St. John’s Cathedral in Denver uses innovation and outreach for a Sunday evening service.
Each Sunday evening, St. John’s Cathedral in Denver is filled with the smoke of incense and the ethereal sounds of the Wilderness Musicians, a rotating group of artists. After the sermon and a sung recitation of a simple creed, worshipers wander between prayer stations lining the stony halls before reconvening for Communion.
Among the prayer stations are Byzantine icons of the Blessed Virgin and her Son, several large urns with candles, and a few tables topped with guided meditations — on the Incarnation, for example, and St. Athanasius’ assertion that “God became man so that man might become God.”
The Wilderness service began in the mid-2000s, when the Very Rev. Peter Eaton was dean. His wife, Kate Eaton, created a multimedia service featuring contemporary music by local artists in a contemplative atmosphere. With a focus on bringing back into the fold those who might be uncomfortable with — or even traumatized by — the typical way of worshiping God, the service has fostered an individual experience of the Divine.
“This explains a lot of the choices we make,” says Dan Hurley, a longtime leader of both the Wilderness and St. John’s centering prayer group. “We are not propositional in our approach to religion. We are experiential.”
The Rev. Amy Newell-Large, who frequently presides at the Wilderness, described its aesthetic as “ancient-future,” honoring the forms and wisdom of the past while imagining a future of greater connectivity and inclusion. “Spiritual nourishment is authentic, open, and creative, allowing for generative energy to move us forward in hope,” she said. “The Wilderness helps nourish those qualities and connects us with the stream of Christian hope, past, present, and future.”
One way the Wilderness uses ancient-futurism is in concrete expressions of Christian hospitality. Newell-Large said that many people who attend the Wilderness are spiritual wanderers, who have come from many traditions or no tradition and are seeking spiritual nourishment.
For Newell-Large, who has a professional background in hospitality and a graduate degree in interreligious dialogue from Naropa University, hospitality is an important fulfillment of her vocational call. “My experience with mindfulness, Buddhist meditation, and a Jesuit education makes me uniquely positioned to receive the spiritual wanderers drawn to the Wilderness.”
At a recent service, Newell-Large gave a homily on a Lakota retreat she attended, whose leader frequently said, “OK, relatives!”
“Jesus told us to call each other friends,” Newell-Large said, noting the resonance between Lakota and Christian hospitality, and the latter’s opportunity to include the other members of creation, from the stone of the cathedral walls — “our original ancestor,” in Lakota thought — to plants and animals.
St. John’s focuses on LGBTQ parishioners and community members, especially during Pride Month, when the cathedral typically sees an influx of regular visitors.
“Pride is a huge part of our ministry to the people of Denver and Colorado as other faith groups continue to marginalize LGBTQI+ people in Colorado and beyond,” said Evans Ousley, St. John’s communications director. “We wanted to show that people aren’t just accepted; they are loved and celebrated and invited to show up as their authentic selves.”
One of the results of the service’s outreach efforts is increased participation of millennials. St. John’s 20s and 30s group, led by the Rev. Canon Broderick Greer, has been the entry point for many of the newcomers to the church. While the Wilderness isn’t specifically promoted amongst this group, there has been more crossover between these ministries in recent years.
“We make a big deal of that,” Newell-Large said about the group for 20s and 30s. “There is a page on our website devoted to the group. All the activities are promoted on our calendars, we use pictures from our events, we have programming specifically for this group. Newcomers frequently tell me this was important in their decision to come to St. John’s, [that] we have a place for them.”
The Wilderness continues to attract people of all ages, even children and teens and their families. Parishioner Tiare Weak said she has found a welcoming and supportive home in the Wilderness for her and her son, who is transgender.
After falling away from faith in her 20s, she returned to the Episcopal Church, admiring its blend of Protestant and Catholic attributes. She landed at St. John’s after her son’s beloved youth minister became the director of Christian formation for the cathedral. When youth group was out of session for the summer, they would attend the Wilderness together.
“After several significant life changes, my son and I were called to attend this service more regularly, as it was a time to continue to be with one another in God’s community,” Weak said.
The Wilderness is a space where she and her son, now a teenager, can connect with each other and with God. Like many, she values the inclusivity and the introspective nature of the Wilderness. She wants teenagers and young adults to know that they don’t need to leave God and that there is a welcoming and supportive place for them at St. John’s.
“For myself, the Wilderness will continue to give me space to look inward to come to know Jesus more through the liturgy, so I can better serve. Most importantly, my family is eternally grateful to God for putting the loving community at St. John’s into our lives.”
