This essay was compiled from notes for a presentation given by Joani Miller and Andrew Suderman at the Pastors and Leaders Conference held at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary,Feb.19. Their presentation focused on Just Peace Pilgrimage, a short-term learning program from Mennonite Mission Network. Registration is now open for individuals and groups! Click here to learn more and to apply.
At their most basic and fundamental level, Just Peace Pilgrimages are learning experiences — opportunities to see, experience and reflect on particular realities and ongoing struggles. We have been in the process of crafting three concentrations: racial justice, migration — or “people on the move” — and solidarity with Indigenous Peoples.
A lot of careful thought has gone into crafting these experiences. We hope that this may lead to deeper engagement on these journeys. Ultimately, our goal is that the communities that are participating in these pilgrimages will engage and participate in creating a different reality; one that is new and hopeful.
Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest from Uganda, and Chris Rice, a Protestant from Mississippi, wrote a book titled, Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing. They wrote this while they were co-directors of the Centre for Reconciliation at Duke University.
In the book, they explore the significance of “pilgrimage” and the meaning of such a journey.
Katongole suggests that the story of Zacchaeus is a story of relocation: “from the top to the bottom, from the city to the villages, from the universal to the local, from the center to the margins.” He goes on to describe how — in the hope of working toward and participating in such a new reality — relocation “points to forms of Christian social engagement that, having learned to suspect old formulas (and the way things are), ground their praxis (their reflective action) in the local, concrete, and particular communities,” seeing how these communities offer a different and new reality in their midst, and sometimes in the face, of the old.
We hope that the Just Peace Pilgrimages will create opportunities in which participants and communities can see, learn and experience these new and hopeful expressions.
But learning to see the world differently — and sometimes anew — doesn’t happen overnight. This is why we’ve adopted the word “pilgrimage” to help describe — and invite people on — the ongoing journey of exploring what it means to be and work toward this new reality in the world, which the Apostle Paul describes as “new humanity” (Ephesians 2:15).
Katongole and Rice note:
“Pilgrims are slowly confronted by a different world that begins to interrupt their own. … The goal of a pilgrim is not to solve but to search, not so much to help as to be present. Pilgrims do not rush to a goal, but slow down to hear the crying. They are not as interested in making a difference as they are in making new friends.”
Interestingly, this reflection highlights part of a larger journey — a journey that explores the discipline of lament.
Now, we don’t overtly highlight “lament” at the beginning of these experiences, partly because we have found that people don’t understand the significance of lament until after they have experienced how things are not as they should be — in other words, after they have been confronted by a different world. But it is important for us to recognize that this is an essential element that lingers in the background.
Lament, to put it simply, is a cry — a cry to God about the conditions or realities that they experience. It’s a cry that recognizes that things are not as they should be.
But lament is not, a cry of despair, as Katongole and Rice note: “It is not whining. It is not a cry into a void. Lament is a cry directed to God. It is the cry of those who see the truth of the world’s deep wounds and the cost of seeking peace. It is the prayer of those who are deeply disturbed by the way things are.”
Katongole and Rice note that, “If we are to participate in God’s plan to reconcile all things in Jesus Christ, we must begin to listen to this cry.”
It is the task of the church, they argue, to learn to listen to and for that cry. This means learning why such a cry comes about to begin with. What causes such a cry? Are we causing others to cry? Are we involved in causing this pain and suffering? If we are, or if we have been, how can we work not only to stop the hurt that we may be causing but work to restore and repair what has been damaged, including the relationships?
Ultimately, Katongole and Rice note that lament leads toward authentic hope!
If we are bothered by the ways things are, and we’re willing to ask and explore some of these difficult questions, we may be able to participate in creating a new vision, a new reality, a new humanity, even a new world in the here and now!
It may, in fact, lead to the gift of metanoia (a Greek term meaning “a change in one’s mind”), or a turning, transformation or conversion!
Katongole and Rice said, “Lament is a painful training toward the beauty of seeing what peace truly is and bearing that different vision of peace to the world.”
Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) also plays a part in informing how these pilgrimages are crafted. The “educators” on these journeys don’t function as teachers or guides, but they function as hosts, who create spaces of welcome and for new understandings to be formed.
This theory suggests that transformation is not simply about knowing more but experiencing a shift of perspective that changes the world as the learner knows it. In fact, with that shift, they cannot unsee that change in the world. The learner sees the world, and themselves in the world, anew.
Participants on Mission Network’s Just Peace Pilgrimages return home asking new questions: In the face of injustice, what am I willing to lay on the line? What are we doing to bring fairness, justice or change to the lives of those around us?
These questions spread through participants’ communities, prompting more questions, elevating consciousness and, above all, creating curiosity about the new, hopeful reality that God is calling all of us to make together. We hope that these opportunities for transformation help us envision what peace in and for the world may truly be.
