Practicing the Pause: Holy Curiosity
Post-Covid Pilgrimage to Iona
August 12 – 21, 2022
Pilgrimage Invitation
This Pandemic year challenged all of us to change our routines and expectations. For some, that meant isolation and more time for reading, movies, house organizing, hobbies, walking. For some that meant, days of being ill and/or dealing with the fear and anxiety of becoming ill, or caring for a loved one who was ill or newly isolated in an elder care facility. For some that meant learning to work alone from home or navigating an on-site job with new rules, regulations and protective gear. For some it meant learning a lot of new technology in order to stay connected to worshipping communities, book groups, family and friends. For all us, some change in what was once considered the routine day-to-day activity of life, needed to be re-negotiated and re-navigated. For many of us there was little time to ponder the changes that were swirling around us as individuals, a nation, and a global community.
Pondering the changes, losses and revelations of this past year will be essential to our growth and well-being. Paying attention to all that emerged in these months will help to guide us into new ways of being in community together. This is not a time to long for a “return to normal” but a challenging opportunity to imagine moving into “a new normal.” This call to new imagining, is a process that will take more than the next few months. Just as it will take scientists years to gather the data that will lead to greater understanding of how viruses function, it will take the human psyche time as well, to process the changes being called forth.
You are invited to a time of pilgrimage; to a time of processing, holding and listening to all that bubbled up during this pandemic year and to what is yet to emerge. You are invited to a place of pilgrimage; to a place that has been receptive to the human spiritual, meaning making quest for centuries; a place that invites the intention and attention needed to reveal where we are being called to extend ourselves and our thinking out into the world. You are invited to an act of pilgrimage; to lay aside a need for answers, and allow curiosity, yes, even holy curiosity, to nurture and nourish your spirit. Please plan to set aside time to join us on a Pilgrimage to Iona in the summer of 2022. The hospitality of this wee island community will care for your physical needs, and the gifts of sea, sky, stone, and sun will nurture your spirit.
Pilgrimage Details
August 12, 2022: Gather at Glasgow airport terminal and journey by private coach to Oban. Overnight in Oban at the Columba hotel.
August 13, 2022: Journey by ferry and bus to the Island of Iona. Settle into our accommodations at Bishop’s House, Iona, for seven nights
August 14 – 19, 2022: Engaging the pilgrimage theme on Iona in community and in solitude. Exploring the spiritual discipline of pausing to pay attention to our intentions and attentions in order to extend ourselves consciously out into the world. Dream images, worship and ritual language, music and poetry, hiking and listening to the natural world, Covid and island history are a few of the wells we will draw from. A musician and environmentalist will travel with us.
August 20, 2022: Ferry back to Mull and on to the Columba Hotel, Oban, for a final dinner together.
August 21, 2022: Private coach leaves Oban at 9:00 am and returns pilgrim travelers to Glasgow airport in time for late afternoon or evening flights.
Pilgrimage Cost
Shared Room – $2000 Private Room – $2400
The cost includes all ground transportation in Scotland, taxes, gratuities, seven nights on Iona, two nights in Oban, and meals, with the exclusion of two or three lunches.
Pilgrimage Leadership
The Rev. Cari Keith, BSN, M.Div is an experienced and passionate pilgrimage facilitator. As an ordained Minister, Spiritual Guide and writer, Cari engages spirituality through a Jungian, mystical and Interfaith lens, and all of life with gratitude, reverence, and curiosity.
John Keith, BS, MS is an environmental scientist who has traveled and hiked the world studying global ecological issues. He is an accomplished guitar and vocal musician in the American and folk spiritual music tradition.
For More Information and Registration:
Contact Cari Keith at cari.keith@gmail.com or at 201-321-7216.
Iona
Is this place really nearer to God?
Is the wall thin between our whispers
And God’s listening? I only know
The world grows less and less –
Here what matters is conquering the wind,
Coming home dryshod, getting the fire lit.
I am not sure whether there is no time here
Or more time, whether the light is stronger
Or just easier to see. That is why
I keep returning, thirsty, to this place
That is older than my understanding,
Younger than my broken spirit.
— Kenneth C Stevens