This Sunday St. Stephen’s will have the privilege of hosting the Very Reverend Dr. David Monteith, the 40th Dean of Caterbury (post Reformation) Cathedral at our forum in the Havens Center at 9:30 and as our preacher at the 10:30 a.m. Eucharist. Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of the Anglican Communion and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He oversees a staff of 250 and over 500 volunteers. The Cathedral is also a launching place and landing spot for pilgrimage. Many of us may have read the Canterbury Tales and know the tales as a pastime on the pilgrim’s way.
Many years ago I had the privilege of taking a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The 113 kilometer walk through the countryside of Galicia was deeply moving. The silence, the conversations with other pilgrims, the beauty drew me to the mystery of God as I walked paths carved by thousands of sojourners over centuries. This walk was the shortest distance that ‘counted.’ Many of the pilgrims that joined me in the cathedral when I arrived had started in the Pyrenees. Some may have begun in Canterbury. Wherever we start from, we all are journeying through life into a deeper nearness to God; some of us are just more aware of it than others.
Lent is a pilgrimage in time. These forty days each year invite us to walk with greater deliberateness. Through our practices of study, almsgiving and prayer we become consicious of our longing for God and our need for wholeness, salvation. While we may not physically be traveling beyond our homes and workplaces, inwardly we are journeying into our own hearts and leaning into the heart of God. We have conversations with ourselves and each other which reveal our true natures and desires.
As in geographic pilgrimage, at Lent’s end we come to Easter with joy and renewed strength. We wonder at God and all God’s works.
-The Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector