[Gocamino] Annual Gathering of Pilgrims 2007 Announcement

[Macy, Zita]

Tenth Annual Pilgrim Gathering

Pilgrimage to America

Williamsburg, Virginia

March 9-11, 2007

 

 

Dear Fellow and Future Pilgrims,

 

The annual Gathering of Pilgrims returns to its founding place in Williamsburg, Virginia for its tenth anniversary.  This Gathering will enjoy a special historic character because 2007 is also the 400th Anniversary of the founding of James­town, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, so we are calling this celebration a Pilgrimage to America.   Our focus remains the Camino de Santiago in Spain, but will also reflect on pilgrimage in other times, places and traditions.

 

American Pilgrims on the Camino, the national organization which now sponsors and supports the annual Gathering of Pilgrims, has built important bridges to the wider Camino community.

 

Before the Gathering, a Training Workshop for future volunteer hospitaleros will be held in Williamsburg March 6-8.  Look for details and registration information on the American Pilgrim web site, http://www.americanpilgrims.com/, or contact Daniel De Kay at dandekay at sbcglobal.net.

 

Official representatives from Santiago de Compostela and Galicia will be coming to Williamsburg to share in our conversations.  There will be fresh print materials and Camino souvenirs, of course, but also presentations in English and Spanish on news of the Camino.  They will host us for a buffet of imported Spanish tapas for our traditional Friday casual repast as we reconnect with old friends and make new ones.  And the Minister of Tourism of the Community of Galicia in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in Washington, DC has invited George Greenia to help organize a touring exhibit of Art and Photography of the Camino de Santiago to tour North America.  Guests from both sponsoring groups will be on hand in Williamsburg to inaugurate the exhibition in honor of American Pilgrims on the Camino.

 

Hospitality at the Tenth Gathering will strive for something of the simplicity of the pil­grims' refugio.  Newly trained hospitaleros will help extend a warm welcome for our albergue in Virginia.  Friday pre-Gathering workshops may include hands-on ses­sions about boots and backpacks, first aid on the trail, the art and craft of photography, and a session for first-timers to confer with veterans about how to travel, pack and prepare.

 




Saturday morning sessions will respond to a wide variety of potential interests.  Those of a classical bent can hear about Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece and Rome, and those happier in a more colonial ambience can learn about The Faiths of our Founding Fathers and how they understood their pilgrimage to forge a utopian nation.  Other presentations will discuss Physical Training for Trekking, the Foods and Wines of Spain, and Prayer and Pilgrimage. One of the Earliest American Pilgrimages will be relived with slides and a first hand report by a pilgrim from 1974, while some of our freshest pilgrims - local college students who trekked in 2005 and 2006 - will speak as Younger Voices on the Camino.

 

Saturday afternoon we move to the historic Wren Building on the campus of the College of William & Mary.  The Wren Chapel will be our venue for perform­ances of the Music of Pilgrimage, while elsewhere there will be simultaneous presentations on Medieval Pilgrims and Their Military Alter Egos, the Crusaders.

 

At the Saturday night banquet our featured guest speaker will be Edward Stanton, author of The Road of Stars to Santiago.  And on Sunday we will re-create our own pilgrimage to America by making our traditional pilgrims' walk together on Jamestown Island, with an interfaith morning prayer service in the restored ruins of the first English Christian church in the New World and a picnic lunch afterward.

 

The program is still evolving, so stay tuned to the web site of American Pilgrims on the Camino, http://www.americanpilgrims.com/, for news and updates.

 

The Gathering of Pilgrims is all about learning about the Camino de Santiago but also recovering the spirit of openness and friendship that allows our pilgrim stories to find their true voice and most understanding listeners.  We encourage you to bring items you have collected (relics, music, sculpture, carvings, etc) or created (stories, books, poems, art, photography) that have particular meaning for you; there will be a special place for these to be displayed and shared.

 

We look forward to seeing you in historic Williamsburg for the 2007 Gathering of Pilgrims and a Pilgrimage to America.

 

 

 

The Gathering Committee

George Greenia & Sandy Lenthall, Co-Chairs

Local pilgrims María Robredo, Andrew Cunningham, Michelle Thorne

 

 

 

 

all registration and event inquiries to

Andrew Cunningham (ascunn at wm.edu) or

Michelle Thorne (mrthor at wm.edu).