St Mary’s in the Wilderness: Healing our relationship between God, people and the planet

The church community hosts outdoor meetings for under-fives in London parks each week. There is a monthly talk called the ‘Eco Chamber’ on key environmental issues and a Sunday service at All Hallows churchyard. Every Sunday afternoon people gather in Archbishop’s Park to celebrate a part of its nature.  

The church was set up in November 2021 after COP26 in Glasgow by Lambeth Palace and the Southwark diocese ‘to address the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis’.  

“When we reflect on the cross, it points to heaven and is rooted in the ground.” says Rev Sharon Moughtin, Vicar of St Mary in the Wilderness, and also of St Anne and All Saints, Lambeth. “The church has been very good at healing relationships between people, and relationships between God and people, but less good at healing the relationship between God, people, the land and other creatures. And that is what St Mary’s is all about.”  

The focus is on children and young people. “They are most impacted and most passionate about the climate crisis. Starting with children helps them to create a healthy attachment with the land around them.”  

Thursday mornings is the weekly gathering ‘Seedlings’ – a group for under 5s and their parents and carers. With songs and activities that follow the seasons, there is something new every week. Seedlings is a group for people of any faith or belief system and welcomes everyone.  

“If we talk about caring for God’s creation, we need to care about the people in it,” says Sharon. “It’s about going out and finding the people who wouldn’t dream of coming.” 

Sharon is intentional in stopping to chat to parents and carers in the park, inviting them to join in and many do each week.  

“Creation care is the mission,” says Sharon. “What we do here in the face of the climate crisis is wholly inadequate, but if we offer it up [to God] it can become something.” 

There is a strong emphasis during Seedlings on thankfulness and celebration. The bees, breeze, sunshine, butterflies and water are all things that we can be thankful for and celebrate.  

“We have lost that sense of thankfulness, so here we celebrate and are thankful.” 

Through this, Sharon hopes to model an attitude, an approach, that people attending can adopt. “It’s life-giving. I wouldn’t say that every church should look like this, but it’s unique to our context. We are learning a lot but sharing what we learn with others.” 

The Sunday service is held at All Hallows churchyard in Borough. Again, thankfulness is at the core of worship. All ages are welcome. In the winter, experience has taught Sharon and her congregations, to seek shelter and go indoors, so spaces are hired for this, but the mission and focus on creation continues.  

One of the side benefits of not having a building is that St Mary’s in the Wilderness has a very low carbon footprint. 

“We spend almost no money, because we re-use everything.” says Sharon. “Our budget is tiny. It’s a really good side benefit of what we are doing. It models to people that you can have simple things that can be re-used.”