Vanessa Hammond, Victoria, BC

In October I had the remarkable experience of leading a youth retreat in Ontario. The group included the ministers of Pickering Village United Church, David Kai, Marly Bown-Kai and David Jones, two First Nations leaders, Shelly Knott Fife and Paul Karl, and 70 youth from Grades 7 to 12. We learned about the spirituality of making medicine pouches – focus on just one action and let the materials speak to us of their experiences. 
    Feathers and hide brought stories of forest and sky, seasons, the joy of movement, the cycle of life, the wisdom of using every part of the animal with no waste. Stones and shells brought images of creation, the genesis of our solar system, sand hardened into rock by the weight of oceans, the start of life.
    We sang, prayed, wept for the lives damaged by residential schools, and talked, with admiration, of the resilience of First Nations and the strength of the new generation of leaders.

In October I had the remarkable experience of leading a youth retreat in Ontario. The group included the ministers of Pickering Village United Church, David Kai, Marly Bown-Kai and David Jones, two First Nations leaders, Shelly Knott Fife and Paul Karl, and 70 youth from Grades 7 to 12. We learned about the spirituality of making medicine pouches – focus on just one action and let the materials speak to us of their experiences. 
    Feathers and hide brought stories of forest and sky, seasons, the joy of movement, the cycle of life, the wisdom of using every part of the animal with no waste. Stones and shells brought images of creation, the genesis of our solar system, sand hardened into rock by the weight of oceans, the start of life.
    We sang, prayed, wept for the lives damaged by residential schools, and talked, with admiration, of the resilience of First Nations and the strength of the new generation of leaders.
    We followed a physical time-line from today, back to the start of the United Church of Canada, back to the foundation of Canada, the Reformation, the split of the Roman church from the rest of Christianity, back to the formalization of Christianity under the Roman Emperor Constantine, back to the evolution of Christianity as a faith of marginalized and persecuted followers of a radical role-model of social justice, back beyond the birth of Jesus to the time, roughly 3,800 years ago to a time of movement of people throughout the Middle East and Europe. 
    Abraham and Sarah made their long journey from Ur in what is now Iraq to what is now Syria. At the same time the new Celtic culture evolved at the mouth of the Danube and spread westwards across Europe. The tradition goes that, before beaching their little willow and hide boats in Ireland, Amerghin, the chief Bard, identified the people, their king and their god as:
I am the wind on the sea, the lakes on the land
I am the stage of wide antlers, the hawk soaring above the cliff
I am the tear-drop of the sun, the fairest plant,
I am the boar of valour, the salmon of wisdom,
I am the excellence of the arts, the spear of battle
Indeed I am the God who forms a fire in the head and a passion in the heart.
    As adults, youth, lay people and ministers, we talked about the cycle of the season, a lifetime, a day.
    And we meditated, sang, drew circles of life, to represent in the tradition of Amerghin who each one of us is, and what we see as the cycle of our lives, our seasons, each day.  We thought about our lifetime, our days as chronological time, physical bodies, spiritual growth, intellectual discovery and intuitive wisdom. 
    Without ever leaving the building we made a pilgrimage through the spirituality of our traditions, our family history and our communities.  We learned about ourselves, the connections we have inherited and the challenges we set ourselves. It was a weekend of exploration and discovery. It will add richness to our next pilgrim journey, whether on Vancouver Island or my homeland of Ireland.
    Written in gratitude to the youth of Bay of Quinte conference of the United Church.
Vanessa Hammond, islandpilgrim@gmail.com 250.415.9272 in Victoria.