Friday, May 02, 2014
where would we pilgrim in South Australia?
Four overseas examples of pilgrimage and faith formation have got me asking – where would we pilgrim in South Australia?
- In New Zealand, Kelvin Wright, Bishop of the world’s most southern diocese, spent the 40 days of Lent on Te Harinui (Maori for Glad tidings of great joy), a pilgrimage from one end of the diocese to the other.
- In Essex, Stephen Cottrell, the Bishop of Chelmsford, (whom I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing as part of my research in sustainability and fresh expressions), is embarking on ten different ten mile walks. Each finishes with a quiz the bishop time, as part of Stephen’s personal passion for evangelism. Each is linked to the walking of the first missionary, St Ced, who arrived in Essex more than a thousand years ago.
- In Ireland, just before Easter, Jonny Baker took ten of his pioneers to try and connect with the wild spirit of Irish Christianity. It involves travel, storytelling and time to reflect.
- John and Olive Drane are about to take a group of Doctor of Ministry students to Lindisfarne for a week. It’s a place that drips with mission history, including the pilgrim way.
These four overseas examples of pilgrimage and faith formation have got me thinking – where would we pilgrim in South Australia? Where would we go to connect with the stories from God’s past activity, in order to help discern our participation in God’s future?
I have a student doing a Guided reading with me on this very topic. She’s going on “Celtic” pilgrimage to the UK. More importantly, as she does, she’s asking what it means back in her local, rural, community?
Now I know that at Uniting College we have Walking on Country in which we spend time listening to indigenous stories. And in July there is a Mission immersion trip to Melbourne, to look at examples of current mission practice.
Are these the same sort of innovations? Or is there a local mission pilgrimage piece that’s still beckoning us?
)
