Extensive Report Friends Evening and – Auction
The Walk of Wisdom has organized a Friends Evening around the question of how to develop a new pilgrimage tradition on an existing walking path. About 60 attendees were given the opportunity to give constructive criticism to a presentation by pilgrim pioneer Damiaan Messing led by experienced chairman Richard Engelfriet. Tim Haarlemmer led an auction after the break to generate income. Below is a report.
Auction proceeds
The proceeds of the auction were 1225 Euro, thanks in part to a personal philosophical card from Mayor Hubert Bruls that was auctioned for 41x the face value of €1. Also a felt copy of the icon of the route – Pilgrim – by Huub and Adelheid Kortekaas did exceptionally well: €105,-. Both chairmen participated free of charge and the Stevenskerk Nijmegen made its building and facilities available free of charge.
Presentation: a non-religious route in a monumental church
The evening started with a warm welcome by Heleen Wijgers, director of the Stevenskerk. The church dates back to the 13th century and is considered one of the city’s most striking monuments. From 31 July 2015, the building will be the official start and end point of the Walk of Wisdom for at least one month.
Heleen Wijgers, on behalf of the board of the church, expressed her willingness to help with the growth of a new pilgrimage tradition. The Stevenskerk is busy reinventing itself into a general ‘inspiring meeting point’ for culture and spirituality and a pilgrimage route that is not tied to a religion potentially fits in well with this.
The difference between a walk and a pilgrimage
Damien’s presentation revolved around the question of what the difference is between a walking route and a pilgrimage. Damiaan stated that the difference lies in the intensity and intention with which people run. Pilgrimage often takes place at key moments in a person’s life (after study, illness, retirement, mourning, burnout, etc.) and many pilgrims walk on an important theme or want to step out of familiar roles and patterns to orient themselves towards their future. The connection with other runners (pilgrims) can also count as a difference.
As the most important ingredients or conditions for a pilgrimage route, he mentioned the physical exertion of being on the road for days and weeks in all weathers under often primitive conditions, nature, the chance encounters with other pilgrims along the way and in the pilgrim hostels, and finally the symbols and customs of a pilgrimage route, which set the journey apart from the ‘normal’ consumption and media landscape of a tourist.
Learning from other pilgrimages
The follow-up question was what the Walk of Wisdom can learn from other pilgrimage routes. Damien discussed the Camino to Santiago de Compostela and the Henro on the island of Shikoku in Japan. According to him, the challenge is to learn from the creativity of these routes without becoming a copy of them. One by one, he discussed the above-mentioned conditions for a pilgrimage route.
The first was the effort of being on the road for days on end. The pioneer route of the Walk of Wisdom is the Streekpad Nijmegen, which with its 117 kilometers is not in proportion to the 1,200 kilometers of the Japanese Henro or the 800 kilometers of the most walked Camino to Santiago. Still, all in all, it will take you at least 4 or 5 days and the route will soon be extended to the rest of the Netherlands and Europe. As the first part, the Regional Path is sufficient for a pilgrimage route, as a kind of ‘mini-pilgrimage’.
Nature is good on the Streekpad Nijmegen, which is diverse and often beautiful: the floodplains along the Waal with free-roaming horses and cattle, the sometimes mysterious swamp area of the Haterse Vennen, the picturesque Mookerhei, the vast forests of the Reichswald or the almost un-Dutch beautiful hills and valleys of the Duivelsberg.
It is now a matter of finding meaningful stops and pilgrimage facilities along the route. That search has started and there are already interesting places and candidate pilgrim hostels such as Oortjeshekken in the Ooijpolder, the Bed and Breakfast Am Klinkenberg on the Reichswald or the monastery Bij de Kapucijnen in Velp (Grave). Something from all these places was auctioned.
According to Damien, in order to meet the final condition for a pilgrimage experience – meaningful symbols and customs – the route needs symbols and customs that align with the story and values of the Walk of Wisdom. The unifying story is the idea that no matter how different people are, they are all part of the same earth and the same life. The values of the route derive from this: space for personal meaning (authenticity), respect for the truth of others (diversity) and the intention to contribute something good to the world (sustainability). How do you express those values and that story without it becoming a circus?
Symbols and Customs: Let Them Grow
Damien emphasized that a pilgrimage route cannot be developed from a desk. The route must mature and grow from practice. However, a few initial moves can be made and that is the basic package that every pilgrim of the Walk of Wisdom receives at the beginning of the journey.
- The icon
Pilgrim
by Huub and Adelheid Kortekaas will be one of the main symbols of the route. The icon becomes a kind of ‘patron saint’ of the route and, according to the artists, expresses that people are a piece of nature, each with its own growing power, they are “seedlings of Mother Earth” – a poetic representation of the core philosophy of the Walk of Wisdom. 
The contemporary book of hours and pilgrimage
Seasons of Life
became the passport of the pilgrims. This handy book of A5 size contains pages of well-known and inspiring Dutch people who each express something of their philosophy of life in their own way and who support the values of the Walk of Wisdom. The book shows that people with different views on life can have similar values and pilgrims are invited at the end of their route to submit their own page for future editions of the book or as material for a Walk of Wisdom magazine.- The pilgrim’s lace or necklace is a leather shoelace on which pilgrims string buttons, pins or pennants that they receive at stops along the route. In this way, the route connects existing cultural, historical and spiritual places, each of which can express something of its vision of the world. And a meaningful souvenir is created for the pilgrim. The icon Pilgrim will be the first pin that pilgrims receive with the pilgrim necklace.
- As a final use, the Walk of Wisdom wants to establish a culture in which the internet and telephone are turned off as much as possible. This is not enforced, but by propagating it as a custom, we hope that pilgrims will see the 4 to 6 days they walk as much as possible as a special space that is different from their normal lives. A kind of 21st century fast.
Critical questions as a result of the presentation
Some of the questions:
- Why doesn’t the route have a purpose? You walk around.
Answer: we think that’s appropriate. There is no single truth at the heart of the Walk of Wisdom and you always come across yourself again during pilgrimage. In response to this question: pilgrims can be asked in advance what the purpose of their journey is, with what personal intention are they walking? - How do you ensure togetherness?
Suggestions made included a book in which pilgrims can write at a number of staging points or leaving a stone or gift for other pilgrims. Several attendees offered to test the route, for example in the same week. - Please leave the route clearly marked.
- Provide good pilgrimage facilities such as inns!
- One comment was critical of the route’s global ambition: it almost sounds like a religion.
Answer: we don’t want to govern it all from the Netherlands, but hope that inspired people in other countries will feel attracted to the concept so that they can apply it in their own region with local knowledge and their own color in good consultation. And diversity is one of our core values: we don’t want to force anything on anyone.
Here the online presentation in Prezi
