Oregon Wilderness
Faith and God’s Lands in Eastern Oregon
The contemporary ideal of wilderness in America encompasses more than the deserts, remote places, and uninhabited lands reflected in biblical words for wilderness. More than being an uninhabited borderland for refuge, escape, and cattle-grazing, American wilderness signifies our attempt to celebrate and preserve God’s creation, and observe Sabbath wisdom by restraining productive human enterprise. In Eastern Oregon, particularly in the John Day region, God’s lands and rural communities define this area of high desert, big rivers, and some of the few remaining salmon that make it past the dams.
About out Work
The National Council of Churches has partnered with the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon to help to protect public lands around the John Day River in Eastern Oregon for the use and benefit of individual communities and future generations. By lifting the faith voice on land protection through local and state efforts, the partnership aims to educate both the faith and secular communities about the importance of wilderness and land stewardship from a faith-based perspective.
Get involved
Click here to learn how to get more involved in our campaign to protect public lands in the Oregon and the John Day and partner with the National Council of Churches and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.
Learn More
- Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon
- Wilderness in the John Day: What it is and what does protection look like?
- Public Lands in Eastern Oregon – Fact Sheet
- Prayer for the John Day Basin – Written by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon
- John Day Basin and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)