The Haj, the holy journey, is a requirement of Islam. Trips to Israel have been part of the practice of many modern Jews, no matter where on the planet they live. Christians travel and establish altars at sites of signs and miracles all the time. And so, pilgrimage matters.
Pilgrimage is a pattern of religious and spiritual life in which and through which each step and every part has its import and place. There are no wasted steps on pilgrimage, for the intent is to meet God, and God surrounds us.
I have just returned from pilgrimage with my ministry partner Ian. The central portion of our journey was attending Wild Goose in North Carolina. Wild Goose, in its 11th year, is a giant outdoor festival of Christian worship, song, preaching, conversation, and workshops. The theology is generally liberal and progressive and the participants generally Southern and white.
There were aspects of Wild Goose which met the traditional expectations of a pilgrimage site: the presence of unexpected friends and inspiring messages, a focus on God, the getting outside of our comfort zones and assumptions. And it was certainly present in the conversations around me that for many, the travel there, the experience of Wild Goose, and the anticipated return was a pilgrimage.
And while I greatly enjoyed myself, again I found that it was the journey itself from which I truly learned. We paused along our route for conversations, connections, and cleaning-up and as much happened here than any “there” ever reached. It was a short conversation we had with a friend over lunch in Little Rock, AR that changed the course of the next six months of my life. As a small example of the impact of the little parts along the way…
Pilgrimage, or “Religious Road Trip” as named by a friend, isn’t just for the faith-based set anymore. Gene Sharp’s Dictionary of Power and Struggle names Pilgrimage as one of the activities done by secular activist communities as well. Here in the US, the site of the World Trade Center in New York was made an instant pilgrimage site by the events of September 11, 2001.
We humans mark.
We mark dates and we mark places.
We mark impacts and we mark effects.
We mark leaders and we mark the fallen.
We mark battlegrounds and we mark treaty tables.
And so we become spiritual pilgrims, travelers along roads we may or may not know, and dancers in an ebb and flow, a movement of Spirit. Pilgrimage may be small or large. It may mimic a route or take that route specifically. It may be freeform or highly planned.
What is certain is that the journey is the thing itself, and upon this road, we meet God. In ourselves, in our companions, in creation and in the still small places we can only find when we leave.
Go with God, my friends.
Rev. Jessica Abell