Wild Service: World Rivers Day with the Great Stour

This past weekend, on World Rivers Day and the Autumn Equinox, I had the honour of joining the third Interfaith Riverside Walk along the River Stour in Canterbury. This annual gathering, organised by the Canterbury and Distict Interfaith Action group (Candifa), brings together people of various faiths and spiritual traditions to honour the river through prayers, blessings, and offerings. It’s always a privilege to be part of this ceremony, standing with others in deep reverence for our beloved waterway.

Walking with Intention and Gratitude

We began our journey at Canterbury West Gate, in the heart of Canterbury, setting out along the river as it winds through the Hambrook Marshes. Each step was an act of connection, a way to honour the river’s presence and significance. This year, I carried with me a vessel of water from the river’s source, which I gathered in prayer and ceremony. The vessel, a beautiful piece crafted by Roberta Mason, held this sacred water throughout the walk, receiving the words, prayers, and blessings shared by each person along the way. When we reached the end of our walk, I offered the water back to the river, closing the circle of connection from source to flow, honouring the river in a gesture of gratitude and respect.

Reading and Blessing the Waters

As part of the walk, I had the opportunity to share a reading: Blessing to a River at its Source. This blessing, offered to honour the river’s origin, felt especially meaningful as I stood there with water gathered from the source itself, held close in ceremony. For some of the animals mentioned in the blessing, I exchanged them with others to reflect the flora and fauna of our River Stour.

Dear River, may you fulfill all your promises.⁠

⁠May you quench the thirst of deer and coyotes (foxes), people and beetles. May you raise forests upon your banks, feed swamps where beavers cocoon you. May you flow undirected, undammed. May you deepen with trout, with otters, with snails and with salmon (pike), with kingfisher dreams and water-strider footprints. May you nurse fat tadpoles in your pockets, and may you renew every land.⁠

May lovers and poets rejoice alongside you. May the weary bathe in you and rise up refreshed. May your sound be each person's story. May you be comfort, may you be faith. May you wash away the sorrow of cities while remaining ever pure. May you be a gathering place, may you be worshipped, and may your worshippers care for your body and pick you clean of what does not belong to you. May their children find and lose treasures in your crumpling eddies, splash in your shallows and daydream in your depths, find salamanders (newts) beneath your stones and then release them gently right back where they found them. ⁠

May the love of you make us holy. May you be peace. May you give the gifts you long to give, and may those gifts be honoured. May you beheld sacred, everywhere you go. ⁠

And because you are a river, may you flow onward and outward and downward, without ever pausing to say, "These things are not possible."⁠

Because you are a river, and you have no fear of falling. Because you are that thread unbreakable, the chain of water between sky and sea. Because you can only go down, toward that only center, and nothing, ultimately, can ever stop you.⁠

Dear River, just go and go, and be our freedom. Dear River, be our forgiveness, Dear River, Be.⁠

¤ Mindi Meltz 2021

An Act of Wild Service

Honouring the River Stour, through prayer, ceremony and concrete action, is part of what I call Wild Service, a commitment central to the Spiritual Rewilding course. Wild Service is about taking action rooted in respect and reverence for the natural world, weaving our spiritual connection into service for the earth. It’s a term I coined many years ago, aiming to inspire ways we can be of service to the natural world, helping protect and care for the land in ways that come from a place of respect and love. For me, the Great Stour is more than a waterway—it’s a sacred being I’ve known since childhood, and each act of service is a chance to show up with gratitude, devotion, and purpose.

These gatherings remind us not only of the beauty of our rivers but also of the challenges they face. Like so many waterways, the Stour and others are under threat, impacted by pollution, overuse, and changing climates. Our prayers and blessings are paired with action, a call to protect and care for these sacred places so that they may continue to flow clean and free.

If you feel drawn to this kind of service and want to learn more about how you can develop this work in your area, the next Spiritual Rewilding course begins in January 2025, inviting new participants to explore practices of connection, reverence, and service to the land.