5 Days Until Departure

Each summer, rising 11th grade students at All Saints’ are invited to make a holy pilgrimage. The J2A pilgrimage provides our teenagers with an opportunity to deepen their relationship with God in Christ, strengthen their ties to the church community, and forge stronger bonds with their peers.

Unlike many student trips abroad, this is not a typical tourist-type trip. It is intentional, spiritual and holy travel. We spend a good amount of time visiting significant religious sites. We also learn about local culture and attempt to understand Christian traditions and practices of the local churches. Each day is structured to include time for individual reflection and prayer. Each evening includes group discussion, usually focusing on the sites, events and themes of that particular day. Every evening comes to a close with student-led Compline, a form of prayer found in the BCP.

This year we will make a pilgrimage to Ireland. We will visit the monastic communities of St. Kevin, St. Brigid and St. Ciaran. We will visit the Hill of Tara, where St. Patrick converted the High King of Ireland, and Dublin where we will see the Book of Kells and attend Evensong at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We will see the legacy of monasticism on the Aran Islands and the natural beauty of the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. This is not the complete itinerary, but you see that this pilgrimage is full of significant sites and will provide us with a great amount of material on which to reflect.

This year, our pilgrims are Jeffrey Cox, Janine Depree, Eason Weinmann, William Parker, Addie Henderson, Ellie Studdard, Max Collins, Quill Yates, and Susanna Morphis. They will be led by chaperones John Herring, Keri Herring, Luke Barton, Elizabeth Barton, and Lisa Bell-Davis. Please keep them in your prayers.