An Actual Sabbath Walk!

This current iteration of my weblog came about some time in 2022 when I took a sabbatical to work on the topic of "spirituality in nature".  Some might say that I just wanted to spend a lot of time hiking...and reading about hiking...and writing.  Those people were, of course, spot on.  However, something else came out of that experience. I wanted to find ways to bring formal worship into the natural world.  Well...I wanted to bring semi-formal worship into nature anyway...

This is a fertile field, of course.  There are plenty of options from outdoor chapel services to walking meditation, to simply sitting alone on a rock and noticing the world go by.  I don't think I am breaking new ground.  People were probably worshiping outdoors long before they thought to bring worship inside. I just wanted to find ways to translate this idea to busy moderns and post-moderns being pulled in various directions, from the house to the office to the grocery store and the gym. 

For most of us, unless we are really intentional about it, our lives are lived inside our boxes.  The outside--in these cases--is just for moving from box to box. Even when we are outdoors we can get too in love with the task. We climb the highest mountain the fastest we can, for example. The idea is to stop and explore.  The goal is to find peace and a certain aimlessness that we all need but do not value as much as we should.

Anyway, the "Sabbath Walks" project--or my Sabbath Walks project--was born.  The challenge was to give structure to outdoor time.  Not all of that time...but some.  The goal was to learn how to listen and feel Creation around us.  This project has waxed and waned.  It has died and become resurrected from time to time. You can find various posts on this subject, here, of course.  I urge you to take a look in the 'Categories" section and see where it takes you.

Throughout this process it has been a struggle, actually, to get a group together.  People are just so busy and have slightly different priorities. In my previous congregation there were pilots of various kinds.  Probably the most successful one was the series of units we developed for our Sunday School. However, over the years other things at church took precedence. 

​Then, of course, there was the move to 2nd Church and all that comes from changing homes and jobs. Being in nature has become a fairly isolated activity.  I have been out there as often as possible. Even when I am home I am usually on my porch or the back deck, looking at the mountains and listening to the river. However,  I haven't even really been able to consistently carve out time to post here.  I have hiking buddies and I talk to my plants in the garden. That said...the communal and structured parts of the experience have faded away.

So after Christmas, I sat down with Rev. Sue Bowman, the Chair of our Adult Faith Formation Team, and offered the possibility that maybe...somehow...we should try to launch our own pilot Sabbath Walk that maybe...possibly...could be built upon in the future. Sue wrote it down.  We chose June as the month.  Then--after a while of doing other more pressing things--we started to plan.

For this first one we prioritized accessibility.  The goal wasn't a physically challenging walk.  It was a spiritually inviting one.  With this in mind we picked the flattest trail we could find; a gated road at Highland Park near the church in Greenfield. It was flat enough for good walking aids if necessary.  It also had a pond and trees. That is, there was nature to engage with.  We decided to bring some readings with us to set the mood.  Mary, Sandy, Sue, and I each brought one.  Laurie offered to come up with some activities that we could engage in as we walked.  In a sense these were "rituals" in that they helped us connect.  However really "activity" is a better description; touching leaves and rocks, listening to the wind, feeling our steps on the trail.

Anyway...we did it!  Right after coffee hour.  I thought we would be six people or so, but we had over a dozen!  Before we reached the parking lot we paused for a group photo. Some of our group had already wandered away.  Anyway, we will do it again, changing the parameters.  Right now we are thinking of one for people who might like a somewhat more strenuous walk to go with their meditation.  Stay tuned...