Dear Friends,
It’s been a delight to be with you in your extraordinary parish this month. I’ve met so many of you and learned about your intertwined commitments to spirituality and ministry in the community. I know there are more of you who’ve been away. Summer is often the season for traveling, with its sunny weather and children out of school; our travels often extend into the beautiful autumn days as well. I’ve begun to wonder: when we travel, are we tourists or pilgrims?
It is wonderful that you offer J2A for the teens of St. John’s. Through J2A, St. John’s youth have taken pilgrimages to Spain, Ireland, and Belize, among other places. When we talk about J2A trips, we often ask questions that also apply to the lives each of us live. What is a pilgrimage? What is a trip? Who is a pilgrim? Who is a tourist? The answers lie in the expectations and approach of the travelers.
A number of years ago I traveled with 55 Episcopalians from the Diocese of Massachusetts to Zimbabwe. The trip was linked with the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of Christian missionary Bernard Mizeki. The trip was called a pilgrimage, which made sense because I thought of any trip to a holy site as a pilgrimage. However, when another woman on the trip referred to herself as a pilgrim, I was surprised. Even though the trip was called a pilgrimage, I had not considered myself a pilgrim!
Over time I’ve come to see the difference between being a tourist and a pilgrim. Tourists are interested in getting there; pilgrims look for meaning in the journey. Tourists observe sights, cultures, architecture; pilgrims engage people and reflect on experiences. Tourists expect to return the same person who left home; pilgrims expect to be changed by the experience. It is often in the spontaneous and the unexpected that God’s strongest impact is felt.
When I look back on my trip to Zimbabwe, I realize that it was a true pilgrimage for me. Memories continue to resonate within me. The vibrancy of worship. The response of the women to seeing a female priest. The anniversary celebration that brought pilgrims from all over the Diocese. I remember the dome of smoke illuminated by hundreds of fires where members of each parish slept, ate, sang, danced, and shared stories of God in their lives through the night. What a gift it was and is.
A trip for any purpose can become a pilgrimage. We don’t need to travel beyond home, though. We find that we are pilgrims as we savor the peaceful moments, as we ask in prayer each night where God was active, where God spoke through others, where our lives were impacted and we, perhaps, were changed. In our extraordinarily stressful and busy lives, God waits to offer us moments of pilgrimage and peace.
Yours in Christ,
Ann+