Testimonials

Thank you to all who have spoken or written so many words of appreciation and encouragement over the years. Here are just a few:

Sam can speak from the depths of the Christian contemplative tradition in a way that few others can. Listening to her speak always touches my heart and inspires me. She is a natural leader and her visionary talents are obviously grounded in a very deep and sincere spiritual practise. Her love of God shines out of her.

Clare Martin, Co-Director of St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation

I’m so grateful for the power of nature and the female, the feminine explored and expressed by you.

Adie Ann Davies

I have deeply appreciated your posts, and the way in which you gently draw folk into a deeper relationship with the Divine through the world around them. This is the world which God created out of love, and the more we are able to understand it from a Spiritual perspective, the more we will be able to flow in the Spirit of God as we live in it. Your way of interweaving the physical world with a spiritual mind also enables a greater understanding of our responsibility of care towards the earth and all which live upon it.

David Cole, Founder of Waymark Ministries

Over the last 7 or 8 years I have been to several events held by Sam. What I appreciate about the way they are held is that they create a bridge into collective spiritual practice that allows those of us who may have misgivings about religion and the Church to experience the benevolence, kindness, generosity and depth that worship in its truest sense can bring. In this way it has been an enlightening and healing journey.

Inez Aponte, Co-Founder of Crazy Beautiful World

My experience of your ministry through Wild Church and in the wider sense of your way of being in the world is that you have an extraordinary gift for seeing into the heart of what is there with wise and compassionate eyes, and supporting people in making contact with what is closest to God in them, and sensing into the beauty, mystery and miracle of life. I experience you as committed to a life of service, and as offering all you offer with authenticity and humility, gentleness and passion.

Lindsey Talbot

I have found your knowledge deep & your contemplative sharing wide in wisdom.

Hajah Tetley

I came across River Dart Wild Church and watched at a distance for a couple of years, excited about the possibility of doing church differently, and in nature where I have known God and felt Spirit. I wish I had dived in sooner as Sam could not be a warmer or wiser person, an encourager and an example of how to make and sustain a Christian life without it being all churchy or uptight… all good to someone like me then in the early days of faith and finding formal worship uncomfortable. Both extremely gentle and strong in her person, Sam curates the Wild Church with a lot of knowledge and experience sublimated by deep personal spirituality and creativity.

Fiona Law, teacher and place holder at Viveka Gardens

I regularly read and appreciate your thoughtful and inspiring posts, Sam, especially with the challenges of these troubled times… if anything was ever likely to encourage me towards ‘religion’ – whatever that means! – it would be you and your approach.

Pennie Brown

As a single mother, in my 40’s, I never imagined my path going the direction it is. But, Sam’s work, spirit, and love have been coaching me along the way. I am starting full-time in the seminary this fall, have begun my own Wild Church, called the Watershed Gathering, and am deeply in love with the way God reveals God’s self in the natural world. This work is important. Those who have found a space between themselves and God are able to come here, to find that the space is just a perception, and are loved back into knowing God. Sam is a gift to me and has empowered me to do this work as well.

Christy Knecht