Welcome Greetings from DurhamCares! We are grateful for your interest in the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope. When the Center for Reconciliation asked us to partner with them on this initiative, it took us no time to say yes. Since DurhamCares started in 2009 our mission has been to mobilize Durham residents and institutions to love their neighbors. But what does it look like to love your neighbor? We have come to learn that it s more than serving others - in a large part, it s developing a new imagination, a listening posture, a way of living in our city that allows us to be transformed. In a large part, it s cultivating pilgrimage as a way of life. DurhamCares was birthed out of a Bible study about the story of the Good Samaritan. In that story, one of the things that makes the Samaritan s experience different is that instead of passing by on the other side like the priest and Levite, he came near the man in the ditch. Through drawing near - putting his feet in the ditch - he encountered the pain and was able to witness the hope of restoring him. Jesus called that loving your neighbor. We hope that the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope will draw you nearer to the pain and hope that Durham has experienced - to help you put your feet on the ground - so that you are transformed in the way you love your neighbor. And through it we hope that you are transformed in the way you know yourself, and the way you know God. Welcome from the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School! We are delighted that you are joining us in this spiritual formation opportunity. This initiative is a convergence of two of our hopes. We longed to be more deeply rooted in Durham, engaging in reconciliation right here in our home. And we were seeking new ways to connect with Duke Divinity School students for our mutual formation and equipping for God s ministry of reconciliation. These two things came together as we explored the idea of pilgrimage with DurhamCares. One of the ways we have engaged with students in the past has been through Pilgrimages of Pain and Hope. These were weeklong formative experiences away from Durham that delved into the pain that exposes the need for reconciliation and ventured into hope-filled spaces where God is at work mending brokenness. By becoming pilgrims in our home (even if Durham is only home for a few years for students), we hope that journeying together will make us more faithful to the reconciliation that God is 1
doing in our midst. When we reach the culmination of journey, we hope we can look back on our time, and like the disciples who had walked the road to Emmaus, see that Jesus was with us all along the way. Welcome to the journey. We look forward to walking with you to enter the Lord s healing, liberating, reconciling work among us in new ways. An Introduction to Pilgrimage Come follow me. Jesus Pilgrimage is not new. God transforms everyday mundane motion into sacred saunters. The Christian life is frequently described as a walk or a journey. It can be a helpful frame for seeing the whole Christian drama that began as a Jewish drama. Our life with God is a journey. God catches our hand and invites us to follow in the midst of the places we already inhabit. If we accept the daily invitation of life with God, God encourages us to live at a slower pace, so that we can come and see what the Lord has done, is doing and will do. On this journey of life, we discover that every destination other than God is a disappointment. We will only find our rest in God, our true home. At times it seems like God is far off, cloistered away in a heavenly palace, but God is also near and earthy. God is bringing home to us right here, right now in Durham, North Carolina. Jesus taught us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because God s Kingdom home is coming to earth. Pilgrimage is our way of paying attention to God s homemaking among us. It is a way to live the prayer Jesus taught. On pilgrimage we enter places and meet people, familiar and unfamiliar, for an Encounter where we slow down to see, hear, touch, taste and smell what is around us. This demands slowness and attention. Moses could have passed by the burning bush without ever noticing the strange nature of its flaming. Altering our hurried pace allows us to discover the signs of God s Kingdom coming. Encounters happen in a particular Place. In our own rootlessness, we forget that the physical earth beneath our feet has a Story. The dirt we stand on matters. Who testified to Abel s spilled blood, but the ground beneath Cain s feet? Places have history just like people, and this history matters for our pilgrim journey. Whether we pass through or we stay a while, we become part of 2
the story of a place. How we walk in that place matters. On pilgrimage we learn how to encounter places and hear the stories. We can have an encounter and move on without ever knowing the potential significance of that encounter. It is like the leaders who had Jesus arrested. They encountered the one they were waiting for, the Messiah! And they failed to see the signs pointing to the Kingdom coming right in their midst. Thus, we must Reflect, because the Kingdom of God is still foreign to us. It is our home, but we must be Transformed to see and enter our Kingdom Home with God. When we walk the pilgrim way, we learn how to see signs pointing to places where God s Kingdom is breaking in and to the places that need God s light and truth to penetrate and transform them. In this pilgrimage group, we will pay special attention to these particular values as signposts along the way: mercy, truth, righteousness and peace coming from Psalm 85:10 Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. The meeting of mercy and truth is a profound point of reconciliation. It is when we are fully seen with all our sinfulness and God chooses mercy. Jesus birth, life, death and resurrection shows us what it is like for mercy and truth to meet each other. As Jesus was spat upon, hunted, and hung upon a cross, he saw the truth of our broken condition. Even so, God chose mercy for the sinner. Yet mercy is not a blind eye to the truth of sin. Jesus blood was spilt. That is truth, and there cannot be real mercy without knowing the truth. When we learn the stories of the places and all who inhabit those places (including ourselves), we must hear the truthful brokenness. Every place has a story of brokenness. When we encounter the stories of places, we have the opportunity to reflect and be transformed. Mercy comes with the transformation. 3
Protest at the Royal Ice Cream Parlor in Durham, NC in 1962. (Courtesy Herald-Sun) Righteousness and peace exchanging a kiss is more than poetic, it is profound. When there is an argument between people (individuals and entire nations), there cannot be real peace between them until things are set right. This means that there is not peace until grievances have been confessed, lamented and repented in a movement toward righteousness. That holy kiss between righteousness and peace speaks of real reconciliation that is inescapably liberating. All this seems too much for a pilgrimage, and that is true if pilgrimage is confined to a weekend experience. It s even too much if we consider the preparation and debriefing for the weekend pilgrimage all a part of pilgrimage. We hope that our understanding will be expanded to consider the pilgrim way as a manner of being that lasts for our lives. The listening, attention and awareness we practice through this journey together will form us for the everyday pilgrimage. Then we are able by the Spirit s grace to see signs of God s coming Kingdom all around us and with God s help to be part of the transformation of the places still in darkness. God s coming Kingdom is our true home. We embark on the journey with certain hopes in mind, but we also realize that we cannot predict the flat tires, detours and strangers-become-friends who we will meet along the way. The Spirit likes to surprise us through the blessing of detours. Our ultimate goal is to be transformed into a more faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. We do not necessarily know the details, but we hope we will be able to recognize how this particular journey together fits with the journey we have already walked and forms us for the rest of the pilgrim way home. 4
The History of the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope In the 1980 s Trevor Hudson, a pastor in South Africa, wanted his church congregation to experience and understand more deeply the pain and hope in their country under the oppressive Apartheid government. Many of the most inspiring Christian leaders in his life such as Desmond Tutu and Dorothy Day - were intentionally proximate to people who were suffering. His congregation, on the other hand, lived a largely privileged life apart from the places of deepest pain, and did not have a full sense of the history that made South Africa what it was at the time. Hudson decided to take his congregation on a week-long pilgrimage to places in South Africa that would help them encounter the country with a different posture. Many other forms of engagement focused on helping, serving, and sharing something. But this would be different participants on the pilgrimage would come with more of a posture of openness to receive from God and receive from the people and places they encountered. As Hudson shares in his book, A Mile in My Shoes, they would come as pilgrims, not as tourists; as learners, not as teachers; as receivers, not as givers; as listeners, not as talkers. The concept of the Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope came to Durham in 2007 when the Office of Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School led the first Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope for divinity students. This proved to be a powerful experience that helped ground participants in the city and understand its history and intricacies. The Duke Center for Reconciliation followed their lead and conducted Pilgrimages of Pain and Hope in other parts of the US and the world, but there was still no ongoing opportunity to participate in a Durham pilgrimage. In the summer of 2016, some of the leadership at DurhamCares and the Duke Center for Reconciliation some of whom were involved in the 2007 pilgrimage discussed what it would look like to create a regular opportunity for people in Durham to go on pilgrimage in their own city. When we began developing the format and methodology, it was a priority for us to embody the values we sought to cultivate in the pilgrimage experience. Our first activity was putting our feet on the ground by going on a pilgrimage together through a neighborhood in Durham. We took our time with the pace of our planning, considering all the experiences and stories of each of the people on the planning team. We took a retreat together for reflection and sharing. Out of this intentionally relational and thoughtful process, we created the Pilgrimage Values, as well as 5
the format for the Pilgrimage Weekend and the Pilgrim Journey Discussions. In October, 2016, we launched our first Pilgrimage and since then we have continued providing the opportunity. The Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope has been shaped by the wisdom, contributions, and lives of many who have come before us. The design has been fashioned through deep relationships within and amongst our organizations, and with the people, places and stories in our city. You are now part of that story. We pray for you as you take this journey with us and as you continue your life as a pilgrim. A Methodology for Pilgrimage Summary: The pilgrimage group will journey into the story of Durham, the story of God, and our own stories as spiritual pilgrims. The purpose of pilgrimage is to connect the journey of discipleship with place, and to do it in our particular city the place we call home. Through encounters that foster a posture of listening and reflection, we see how our discipleship impacts, and is impacted by, the place we live. Through pilgrimage, we hope to see transformation in individuals, communities, and our whole city. We want to see life as pilgrimage, a journey of discovering who God is and who we are in the places we inhabit. Two Components of the Pilgrimage: Pilgrim Journey Discussions Since pilgrimage is not a one-time experience, but rather a lifelong journey, the Pilgrimage Weekend will be preceded and followed by Pilgrim Journey Discussions. Preparation and reflection are key elements of pilgrimage, and the discussions will cultivate those practices. We hope the initial discussions will serve as an on-ramp from our lives before the Pilgrimage, and the follow-up discussions will be an off-ramp to help participants to see their everyday lives beyond the weekend as pilgrimage. Key elements of the Pilgrim Journey Discussions include: Scripture Scripture grounds participants in the story of God and helps them see how their pilgrimage journey relates with God s story. Personal Preparation and Reflection Participants use this time to know themselves and what they are bringing into and out of the Pilgrimage. Preparation and reflection will help participants see the relationship between pilgrimage as a way of life and the Pilgrimage Weekend. Stories Participants will use this time to know the stories of other participants and guest speakers who are part of the Pilgrim Journey Discussions. Fellowship Through being together, participants will build community and learn from one another. 6
Pilgrimage Weekend During the Pilgrimage Weekend participants will visit key sites in Durham s historical landscape and hear from community leaders. They will put their feet on the ground as they listen and reflect on what they encounter. The purpose of a focused, three-day journey is to immerse participants in the story of Durham without the distractions of everyday life. There are six elements that are foundational to the Pilgrimage Weekend: Places Sites with historical, cultural and spiritual significance. People Individuals who can narrate the historical, cultural and spiritual significance of places, and connect them with the broader city and our current situation. Stories Spaces to hear the stories of key figures and places in the city, the stories of individual participants in the Pilgrimage, and how it relates with the story of God. Participants learn the significance of storytelling and how it relates with power and agency. Reflection Opportunities to share and discuss the experience with the group, as well as a chance to reflect individually. Walking Participants putting their feet on the ground to experience the pavement or the soil and the significance of their materiality. Eating Sharing meals as an opportunity for building relationships and as a spiritual practice, recognizing the cultural significance of food. Five Values of the Pilgrimage Encounter - Moses at the burning bush, the Samaritan woman at the well, the disciples before Jesus being transfigured: these are all moments when people had an encounter with God in a unique, particular place. Encounter is experienced through proximity - it occurs through making a connection that is close, intimate and personal. Pilgrims will encounter places and people with a posture of listening and receiving, being open to the work that God might do through the places they enter. Place - We live in a society where abstractions, concepts, and ideas are privileged over the complex materiality of everyday life. But throughout the Biblical story, God has been intentional about the particularities of places. We live, work, and play in Durham, NC, and that has an unmistakable impact on our lives of discipleship. Even more, our lives make an impact on the place we live, although it is often overlooked. The Pilgrimage will help participants see the stories and culture that have been formed in places throughout our city, and see how God is forming them through the concrete realities of place. 7
Story - Communities small and large have stories that form their group identity. Individual lives in all their complexities fit into those stories. The Pilgrimage is an opportunity to hear individual stories in the context of the larger narrative of Durham. Pilgrims will reflect on how these stories relate to God s overarching story. Through the Pilgrim Journey Discussions and Pilgrimage Weekend, we hope that participants will see their lives as a journey that does not end with certain experiences; we hope it will spark a sense of pilgrimage in everyday life as each person s story unfolds. This is why the Pilgrimage will be not only one weekend, but also a series of discussions for ongoing reflection. Reflection - Reflection allows us to work beyond quick assumptions, reactions, and biases. It is a gift from God that lets us step away from the noise and be silent in God s presence where we hear God s still soft voice. Throughout the Pilgrimage Weekend there will be space for both individual and group reflection. The Pilgrim Journey Discussions will be opportunities to reflect together, which will in turn prompt us to incorporate reflection into our everyday lives. Transformation - Throughout the Biblical story, God meets people where they are and leads them to be transformed. God s Word always challenges, confronts, and stirs us to become restored and renewed. The Pilgrimage is not a mere experience that will entertain like a historical tour. It is not a service project where there is a clear distinction between those serving and those being served. The goal of the Pilgrimage is transformation. Through it we hope to see participants changed in the way they understand themselves, the way they live in the city, and in the way they know God. Pilgrim Journey Discussion Outline Overview of the Journey (subject to change) Sunday, Sept 16 Pre-meeting in York Room of Duke Divinity School (2nd floor of Gray Bldg. Parking available at Bryan Center Lot) 5:30-6 pm - Duke Lutherans Worship 6-8 pm - Dinner and Pilgrimage Pre-Meeting 8
Pilgrimage Weekend Sept 21st-23rd, 2018 Friday, Sept 21 4 - Gather at Stagville 4:30-5:30 - Hear from Elder Blackfeather 5:30-7 pm - Tour of Stagville 7:00-8:30- Dinner and guided reflection Saturday, Sept 22 8:45 - Meet at ReCity 9-12 - Walking pilgrimage of downtown Durham 12-12:45 - Lunch at ReCity 12:45-1:45 - Personal reflection time at ReCity and Central Park 1:45-3 - Virginia Williams of Royal Ice Cream Sit-In 3-5 - Hayti Heritage Center Sunday, Sept 23 7:30 - Worship at Union Baptist Church 9:30-11:30 - Guided reflection at ReCity 11:30-1/1:30 - Latino Community Credit Union 1/1:30-2/2:30 - Durham Then and Now Wednesday, Oct 3 Post-meeting 6-8 pm at St. Paul s Lutheran Church 9