Creative Models of Congregation-based Pilgrimage

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Rev. David H. Messner

Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah

June 23, 2017

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Personal Introduction: Rev. David Messner

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GRADUATE DIVISION OF RELIGION

Ethics and Society

Messner 2017

Opening Reading

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“The practice of pilgrimage has a special place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in this life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the human being is a viator, a pilgrim travelling along the road, making his way to the desired destination. Similarly, to reach the Holy Door in Rome or in any other place in the world, everyone, each according to his or her ability, will have to make a pilgrimage. This will be a sign that mercy is also a goal to reach and requires dedication and sacrifice. May pilgrimage be an impetus to conversion: by crossing the threshold of the Holy Door, we will find the strength to embrace God’s mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as the Father has been with us.”

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From An Apostolic Letter from Pope Francis: Misericordiae Vultus -

Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (11 April 2015)

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Creative Models of Congregation Based Pilgrimage

Project Description:�This research project explores the development of a toolbox for creating very short term local interfaith pilgrimages that might deepen our spiritual grounding and weave communities together more strongly.

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Pilgrimage has the power to teach, change and connect us to each other in the thickened context of the spaces we share.

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Starting Assumptions

Definition: A pilgrimage, for this purpose, being a continuous physical journey which connects persons with one another, persons with places and persons with the sacred.

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Outcome: A group of “pilgrims” from our congregation (and from other religious communities with whom we are in relationship) journey around a circuit of places in Savannah which have collective spiritual importance (or “gravity”). In each place, the individuals and the group undertake contemplative or ritual practices to engage the place. I envision this taking place in a single day, as part of an annual ritual practice.

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Hopes:

• To produce a congregational-based resource which we can used in Savannah and that we can share with other congregations.
• To offer embodied way to weave us more closely together with one another, this place and our history.
• To establish an ongoing and organically evolving annual practice in the congregation.

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Why Pilgrimage?

Challenges

• Hunger for more embodied spiritual practices in Unitarian Universalism
• Disconnection from place, geographically (especially in high mobility communities)
• Alienation from our history
• Division in the community (Denominational, Churched/Unchurched, Racial and Economic)
• Constrained relationality (Religious practice that either takes place alone away from church or together in church.)

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Some of the questions that interest me in this project:

• Recovering tradition sloughed over past centuries
• Cultivating local practices organic to the congregation. A focus on process as much as product.
• Connecting in Intentionally Multigen and Multifaith experiences

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Different Religious Constructions

Pilgrimage takes different forms in different religious traditions, differing in:

1. Structure
2. Goals and the understanding of the efficacy of the pilgrimage (e.g., personal transformation, healing, fulfillment of duty, good fortune)
3. Requirements for pilgrimage in the tradition
4. Social dimensions and expectations

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Three Traditions:

1. Christian Exemplar - The journey to the Tomb of St James on the El Camino (Secularity, multi-path, healing)
2. Muslim Exemplar - The Hajj (Origin, duty, exclusiveness)
3. Buddhist Exemplar - The 88 Temples (Circumnavigation, physical challenge)

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The Model: ​Shichifukujin​ Meguri

“Shichifukujin​ Meguri” is the Japanese pilgrimage to Seven Lucky Gods. Developed at New Year’s to go on a walking tour of Seven shrines and temples in Tokyo and replicated in other cities in Japan.

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Logistics: Prepared sites, a guide, a passport to have stamped, a prize for completion.

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Key Features

1. Syncretic: Gods are from different traditions which the community shares Inclusive
2. Circuitous: Meant to create a cohesive space. Revealing
3. Regimented. Accessible
4. Repetitive. An annual ritual. Life Ordering
5. Many Exemplars. Replicable

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Developing the Pilgrimage

• Dedicate a week to introducing the project. Preaching and Q&A
• Use the existing Small Group Ministry structure to engage develop and deepen (Develop common understanding, Ensure Different Voices are heard)
• Reach out in community to develop partners
• For group reflection, consider where to include?
• Places of Religious Genesis -- Houses of Worship
• Places of Lament and Celebration
• Thin Places in The Natural World
• Center of Deep Communities
• Create Space for reflection of Pilgrimage Group
• Repeat process each year to develop and refine

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Choosing the Sites

Congregational Survey

• Have you ever been on a pilgrimage of any kind before? Where, Why and what was most important to you about the experience?
• Which places in Savannah and the surrounding area do you feel are sacred to you? What are the places that move your spirit? What are the places you think of as the “thin places” those closest to the holy for you?
• In making a pilgrimage, which sites would you want included? (Churches and Synagogues, Places of Distinctive Natural Beauty, Sites of Significant Historical Events, Sites at the, Center of Contemporary Communal Life, Other _________________)
• What to you makes a place sacred and worthy of pilgrimage?

To reflect further:

• Does a pilgrim need knowledge of the place?
• In order for it to be a legitimate pilgrimage you must have a claim as a member of a faithful community? A common social imaginary? A common sense of piety?
• You are in relationship to the other pilgrims, they are as important as the destinations because they are the mobile church.�

Individual or Collective?

Hypothesis:

We have retained a strong sense of individual journeys but have lost a sense of the common places, the companionship of journey and the way we are interdependent in transformative experiences.

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Reports of individual pilgrimages:

• Return to places of personal importance, childhood, heritage, natural
• Less experience in collective pilgrimage, perhaps connected to fewer shared places or a frame in which spiritual experiences is construed as a solo enterprise.

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Pilgrim or Tourist?

What is the difference between a pilgrim and a tourist? Three possibilities:

• The pilgrim has a claim to the place she visits. It is a part of the whole comprising her.
• The tourist has a consumptive desire, while the pilgrim invests
• The tourist seeks delight and the pilgrim is willing to work to go deeper

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Pilgrimage is a purposeful practice with virtues that are threefold.

• Pilgrimage is a practice of liberation.
• Pilgrimage is a practice of moral formation.
• Pilgrimage is a practice of self and community integration.

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Pilgrimage Sites in Savannah

• Places of Religious Genesis
• UU Church of Savannah
• Temple Mickve Israel
• First African Baptist
• Christ Church
• Thin Places in The Natural World
• Deep in the Marsh
• The River
• On The Ocean: Tybee, Little Tybee, Wassaw, The Turtles Nests
• Centers of Deep Community
• Pinpoint
• Native American Community Grounds
• Eating Places
• Places of Lament
• The Siege of Savannah
• The Weeping Time Grounds
• The Place of Surrender�

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The Route in Savannah

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Practices on Site

1. Arrive and Explore Site Independently
2. Gather and Sit in Silence
3. Leader for the site offer Readings and words on meaning (some narrative stories and histories, some poetry)
4. The Chime is Rung 7 times
5. Sitting Together -- Participant Words Invited (in the manner of Friends)
6. Closing Prayer Circle
7. Stamping of the Pilgrimage Card

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Our Savannah Experience So Far

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Our Savannah Experience So Far

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Our Savannah Experience So Far

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Participant Experiences

Participants cited as important factors:

• Formality and informally mixed together,
• The power of travel to come to know people,
• Silence is rare in our group spiritual practice,
• The intellectually stimulating aspects of learning, and
• The surprisingly powerful spiritual and emotional aspects.

Participants, used the journey times between sites to tell many stories of Savannah and became highly generative of other possible places to include.

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Participant Experiences

Reflections from Participants:

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“By creating a space for reflection and connection with place, past and one another, we see fresh patterns and fresh possibilities. We become pilgrims, renewed on our journey.”

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“I can't quite find the words to describe it but I will say it's the best time I've had in months...It was strengthening. It deepened my ties with others...It was a calming experience for me...reading, the silences, and meditation. It was a chance for me to speak out if I was so moved to do so and be heard by others in a safe space...Being there, surrounded by an atmosphere of reverence and friendship, hearing your words and those of others around me, opened a space for me to experience that place in a deeper way than I would seeing those grounds as a tourist. I'm realizing that, although I've never been on a pilgrimage in my life, I have now.”

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For More Information

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These materials and other resources can be accessed at the the Adult Spiritual Development portion of our website at:

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uupilgrimage.org

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The pilgrimage content hosted here we hope will grow as we continue to learn, practice and develop the program.

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As you do you your own pilots, we look forward to including links to your experiences!

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Questions and Discussion

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