St. John in the Wilderness
Orthodox Sanctuary
– St John of Damascus
Welcome to Saint John in the Wilderness!
Located in the majestic Purcell Wilderness Conservancy and rooted in the practices, worship, and teachings of Jesus Christ and the Early Church, St John in the Wilderness is a small but growing Mission of the Orthodox Church in America. We come together to practice, chant, and experience the Divine Liturgy in an off-grid chapel in Birchdale. Many of us are new to Orthodox Christianity or converts to the faith, which makes this a great place to encounter the rich ancient tradition of Eastern Orthodox Christianity for the first time. Come and see!
Our prayer and vision is that, with the help of God, St John in the Wilderness will be able to build and sustain the life of a Byzantine Stone Chapel that anchors the activities and schooling of a small collective of Orthodox craftspersons and students as they mature in the gifts of the spiritual intellect. A small stone chapel, set in the immediacy and beauty of nature, with the Mystery of Christ at the centre of its daily patterns and rhythms and alive with Orthodox chant can meet the deep yearnings of Students wanting to experience Beauty and Truth.
Orthodox Christian theology and its application to the care of God’s creation is central to our community and mission. We hope that this website serves to inspire you to learn more about us!
Living in Harmony with Creation
The crisis of climate change calls for a spiritual response to enable the profound shift necessary to restore our proper balance with nature. By engaging both humility and asceticism, we can more deeply enter into gratitude for the full beauty of creation. We believe we must take our spiritual lives seriously. Just as the Desert Fathers and Mothers entered into the wilderness in the fourth century, we, too, need to develop our sensibilities to the presence of God in Creation. This does not happen overnight. It is a journey and there are steps to be taken. It requires persistence and devotion and time spent participating and deepening into the liturgical seasons. We want to provide a place where people can make real steps on the journey towards discovering God in Nature, God in each other, and God in all things.
We pray that St John in the Wilderness can be a place that fosters resilience and serves the healing of ourselves and our Earth.
— Consider that Creation itself can become more anchored towards the stability of infinity, through us and our own transfiguration —
Fr. Nilos - on resilience
“The Orthodox Faith, in its theology and praxis, accesses the discrete intelligibilities of creation. These in turn when enhanced with faith in Christ’s incarnation, can return a person to a more embodied life of gratitude filled with affective knowing. This opens in each one, unseen to the world, the invisible arc of one’s own life coming from creation and returning back into creation but not before receiving God’s word infused into our flesh: a putting on of Christ and becoming luminous seed. Creation becomes incarnation. By understanding this with an eschatological sensibility the person can incorporate joy, expectation, and purpose into the sufferings and struggles of a climate change history thereby providing the resilience needed for weaving humanity forward in harmony with creation.”
FR. NILOS has been an Orthodox Priest in Birchdale since 2015 but has had a half-century of intense study and immersion into the mystics and desert Fathers and Mothers of Eastern Christianity since his accidental asceticism in the Hoggar Mountains in southern Algeria when he was 24 years old. In his words, the realization that Life can be described as Gratitude anchored his otherwise uncertain quest for freedom and truth. He has been deeply considering questions that don’t have easy answers for many years and has a lot of wisdom and beauty to share with those of us who are willing to listen.
Some of Fr Nilos’ more public talks and projects include:
The face of God Film
The Face of God Film was produced by The Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration, written and directed by Fr Kaleeg Hainsworth, and features St John in the Wilderness. It was released world-wide on January 6th, 2021 and is a great way to get a sense of us.
*You can watch a short two minute segment about St. John in the Wilderness (starting from minute 22:30) on The Face of God Film website!
The Face of God Film is “about God and nature, faith and climate change and the experience of Orthodox communities around the world facing and experiencing changes in their lives now”… and “is showcasing some of our most important Church voices, highest ranking hierarchs, scientists, politicians, lay leaders, theologians, and communities around the world and gathering the witness of the whole church on the defining issue of our time.”
Suprasl 2024
Suprasl 2024 was another important event that Fr Nilos attended in early July. He was a key-note speaker, delivering a series of reflections on the topics of gratitude, resilience, creation and the spiritual life. Gathered under the theme, “It is Time for the Lord to Act: Liturgy and Creation,” the Third Annual World Gathering of Orthodox Youth brought together 90 Orthodox Students from 25 countries at the Monastery of the Annunciation and Academy in Suprasl, Poland. Through lectures and practical workshops, participants looked at the ways the Lord acts in our lives, especially through the Divine Services, and contemplated their own relationship with Jesus Christ through the creation and natural environment. The week leading up to the event Fr Nilos met with environmental leaders to discuss faith-based solutions to our current climate crisis.
For more information about SUPRASL and to read a Resource Book about Orthodoxy and Ecology with several wonderful articles and resources click here: ORTHODOXY AND ECOLOGY RESOURCE BOOK
Healing the Earth: An Eastern Orthodox perspective
Fr Nilos was also a featured speaker at the Healing the Earth: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective conference.This conference was held at the historic Royal Alexandra Hall train museum in Cranbrook, BC in 2016, and was specifically devoted to ecology and climate change concerns.
If you are interested in more details about these events have a look at our Collaborations/Resources page.
Beauty will save the world
-Fyodor Dostoevsky
Our altar in the wilderness
St John in the Wilderness Orthodox Sanctuary is the only Eastern Orthodox mission in the West Kootenay region. We serve Liturgy each Sunday at our boat access community. You can find out more about our parish on the About Us page.
We know that there is interest, locally, for the ancient faith of Eastern Orthodoxy but since our location is remote, it can be challenging for people to come and see. We do, however, currently offer outreach liturgical services the first weekend of each month in Nelson, BC at the beautiful St Saviour’s Anglican Church (see Calendar). A big thank you to Fr Nilos and M Sheila for travelling to Nelson once a month to help make Orthodoxy more accessible to locals!
Lots has happened over the past few years — Glory to God! — and we are excited about what more is possible with the help of friends. Thank you so much for your interest and heartfelt consideration of our mission.
St. John in the Wilderness wants to take people on a journey that helps them to become the kind of people who delight in being part of the intelligibility of Life and whose Wisdom is Integral to the Beauty that is trying to come forth.
co-create with us!
We would love you to consider being part of our journey and helping us in whatever way you are able!
Have a read through the pages on our website to learn more about us and if you’re inspired, please:
prayer to the mother of god
We pray that our efforts to establish a living place of Orthodox Christian worship and schooling in the pristine, natural beauty of the British Columbia wilderness may be abundantly blessed and:
That our hearts may be so open
That the breath of the Holy Spirit
May move through us without barrier.
O you who contained in your womb
He who cannot be contained,
You who nurtured the Nurturer,
Embraced the Embracer,
Loved with your mother’s love
The Lover of all Creation,
Teach us to so open our hearts to Him
That we can bear Him today into our broken world.
Mother, show us your Son, incarnate in
all Creation. You wove Him in your womb;
Weave us into His likeness that all who
meet us may see His face.
-excerpts from the poem “Advent Hymn” from the poetry booklet Because Her Heart Has Opened Wide by M. Sheila (MamaSheShe)
