Dear ones, welcome to the Taproot PNW Community blog! We will be sharing from a collective of collaborative voices, reflecting individually and together, in this online forum between the times of in-person gatherings. You are welcome here in this online space, as well as in our gatherings by the forest and sea. For me, the Taproot Community is a new iteration of collaborative and emergent, experiential worship, nature connective, and contemplation communities that I have been blessed to be a part of over the last decade. We are kind, loving, LGBTQIA2S+ friendly, welcoming of many traditions, and looking forward to meeting you!
Here is a brief introduction to what led me to be a part of the leadership of this community:
While attending Trinity Lutheran College, and preparing for seminary, I joined with a small group from a local Methodist congregation who were longing for depth and integration of our heart-felt faith. I had served in that church setting as a Director of Youth and Family Ministries for a little over a year, and then returned to the joyful work as a family caregiver and nanny while finishing my schooling. All the while, the young families and I collaborated on an experiential worship service in the Emergent Worship style that was beginning to take root at the time, especially in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
Together, we formed a little branch off the main church, and called ourselves the Frankincense Community. Our leadership collectively held backgrounds of Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic and Inter-denominational roots. We gathered together for several years, and then life took other routes for many of us. My life path moved me from that area in Bellevue, Washington back to my hometown of Beaverton, Oregon, where I cared for my ailing father, worked as a nanny, and served a congregation in a pastoral internship for the Disciples of Christ. In the evenings, a group of us offered experiential services in a community we called Sophia's Rain.
Like the Frankincense Community in Bellevue, Sophia's Rain in Beaverton used a rotational model of leadership with collaboration between leaders, and offered a spectrum of experiences. We as a leadership team also had interdenominational backgrounds, and brought together a wide variety of gifts.
Each month, people could experience alongside of us: Taize Musical, Hands-on Introspective Prayer Stations, Contemplation around the Cross, Body Prayer in Shibashi style, and Lectio Divina or Guided Meditation. We also commissioned a canvas labyrinth that was still in use the last time I checked in with the larger church body. I was deeply blessed by being a part of the leadership and expression of both of these communities in the Christ path.
Shortly after my father's passing, I moved eastward through Portland to Gresham. Soon I began holding small group, inter-spiritual gatherings around the fire-pit in my backyard. Soul Sibling PDX grew gently, meeting for several years, with in-person gatherings monthly including a soup supper, soulful sharing, and heart-felt conversations around the fire. The home and hearth became very important in my spiritual life. I also began to meet with traditional healers in the shamanic way that helped me to identify something that had been a part of my identity from as far back as I could remember.
I found my identity expanding with a powerful connection to a community in Mexico holding ceremony and honoring the Weather in the tradition of the Nahua peoples. I came to a profound understanding in my faith life that I was not only interdenominational, but also inter-spiritual as well. The Christ path and the Indigenous Spirituality path were both working together co-creatively within and through me. I was in the process of co-creating with Spirit something akin to the "Braided Way" that is so eloquently spoken about by Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book Braiding Sweetgrass.
Over those years in Gresham, I served my community by offering End-of-Life Care while also attending the Oregon School of Massage. A short time into my career as an LMT, I trained formally as an End-of-Life Doula, finding that my lovely blend of Contemplative Spirit, Inter-Spiritual training, and my love of connecting with people through Therapeutic Touch, Reiki, and Guided Reflection, all served me well in offering holistic care to those transitioning through the veil.
Spirit also called me to work with a spiritual community in the Methodist tradition once more. When the coronavirus pandemic hit us, this was a life-saving place of employment where I was able to spiritually care for my surrounding community and be financially provided for. From that space, I was called to move to the coast, receiving an invitation from our local UMC bishop to serve as minister of a small congregation in a rural community, in the prairie-land near the sea. This congregation was connected to an interdenominational community, and part of a cooperative ministry within the UMC as well. It seemed like a wonderful fit for me.
Immediately upon arrival, I developed a friendship with some of the other folx that you will see here, (both online, and as part of the in-person community) and we began speaking together about our shared love of nature, dreaming over coffee about cultivation of a community similar in style to those I had previously co-led, with a very intentional connection with the natural world. The more I met with Troy Taylor, the Director of Camp Magruder, and wandered the pathways, and explored the camp, the more I felt like this was an excellent place in Central Tillamook County to hold something beautiful in the Braided Way and Emergent Worship. Alongside some of our wonderful colleagues, we began dreaming about what that might look like.
What is now emerging as Taproot PNW has come forth from our various backgrounds. It is a wonderful thing to see that there are many communities similarly prompted by Spirit in a rippling often known as "Wild Churches" or "Churches of the Wild", and other similar names. The Taproot PNW Community finds relatives in many traditions, many styles of worship, and reflection. We drink from a deep root that fills us with Living Water. And we branch out in many directions to share our interconnectedness with the Christ Path and the Divine Natural World, of which, we humans are only a small, and yet by grace, an integral part.
We have so much to discover together! I look forward to sharing space with you, in person, and here online, as we explore what this interconnectedness truly means.
Blessings to you,
~ AJ Wolff-Lynne
MA, LMT, End-of-Life Doula, Reiki Master,
Fellow Seeker along the Braided Way
Comments