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Finding Wisdom in the wilderness

Rev. Eileen Gebbie, MA, MDiv. is a queer, white, anti-racist spiritual director and forest therapy guide in Champaign County, IL. Her professional experience includes teaching at the University of Illinois, serving as staff at a community organizing alliance, being the Executive Director of a Habitat for Humanity affiliate, and serving all that is holy as the first female and first queer senior pastor at two congregations in the United Church of Christ (a non-creedal Christian denomination pushing the boundaries of radical inclusion).

Through Wisdom and Wilderness, she provides individual and group spiritual direction (companionship) and forest therapy. She has spent quite some time with people in crisis, people who are being actively oppressed, people who are curious, people who are fearful, people who are being born, and people who are dying. She works with people to practice the arts of listening and partnering that take us beyond conversation and observation and into the heart and soul of being part of the planet at this particular time.

woman in forest holding a leaf in front of her face

Listen to Connecting to Creation and Rewilding Yourself with Eileen Gebbie on the Everything Is Spiritual podcast.

SERVICES

  • Book a spiritual direction appointment.
  • Book a forest therapy walk at Busey Woods or Allerton Park.
  • Group spiritual direction program for LBGTQIA+ or Well Spouses.
  • Wedding officiant or develop personal rituals.

Awards/Recognition

+ dsm Magazine Legacy LGBTQ Leader Award
+ City of Ames Human Relations Commission Home for Everyone Award
+ Gilberto Castañeda Scholar at Chicago Theological Seminary
+ The Rev. Robert G. Kemper Scholar at Chicago Theological Seminary
+ List of Teachers Ranked As Excellent & Outstanding at University of Illinois

 

Credentials

+ Enrolled in the Association of Natural and Forest Therapy’s Blue Spruce cohort for certification in forest therapy (June2022)
+ Member in good standing of Spiritual Directors International
+ Certificate in Spiritual Direction from PrairieFire
+ Participated in an introductory course in core shamanic journeying.
+ Ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the United Church of Christ
+ Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary
+ Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Illinois
+ Clinical Pastoral Education from Northwestern Memorial Hospital
+ Nine years in full-time Christian parish ministry
+ Nearly 20 years in relational community organizing
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