Northern Michigan bishop leads annual blessing for migrating monarchs

About 100 Episcopalians and Lutherans gathered at Peninsula Point Lighthouse in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on September 2 for an annual blessing of monarch butterflies beginning their nearly 2,000-mile migration to central Mexico. The event was hosted by UP Wild Church, a ministry of the Diocese of Northern Michigan and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Northern Great Lakes Synod, with Bishop Rayford Ray offering the blessing. UP Wild Church, established in 2019 in Marquette with eight branches across the Upper Peninsula, started the monarch blessing tradition in 2021 as both a spiritual practice and educational opportunity. The ceremony included group singing, acknowledgment of the Anishinaabe people's historical presence, a lecture on monarch biology, meditative breathing, and the creation of a butterfly mandala from natural materials gathered by participants. Church members explained that blessing migratory creatures is an ancient pilgrimage practice leading to personal transformation. A volunteer from Monarch Watch, a conservation and research program at the University of Kansas, was scheduled to discuss the importance of tagging butterflies to track their migration. Bishop Ray described the blessing as an act of reverence and a way of recognizing the relationship between humans and God's creatures.

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Source: Episcopal News Service — https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2026/09/02/northern-michigan-bishop-to-bless-monarch-butterflies-as-they-begin-migration-to-mexico/