It is ON and changed!

 

Most of my countries are now letting in people who have been vaccinated, and since I got my second Pfizer shot on April 10, it appears that my Sabbatical is back on track!   Several changes affect it:

 Right now, one of the countries, Scotland, is requiring a 10 day quarantine, even if you are vaccinated, so if that is still true on June 9, I will ask for an extra week at the beginning from my community to accommodate the week of quarantine. 

I'm dropping three locations off my itinerary.  All of them were countries that I was spending 48 hours or less in; and the realities of travel in a time of Covid mean lots of Covid tests, and lots of logistics, and I've decided it just isn't worth it for these three locations.    The downside is that I do lose the Congregational history, since one is Scrooby, UK, where the Puritans gathered and one is Leiden, Netherlands, where the American Congregational museum is located, and where they lived in exile before sailing off to the New World.   The third one is Malta, where Paul was shipwrecked.  All three of these locations will go on my bucket list. 

The third issue is that right now Israel is not open.   I am gambling on it opening by October, when I would be visiting, but I am going to plan my flight out of Athens, and book a separate Athens - Tel Aviv round trip.   Just so I can still get home if Israel/Palestine don't open.   

The rearrangement of my schedule and the dropping of the three stops (along with travel days to get there and away) actually leave me with a less rushed and more reasonable itinerary.   

But I am back to dreaming and planning.   Not to mention leaving either July 12 or 19!   So very soon, this blog will start getting interesting!!!!!

Feeling encouraged

 I'm a month out of my Go/No Go day.   But I'm feeling encouraged.   Why? 

• I'm vaccinated.
• Vaccinations in most of the areas that I am going to are ongoing.  (Except Germany)
• Movement in the last month has been huge. I have another month before decision day.
• Greece and Italy have announced reopening to people who are vaccinated in May.  
• Neither the Iona Community, nor Brot und Rosen in Hamburg have cancelled me. 
• Israel is in very good shape with regard to vaccination.   Palestinian territories less so.   But Israel is at the end of my itinerary. 
• Britain is moving along quickly. 
• I'm able to reimagine my itinerary without Switzerland, Malta, or the Netherlands.
• Rick Steves, in a recent article, stated that while his organization won't do tours quickly, that he anticipates independent travelers able to go to Europe this  summer.   He's not science, but he's pretty in the know.  

Basically, I am watching Israel/Palestine and Germany closely in the next month.    I need Britain, Italy, Greece, Germany and Israel open to vaccinated people in order to go.   I can get the reformed sights another time if necessary. 

I know that travel in Summer/Fall 2021 will not be like vacation travel usually is. But you know what, this is not a vacation, it's a Sabbatical.  It's OK if it is not about the food and the nightlife and even the museums.    I do need sights to be open, so I'll be watching some key sights:

• The Jesus Trail
• The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
• Vatican City
• The Iona Community
• Wittenberg Germany
• The Wartburg

and some secondary sights that are important to my itinerary, but maybe can wait:

• The reformation museum in Geneva
• Lutherhausen in Mansfeld, Eisleben, including the Sterbehaus.
• The Museum of the American Pilgrim in Leiden, Netherlands
• Scrooby, England

Keeping on praying.   If things look bleak a month from now, I'll have said no.   That said, what will my 2022 dates be, if I delay until then?  The Monday after the May primary.   Since Pennsylvania has said they may have to delay that primary, this is a little up in the air, but I hope to leave May 23. 

Decision Date: June 9

 

So last night at the church council, I was asked, so what is going on with your Sabbatical?   

Um, I don;t know.

I'm fully vaccinated (as of April 24, 14 days after my second Pfizer shot).

But none (yes none) of my destinations is truly open, at least not without quarantining (9 countries: can't afford 18 weeks of quarantining in a 3 month Sabbatical).

But both the Iona Community and Brot und Rosen are still officially on (and many of the things that I was not able to get a refund for are still valid, and inviting me to book for 2021.)  

But I don't have tickets yet, and I'm not totally comfortable with that until I get to a point where I can get to most of my destinations (willing to put some off till another year, personal vacation, if I can get to most of them.)  But Israel, Greece, Italy, Germany, and Scotland are pretty non-negotiable. (I can do Switzerland, Netherlands, and Britain another year.) 

AND the Lilly Foundation is letting me hold things off till 2022 if possible.  (April 18, 2022 anybody?)

So what do I do.  Right now I am in a holding pattern, but last night I decided to set a date.   I'll make a decision on leaving by June 9.

It's my middle child's 22nd birthday, and the next council meeting, so I should be able to remember it.    But we'll see, if the core countries are open to vaccinated travelers (with a mask of course) and I feel comfortable I'll go. 

If  no, April 18, 2022, baby!  (or maybe May, after the primary election, as I'm judge of elections.)

Keep me in prayer! 

Two Hour Sabbatical Overview with Rick Steves!

 

I discovered on Rick Steves' web page, his Classroom Europe section, where you can watch little snippets of his shows and rearrange them any way you like.    I decided to put together the pieces that he has up that correspond to my Sabbatical itinerary.   So I can vicariously visit, and so can you!  

Of course there are big gaps.  It's missing Scrooby, England; Leiden, Netherlands, Subiaco, Italy, Macedonia in Greece (Thessaloniki, Philippi, Berea), and Patmos and Corinth in Greece, Caeseria Maritima and many of the sights on the Jesus Trail (Sepphoris, Cana, Migdal).   Nonetheless it hits a lot of them. 

Malta is funny, because Rick skips every sight that I am seeing; none of the St. Paul sites are included in his video. But he's doing a day run off a cruise ship, and I'm a pilgrim staying in (most likely) a hostel.   very different.  But I included it because there are some things in there I might try to see, if I have time after I've done a full St. Paul pilgrimage.  

You can watch the playlist at https://classroom.ricksteves.com/watch_playlist/VYIJN

The whole thing runs about 2 hours 7 minutes, but it can be viewed piecemeal as well.  Enjoy!

The dates are set: Thank you Iona Abbey!

Iona Abbey, photo taken in 2016, when I did a one day visit.  Now I'll be there for a week!

In the past few days I have had connections with Iona Abbey and the Wild Goose Worship group.   They are able to put me back in exactly the same worship retreat that I had planned to attend last year.  So from July 31 to August 6 I will attend the "Braving the Elements" retreat!  

So, I am started planning. Given the November election in Pennsylvania, I need to leave July 19 to return October 29 or 30, and be ready for the November 2 election (I am the judge of elections.)

So I'll arrive in Great Britain on July 21, visit the Congregational sites, likely visit family members in Bath, go to Canterbury (possibly not in that order) and head to Iona arriving July 30 in Oban and July 31 in Iona.   

Right now, I anticipate my order being:

July 21-August 6 - UK/England and Scotland (Also a day in Leiden, Netherlands, the first week.  Maybe I'll start in the Netherlands)

August 7-21 - Germany and Italy with my husband. This will include Hamburg and Milan, and possibly Assisi, which Mark is interested in visiting.  It will also include some of my Luther trail stuff in Germany, most likely Wittenberg, which I've been to twice, and Mark has never been to, and which is close to Berlin where we have friends we want to visit. 

August 21- September 24 or so  -  Germany/Switzerland and time volunteering in Hamburg, Germany

September 25 - Oct 8 ish - Rome/Greece

Oct 9-29 - Israel and Palestine.  Returning the 30th, which is a Saturday. 

Returning to work November 1, and the election November 2.

I won't get any tickets until I have a Covid vaccine, but I am detailing out my itinerary again, and I will start booking things when I am more sure of traveling in July.

It is very promising that the Iona Abbey is opening up their bookings through June and July.  And I am beyond happy that they can fit me into the retreat again!  

Keep me in your prayers! 

The Sisterhood of Ministry

A sibling, who is also clergy, has recently had some challenges, and they have been grateful for the "brotherhood" of fellow clergy who have helped.   I'd like today to give a shoutout to my "sisterhood" of clergy. 

They are not all female, I'm using "sisterhood" in the inclusive way that my sibling uses "brotherhood." But I am female, and they recently helped me. 

Obligatory sabbatical tie-in: when I finally go in my sabbatical, especially as I visit sites in Israel, Greece and Rome which are largely Roman Catholic or Orthodox, I expect to not be recognized as clergy on a sabbatical, but as a lay pilgrim.  Because of my gender. 

I have, coming up next Sunday, the story of Jesus' inaugural sermon as my scripture.   In my children's bulletin, to make the connection between what Jesus was doing and what they have experienced, I wanted to have a coloring page of a contemporary minister preaching.   I searched google images.   I used duckduck go search for image.  I went to the places I frequently go for images: wikimedia and several pay sites I sometimes use (I won't name them, for obvious reasons.)   Nothing.   I could find an occasional woman minister, mostly in photographs, but very little clip art, and NONE of a woman at the pulpit, which is what I was looking for. 

I posted to a facebook group my dismay.   I know, and every female minister knows, that there exists a good deal of misogyny in the church community.   All you have to do is be in an interfaith or ecumenical organization of ministers that includes those whose traditions do not allow for female ministers (or to have those ministers conspicuously absent from the organization because YOU are there with  your vagina and all) to know this.   All you need to do is to look at the larger churches in even the most progressive denominations, even those with women in significant leadership positions, to know this.   

But the inability to find coloring pages with a woman minister bothered me.  A lot.  After all, I already have a male minister preaching in my children's pages for this week (Jesus.)

But this blog post is not about that.  This is about the wonderful sisterhood of ministry.   Dozens of my fellow ministers posted images of women ministering.   Most of them were not exactly what I was looking for but a few people posted exactly that:  Black and white clip art or coloring pages of women preaching.  Two people went to the trouble to DRAW SOMETHING FOR ME!!! One of those folks, my sister Jonathan, drew his in a variety of clothes: street clothes, Roman collar, robe and stole (I'll be using the latter in my children's bulletin!)  

Thank you, thank you, sisterhood of ministers for your support, and for your talent!   This one (drawing) is not mine, and I am appreciative.  I owe you one.    More than one.  And I want to share this lovely resource.   

by Kirianne Elizabeth Weaver

by Jonathan Davis.  Thank you, sister!

Hope, and a trip back to the beginning

 It's been hard to get back into planning, but with the approval of the Coronavirus vaccine, I am hoping travel will be back again, at least by this summer. 

I am currently working on the August 2020 plan though I'd like to actually leave a couple weeks earlier, both to be back in the US for the election (I am an election official) in November, and so that my husband Mark can vacation with me in late August rather than mid October.   He'll be coming for two weeks, and that two weeks, a vacation, will occur in the middle of the sabbatical.

I am not sure what will happen with Brot und Rosen, and am thinking about how I might use the extra four weeks if I am unable to do my service work.   I can come back to the US early and do the service in the US, or add additional touring to my itinerary, or just slow things down a bit.  I have already rearranged some of my time to add an extra day on the Jesus trail and an extra day in Jerusalem, maybe I'll add Caeserea Philippi, Bethsaida, spend more time in Galilee, or visit Petra.   And, while I'm still resistant to doing so, maybe a quick visit to some of the Pauline sites in Turkey, or Cyprus.  And certainly, an opportunity to visit my sister's child in Bath, as well as reinstate the visit to Canterbury! 

In addition I am facing the reality that my passport expires in 2021, and that I cannot travel within 6 months of its expiration date, so I am, right now, renewing my passport   My new passport will contain the stamps associated with my sabbatical travels, but I also look back at the one I am giving up. 

In this passport I had, for several years, work permits for Canada, as I worked on IBM projects up there under the NAFTA regulations.   This passport took us on a Catamaran cruise in the British Virgin Islands, and to Havana, Cuba for a day and a half on a people to people program from an MSC cruise ship. It has stamps for entry and exit from Amsterdam, Lisbon, Frankfurt, Brussels, Glasgow, Iceland, and Madrid as well.  It's ready for a new continent (Israel is in Asia) and a new adventure.    So I'm packing it up, getting my husband to take some pictures of me, and going back to planning, from the ground up, really, and preparing anew, with a somewhat changed itinerary, the same goal: to experience the context of the incarnation in the place it happened, and much hope.