Pilgrimage Innovation Hub

We seek to:

• Prepare congregations for youth-centered pilgrimages and provide guidance and funding for these pilgrimages
• Conduct theological research about pilgrimage
• Gather and disseminate tools and resources to further the practice of pilgrimage

What is a pilgrimage?

A pilgrimage is an intentional and open journey to a place of sacred significance to engage in lifegiving discernment that shapes our return home and enhances our growth in meaning-making. Different terms can be used in place of pilgrimage, such as sacred journey, sojourn, learning journey, discernment trip.

Types of Pilgrimages

Over the next three years we will be working with 12 congregations to engage in meaningful pilgrimages in one or more of these categories:

Engaging Race, Racism, and Racial Identities

These are pilgrimages that specifically focus on stories and sites that are clearly tied to the realities of race. This can be something common, like a trip to The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. However, it could be something less common that requires more creative work to prepare and engage, like taking a tour to various sites of racial violence and racial justice in a particular region.

Parents and Teens Journeying Together

The site for this kind of pilgrimage is important, but what makes this kind of pilgrimage distinct is that it will involve parents and their adolescent children (12 to 18 years old). The sites could be very much tied to the parent-child relationship, such as sites in the country of the parents' ancestry, birth, or upbringing. However, the sites could be more reflective of the other five categories of pilgrimage.

Embracing Agency in Church and Society

This kind of pilgrimage focuses on a particular social issue or situation. The destination and activities would be shaped around discerning how to understand and embrace God’s call for faithful witness amidst that social issue or situation. For example, a pilgrimage could focus on a site that amplifies the call for environmental justice and sustainability. Another focus could engage the issue of gun violence. Going a different route, a congregation could work with young people to explore what it means to embrace Christian faith and the Way of Jesus in a world of many ideologies, allegiances, and perspectives.

Marking Milestones

This kind of pilgrimage will be tied to a particular season of life. Perhaps this can be a pilgrimage for high school seniors or even incoming high school students. Perhaps, it can be a pilgrimage a congregation structures as part of the preparation for baptism. The idea of "milestones" here is open.

Faithful Re-membering

This kind of pilgrimage focuses on fostering continued memory and gaining a deeper understanding of an event, a person, group of people, significant story, or set of related stories. The site or sites can vary greatly depending on the area of focus. For example, this can be a pilgrimage to a commonly recognized sacred site, or it could be a pilgrimage to a place of historical significance for the congregation’s denomination. Congregations could move in a different form of remembering and shape this pilgrimage around the journey of grief and loss.

Place-making in the Neighborhood

This kind of pilgrimage is intentionally local. The focus is on embracing a deeper understanding and sense of commitment to a neighborhood or set of neighborhoods. This kind of pilgrimage helps participants notice significant things (or stories or people or histories) in their neighborhood that often go unnoticed and foster a recognition of sacredness in what seems mundane.