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.

Planning (again)

 

Here's a silver lining:  had I gone on my sabbatical this year, I'd be back, and ready for my second week of preaching.   It would be all over.   Now it is still in my future.

The Lilly Foundation has generously approved a delay until next year, and I am just beginning the process of planning out my Sabbatical again for next year.   I won't begin making reservations until there is a Coronavirus vaccine announced, but it sounds more and more that expecting one this winter will be a reasonable thing.   

There are some differences between the Sabbatical I am now planning and the one I planned last year.

I want to travel right after Easter, for a couple of reasons.  One is that April on the Jesus Trail is better than traveling around Pentecost (Pentecost being a big travel holiday in Israel.)   I'm also adding a few more days in Israel: an extra day in Nazareth, an extra day on the Jesus Trail and an extra day in Jerusalem.   Maybe an extra day in the West Bank.   In Germany, skipping Worms (recommendation of Rick Steves, and I've been there twice) also skipping Strasburg, France (there are better places to learn about Anabaptists.)   Also, I turn 65 in April, and travel insurance for a trip that begins when I am 64 is less expensive.  Insurance is an issue (more on that in a later post.)   

Another plus is that garden produce, especially tomatoes, in August, won't be missed.   I canned 20 quarts of Roma tomatoes and 21 pints of salsa this August/early September. While I likely won't grow anything, though my daughter might, I will want to pick up some tomatoes from the local farms and can to see us over the summer with good tomatoes.  

I need to line up some sights (the American Pilgrim museum in the Netherlands, ferry to Patmos in Greece, sights in Israel and Rome) and check up on each place I planned to visit, to see if hostels are still open, if sights are still open, and if I can still make reservations in advance.  

And I might re-study some of the background stuff that I might not remember as clearly, because I now read them several years ago in prep for things. 

But the Sabbatical is still on, and I'm beginning my work for it! 

Today it would have started

Right now, I would have been settling myself into a seat on the Pennsylvanian train in Lewistown, PA, on my trip to New York.  Tomorrow I'd have an early flight to London, then an overnight to Tel Aviv.
Starting 15 weeks of exploring the history of Christianity from Jesus to the Evangelical/Lutheran, Reformed and Congregational Churches which emigrated to America was going to start.
Instead, I am at home, watching my granddaughter while my daughter works, watching the Festival of Homiletics when the internet has enough bandwidth to support it.
I was sad about this for a long time, but I think I knew I was over it when I started thinking about how to take sabbath this year (since I have not been on vacation since last August, figuring I would have a very nice rest starting now.)
I'm still canceling reservations, but I'm beginning to think about rescheduling for next year, and re-planning with some new insights.    I will be taking this sabbatical, eventually.    But now, it seems, I need to take care of right now for a little bit.

So, what is the next step on the journey? Please help me and respond!

I was listening to Rick Steves this weekend (yeah, I know) and he did an episode, for the 15th anniversary of the show, on pilgrimage and spiritual pilgrimage.   You can find his May 2, 2020 show here.

Listening to his show yesterday morning and afternoon made me think a lot about where I am and what I am doing with the time.

I'm still going on my Sabbatical.   It will be a 2021 sabbatical, most likely, not a 2020 one (though I am still waiting to see what happens with my Iona Retreat).   I'll write the Lilly Endowment as soon as the Iona Community determines what they are doing.   But it will be different.  Travel, when I leave next April, May, June, July or August (time still TBD) will be different and probably more expensive than it is now.   The opportunity to interact with locals will likely be something I need to be more intentional about.   I have eight or nine countries to be concerned about the travel policies of, and my own country's advice to think about.    It will be after the presidential election, which could very much change the whole situation in the US, and the conception of the US outside our country.   Israeli politics could impact the Israeli-Palestinian situation for good or ill (right now it looks like for ill, but that can

But many things will not change.  The Holy Land will still be where Jesus walked and was born and lived and died.  Macedonia will still be one of the places Paul traveled and founded churches, the Sistine Chapel will still be in the Vatican, and the Catacombs will still have the art and graves of some of the earliest Christians.  Assisi will still honor Francis.  Wittenberg will still be where Luther taught, Geneva and Zurich where Calvin and Zwingli took the reformation further, and Scrooby Hall where the Puritans gathered.   Iona will still be a holy island even if I am not attending a retreat on it.  Refugees will still need someone to support them all over the world (maybe even more so!)

But Rick's show reminded me that pilgrimage is not about the location, but about the heart.   You can take a pilgrimage and not leave your yard, this weekend's show identified.   The journey is spiritual, not physical.    I will still take the physical journey, but the journey my soul is on, is as important as the journey my feet will take.

So my challenge, for the next 11-15 months, is to find not the destination, but the journey to my sabbatical.   Find the next challenge and the next steps to deepen the interaction with and planning for, this journey and this sabbatical.    Some of the things that I have thought of include:

• Learning more about the early Catholic notaries I am going to travel to.   For example, rereading a biography of Francis of Assisi and some of his writings, and reading more about St. Benedict, as I'd identified Subiaco as a location to visit. 
• Spending time backpacking, and maybe switch my Jesus Trail experience to a camping experience.  Or not, but spending more time with my pack on my back. 
• Continuing the contemplative spiritual practice I started in Lent to help find quiet for God to speak to me in. 
• Reworking my itinerary to use the recommendations that Rick Steves' made to me, in the 2021 version of my sabbatical.  
• Getting serious about brushing up on my German. 

What else?  What am I not even thinking about?   What are spiritual paths that might deepen my journey?   What can you, my readers suggest to make the 2021 sabbatical a better pilgrimage, a better walk with God, than the 2020 pilgrimage would have been?   Please comment, here and/or on Facebook.