Faith Meets Life: Travelling throughout religions

Pilgrimages to holy sites are common. I'm not thinking of the regular morning vigil to the Tim Horton's line up, or even a trip to Starbucks. I'm not even thinking of the pilgrimages that many make to Graceland, Disneyland or some other icon “Made in the U. S. A.”

But seriously, during the past few years non-Muslims have become increasingly aware of the existence of holy places, especially Mecca, which devout Muslims are expected to visit. Jews visit the Wailing Wall. Over the centuries, a number of Christians have made religious journeys to places where the Our Lady, Mary the Mother of Jesus, has been seen. Others visit places of significance for the life of Jesus, such as Palestine, or the “Holy Land,” which the Israeli tourist industry has done an excellent job of working to Israel's advantage.

The issue of holy places surfaced recently in a front-page article in the Ottawa Citizen by Jennifer Green. Green wrote that one of the things about Christianity that appears interesting to the Chinese authorities is its “malleability.” Unlike Islam or Judaism, at the core of Christianity there is an antipathy towards “holy places” or “holy lands,” as a result, genuine Christian communities can spring up anywhere, without any limits as to location.

This malleability is further echoed in the ability of Christians to relate to political and economic realities with a good deal of flexibility. Chinese Christians, for example, can be expected to create Christian communities that do not slavishly reproduce those of American or other Western Christians.

As the Ottawa Citizen (and many others) are reporting on the explosive growth of Christianity around the planet, it may be helpful to understand that, while there are many fundamental truths that all Christians adhere to, Christians nevertheless have the freedom to create various kinds of community in keeping with the range of cultures in which they find themselves.

Here in Canada, one finds a bewildering, lively, array of Christian options. Mennonites value nearness to the land, tightly knit communities and pacifism. Catholics often emphasize social justice. Baptists and Pentecostals value personal conversions (Pentecostals for the past century have been the fastest growing of any faith community.)

The Christian pilgrimage is not traditionally all about travel. This comes through clearly in the teaching of Jesus, who explicitly stated that the location of worship is not relevant. Consequently, the Christian pilgrimage is first of all about the personal struggle from evil to God, and from destructive behaviours to those that bring healing and renewal. In this way, Christian pilgrimage results in new forms of community life everywhere. How this plays out in Canada is evident in the multiplicity of Christian communities and their activities throughout the country.

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