surrounding you,
the Divine Presence renewing
and enlivening your spirit.

​-Wendy Janzen