In association with the Arts & Culture Task Force of the World Trails Network, we are running a six month series of monthly online meetings with academic researchers, thought leaders, trail professionals and walking artists to investigate pilgrimage today.
On Pilgrimage – Pilgrimage Today
Beginning in March, and to run on the first Tuesday of subsequent months, the first session on Pilgrimage Today framed pilgrimage as a multifaceted creative, spiritual, ecological, and communal process — an act of walking with intention that transforms both people and place.
Guests included Professor Kathryn Barush author of Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience, Guy Hayward, Director and Co-founder of the British Pilgrimage Trust, and András Molnár from the Budapest Pilgrims Centre and World Trails network representative. Co-chaired by Lora Aziz, co-chair of the WTN Arts & Culture Task Force and Andrew Stuck.
For each even, we are calling on Zoom AI to generate a summary, that will be included below – please inform us of any inaccuracies.
András J. Molnár (Hungary)
Themes: Theology, geography, and evolving forms of pilgrimage
- Introduces “trailology” — an emerging interdisciplinary study of trails.
- Describes Hungary’s revival of pilgrimage routes and new initiatives such as the Merry Way Network and Pilgrimage Academy.
- Defines pilgrimage as an encounter between sacredness and spirituality — linking divine, place, and community.
- Notes a shift from traditional religious pilgrimage to personal, contemplative, and nature-based experiences.
- Argues that a pilgrim is “someone open to transformation.”
- Presents a “fractal model” of pilgrimage — blending chronos (ordinary time) and kairos (transformative time) to show that change can happen at any moment along the path.
Guy Hayward (UK)
Themes: Reimagining pilgrimage for a secular and plural age
- Co-founder, British Pilgrimage Trust — promoting “Bring Your Own Beliefs” pilgrimages.
- Offers free routes, sanctuary stays, and community training to revive walking as a spiritual and cultural act.
- Sees pilgrimage as creative attentiveness — walking with intention, openness, and humility, not confined to religion or specific destinations.
- Discusses the rise of pilgrimage as response to digital burnout and social fragmentation — a way to reconnect body, land, and spirit.
- Defines pilgrimage as a practice of surrender and transformation, not defined by faith or distance.
- Predicts a shift toward local, distributed, and ecological pilgrimages, emphasizing reciprocity with the land.
- Concludes: “A true pilgrim walks with trust and purity, open to great change.”
Kathryn (Kate) Barush (USA)
Themes: Art, material culture, and the metaphysics of walking
- Professor of Art History & Religion (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley).
- Studies how art and objects become vessels of pilgrimage experience.
- Describes pilgrimage as communion across time — walking with “an invisible cloud of witnesses.”
- Introduces concept of “extra-temporal communitas” — connection between past, present, and future pilgrims.
- Links pilgrimage to psychogeography and surrealism, seeing it as an act of uncovering layers of history and memory.
- Shares case studies:
- Phil Volker’s Backyard Camino (USA): a miniature Camino de Santiago built for personal healing.
- Chip Sullivan and Liz Boults’ “Wisdom of Place”: tarot-themed art project linking the Green Man and the Fool as archetypes of the pilgrim stepping into the unknown.
- Concludes that art-making itself can be a form of pilgrimage — a spiritual and creative journey.
Panel Discussion Highlights
- Transformation: Pilgrimage as a catalyst for both personal and systemic change.
- Intentionality: The openness to being changed defines pilgrimage more than destination does.
- Penitence: Discussion of traditional notions of forgiveness; modern views emphasise reflection over guilt.
- Community & Ecology: Pilgrimage as a way to reconnect people, neighbourhoods, and ecosystems.
- Artistic Expression: Drawing, stitching, ritual, and virtual journeys can also embody pilgrimage.
- Ethics: Acknowledgment of environmental impact and “misguided pilgrimages” (e.g., consumerist or destructive acts).
- Labyrinths & Fractals: Both symbolise a single path of perseverance and inward transformation.
Closing Reflections
- András Molnár: Calls for humility — pilgrims are not superior but seekers; warns against constructing false transcendence.
- Guy Hayward: Emphasises places and practices — engaging meaningfully with sacred sites through creative acts like singing, water rituals, or meditation.
- Kathryn Barush: Highlights art as communion with place and people; wishes all “Buen Camino.”
- Lora Aziz: Summarises the evening in three words — transformation, embodiment, and ‘communitas’ — and invites participants to continue the conversation in future sessions.
On Pilgrimage – Sacred Steps
The second session in our On Pilgrimage series focused on Sacred Steps: Contemporary pilgrimage, walking art, climate and activism took place on Tuesday 7 April, 2026 and we welcomed Roxana Perez-Mendez of Campo Research Studio, Jonathan Baxter and Jolie Booth of Krya Arts and Pilgrimage for Nature.
A 90-minute panel discussion exploring contemporary pilgrimage — how it intersects with walking, art, climate activism, and our relationship to land. Hosted by Laura Aziz (co-chair), with speakers Jolie Rose, Jonathan Baxter, and Roxana Perez-Mendez.
Jolie Rose shared her journey from a 2018 Extinction Rebellion walk to leading multiple long-distance pilgrimages across the UK. Walking the Michael & Mary ley line (500 miles, solo) became a process of personal healing — through grief, relationship breakdown, and reconnection with the natural world. She went on to lead a group of ~30 walkers to COP26 along the Spine of Albion, holding ceremonies at chakra points with local wisdom keepers, and performing a collaborative piece in Glasgow’s Green Zone. She described the pilgrim as occupying two archetypes: the hermit(carrying inner weight) and the fool (open to everything).
Jonathan Baxter described Pilgrimage for COP26 — a 10-day walk from Dunbar to Glasgow ahead of the summit, with a core group of 20–25 walkers. The three stated aims were: raising awareness of the climate crisis, reflecting on it in relation to communities passed through, and building a community of witness committed to climate justice. The walk was notably bioregional in focus — engaging with post-industrial landscapes, faith communities, and local people — and was accompanied by artworks, community choirs, and a deep time walk. He closed with a quote from the late David Gee emphasising tangible, present-tense hope over grand narratives.
Roxana Perez-Mendez opened with a land acknowledgement and offered the most explicitly political framing. Drawing on decolonial theory (Malcom Ferdinand, Naomi Klein, Edward Glissant), she argued that the ecological crisis is inseparable from colonial history. Her practice with Campo Research Studios uses walking as research and socially engaged performance, prioritising Black, Latin American, Indigenous, and gender-diverse participants. She challenged the audience to distinguish between pilgrims (transformed by the land, accountable to its history) and tourists (consumers who pass through unchanged), and cautioned that pilgrimage can feel radical while leaving underlying power structures intact. “Healing without reckoning is not healing. It’s forgetting.”
Panel Discussion Themes
- Self-transformation vs. structural change — Jonathan asked what “structural change” means in practice; Roxana argued it begins with acknowledging the roots of dispossession, not just personal growth.
- Hospitality and gift economies — both Jolie and Jonathan noted how people from very different backgrounds opened their homes to pilgrims, and how secular climate activists were often surprised by this generosity, rooted in religious and gift-economy traditions.
- Bioregionalism and excluded communities — discussion of how post-industrial communities have been doubly extracted (from labour and from land), and how reconnection often comes through growing food and social enterprise.
- Penance and suffering — Jolie reflected that her hardest walks were the most transformative; Jonathan urged caution around glorifying suffering, preferring the language of humility and joy; Roxana reframed penance as what the walker owes — to the dead, to the displaced, to the land itself.
- The pilgrim as social body — Jonathan described the pilgrim not as a lone individual but as a collective skin moving through landscape, with impermanence as a core insight.
Closing
Lora Aziz wrapped up noting the recurring themes of presence, reciprocity, vulnerability, andsacrifice, and encouraged continued discussion using the comments box at the bottom of the Sacred Steps event page.
On Pilgrimage – Creating Pilgrimage Routes
The third On Pilgrimage event in the series focussing on Faith-based, radical and community-led pathsand we are delighted to have Conchita Espino, Director of Mar a Mar, the organisation behind the Camino de Costa Rica, Matthew R Anderson Gatto Chair of Christian Studies, at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada and author of The Good Walk: Creating New Paths on Traditional Prairie Trails, and Jane Sharkey creator of the Lundy Pilgrimage Trail as guest presenters.
Hosted by Lora Aziz, co-chair of the World Trails Network Arts & Culture Task Force and Annemarie Lopez, from walk · listen · create.
Three Speakers, Three Routes
Conchita Espino — El Camino de Costa Rica A retired World Bank specialist, Conchita and her husband conceived a 280km trail crossing Costa Rica from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Modelled on the Camino de Santiago, it was designed between 2012 and 2018 and opened in 2018. Key priorities included routing through economically marginalised communities that wanted and needed the income, preserving biodiversity, and keeping the trail accessible. It has three pillars: personal transformation, community-led development (deliberately resisting mass tourism), and environmental education through schools along the route.
Matthew Anderson — Community and Political Walks, Canada A Christian Studies professor, Matthew described several routes he has initiated across Canada. His prairie walks followed historic Métis trading trails across largely depopulated land, walking through territory once inhabited by Indigenous nations. These were explicitly political — drawing attention to dispossession and land access. His Montreal-to-Kahnawake walk introduced students to Mohawk territory and its history. A recurring theme was ceremony: asking permission from the land and its people before crossing, including the Indigenous practice of smudging each morning.
Jane Sharkey — Lundy Island Pilgrimage Jane, who lived on the tiny island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel, created a 13km circular day pilgrimage as part of her Fine Art master’s. The route drew on the island’s sacred place names (Knight Templar Rock, Apostle Stones, Virgin Springs) and ended at St Helen’s Church. Her focus was on multi-sensory engagement — encouraging walkers to listen, smell, and feel the landscape rather than simply look at it. She created a passport booklet with prompts, a code of conduct, and prayers from both a vicar and a Jain monk.
Key Themes from the Discussion
- Balancing the new with the existing — all three grappled with how to introduce routes without disrupting communities or land. Conchita described negotiations over a private hanging bridge; Matthew described the diplomacy required to enter Mohawk and Indigenous territories.
- Transformation — the session closed with a question about whether these routes changed their walkers. Responses ranged from physical and emotional challenge (Conchita) to political awakening (Matthew) to embodied attention (Jane). Ali Pretty, who had walked El Camino de Costa Rica, noted that transformation tends to be gradual rather than instant.
- Access and land rights — a lively exchange touched on the tension between the right to roam and Indigenous sovereignty, with the group largely agreeing that ceremony and asking permission offered a meaningful, if imperfect, bridge.
Closing Words
Lora drew out three anchor words from the evening: contemplation (Jane), ceremony (Matthew), and guide (Conchita) — framing pilgrimage not just as movement through space, but as a way of paying attention, making meaning with others, and being led by land and story.
On Pilgrimage – Art on the Pilgrim Path
Executive Summary
This fourth instalment in the Walk · Listen · Create series, held with the World Trails Network on 6 June, 2026, explored how contemporary artists approach pilgrimage as both physical and artistic practice. The four featured speakers—Kathryn Barush , Roxana Perez-Mendez, William Sharpe, and Clara Gari—each presented perspectives connecting embodied walking to spirituality, art‑making, and community.
Hosted by Lora Aziz, co-chair of the World Trails Network Arts & Culture Task Force and Andrew Stuck, from walk · listen · create.
Key themes included:
- Pilgrimage as Embodied Art: Walking is both the medium and the message—an act that dissolves the boundaries between art, religion, and communal experience.
- Reconstruction & Representation: Pilgrimage can occur through artworks, home‑made shrines, sound, and recreated paths (e.g., Phil Volker’s backyard Camino).
- Teaching & Practice: Roxana Perez‑Mendez described training art students through lived walking experience on the Camino Francés, emphasizing the transformative power of fatigue, repetition, silence, and encounter.
- Historical & Cultural Context: William Sharpe traced how depictions of pilgrims evolved from medieval iconography to modern myth‑making (e.g., U.S. “Pilgrims”), showing that artistic images reveal cultural motives behind pilgrimage.
- Personal and Social Dimensions: Clara Gari contrasted her quiet 1986 Camino—defined by hospitality and solitude—with the modern, tourist‑heavy route; she argued walking itself, not institutional pilgrimage, reshapes human connection and public art practice.
- Community & Solitude: Discussion with Ridha Dhib (translated by Annemarie Lopez) highlighted how host communities and repeated physical exertion create shared transformation (“communion through dust”).
- Concept of “Dissolving”: The session closed on the idea of dissolving barriers—between artist and audience, individual and collective, sacred and secular—and reaffirming pilgrimage as a bodily, connective, and liminal act.
Key Topics Discussed
- Kathryn Barush:
- Art as contemplative pilgrimage; stationary or “mental” journeys through manuscripts and maps.
- Case studies—Phil Volker’s backyard Camino, Bhakti Mayama’s cigar‑box shrines, British Pilgrimage Trust’s sung routes, and Kara Ambrosio’s travel zines—all demonstrate art as surrogate pilgrimage linking physical and spiritual worlds.
- Roxana Perez‑Mendez:
- Pilgrimage = artistic medium.
- Walking teaches through the body: silence, fatigue, endurance produce revelation and awareness.
- Her UNC students create works from direct embodied experience rather than representation.
- William Sharpe:
- Historical “look” of pilgrims in art—from medieval staff‑and‑shell figures to metaphorical journeys like The Pilgrim’s Progress.
- Warned of “doing the right deed for the wrong reason”—pilgrimage as ideology, colonization, or political myth.
- Clara Gari:
- Comparative reflection on early vs. modern Camino.
- Shift from spiritual hospitality to economic tourism; still, walking preserves introspection and transformation.
- Advocated for walking as collective art practice in her Grand Tour of 300 km with multidisciplinary artists.
Panel Discussion & Contributions
- Themes: dissolution of artwork boundaries; art as service to the divine or community; bodily knowledge as essential spirituality.
- Ridha Dhib: reflected on social exchange along the Camino—hosts share in pilgrim stories, forming a “reverse” pilgrimage; physical repetition strips social masks.
- Kathryn Barush: expanded on communitas—shared presence across time and space, where even solitary walking connects to past and future pilgrims.
- Audience Q&A:
- Ann De Forest raised ambulatory design in churches as “micro‑pilgrimage”; discussion linked sacred architecture to rest, reflection, and sensory learning.
Conclusions / Takeaways
- Central Insight: Walking itself—not the destination—constitutes both spiritual and artistic transformation.
- Embodiment: The body is inseparable from spiritual practice or creative process.
- Community through Travel: Pilgrimage generates communitas—shared memory and mutual recognition—across time and culture.
- Artistic Implication: Contemporary walking art reclaims pilgrimage as participatory, process‑based, and inclusive.
- Closing reflection (Lora Aziz): “Dissolve” captures the evening’s essence—dissolving boundaries, myths, ownership, and ego to create thin spaces of reconnection.
On Pilgrimage – Stories from the Pilgrim’s Road
The fifth in a six-part monthly series on pilgrimage, organised by walk · listen · create in collaboration with the World Trails Network, hosted by Andrew Stuck on 7 July 2026.
Overview
The event brought together three speakers — photographer Alexandra Huddleston, performance artist Ridha Dhib (translated by Annemarie Lopez), and writer/Caucasus specialist Peter Nasmyth — to explore how walking, art, and spirituality intersect in pilgrimage.
Speaker Highlights
Alexandra Huddleston discussed how three long pilgrimages — the Camino Francés (Spain), the Shikoku pilgrimage (Japan), and the Chemin du Puy (France) — transformed her perception and artistic practice. Initially approaching the Camino as a journalist, she found that walking itself altered her consciousness. She argued that photography can be integral to pilgrimage rather than a distraction, functioning as a ritual act that deepens awareness. She illustrated this with a story from Shikoku where a shared Buddhist prayer revealed the power of ritual and rhythm.
Ridha Dhib, a Tunisian-born walking artist based in Paris, reflected on the body as both writer and witness of the journey. He explained that “the body writes before I do,” and presented his performance project Mnemosyne, which transforms physical exertion into narrative through “cardio-cartography” — mapping his heartbeat along his route. Revisiting his 2014 walk from Paris to Santiago de Compostela, he described using his heartbeat as proof of passage and as a measure of what “the body pays.”
Peter Nasmyth recounted a pilgrimage to the mountain church of Lomisa in the Georgian Caucasus. He described the annual ascent of thousands to a seventh-century church dedicated to St. George, the ritual of circling an icon with a heavy chain, and how the physical challenge, shared faith, and sublime environment combine to create a transformative experience — even for non-believers.
Key Themes
- Embodiment and Transformation — All speakers emphasised the body as central to pilgrimage; walking transforms perception, consciousness, and creative practice.
- The Body as Author and Sacrifice — Dhib’s notion that “the body writes before I do” resonated with Huddleston’s embodied seeing and Naismith’s link between exertion and humility.
- Ritual, Art, and Spirituality — Artistic creation was connected with ritual practice: photography as Sufi-like transformation, heartbeat recording as inscription, Georgian dance as spiritual expression.
- Universality of Pilgrimage — When asked whether walking a faith-based pilgrimage without sharing that faith might be appropriation, all speakers emphasised pilgrimage’s universality and openness.
- Continuity and Trace — Walking unfolds before, during, and after the journey; its traces continue to act within the walker for years.
Notable Audience Discussion
Audience members asked about faith and appropriation (the panel agreed pilgrimage routes welcome diverse participants), whether one can become a pilgrim unintentionally (“by the time you reach the church, you become a pilgrim” — Nasmyth), and about the sacred calligraphy in Huddleston’s Shikoku pilgrimage book.
Closing
Annemarie Lopez distilled the evening into three words — body, effort, and trace — capturing how pilgrimage stories are written through movement, endurance, and the marks they leave behind.
On Pilgrimage — Communities along the Pilgrim’s Trail
Event: Final session in a six-month series of pilgrimage conversations
Hosted by: Andrew Stuck (Walk Listen Create) and Lora Aziz (World Trails Network Ambassador, co-chair of the Arts and Culture Task Team)
Speakers & Introductions
- Claudia Zeiske — Artist based in Edinburgh/Scotland, presenting on experimental and personal pilgrimages
- Omar Sakr — Executive Director of the Lebanon Mountain Trail Association and Board Treasurer of the World Trails Network
- Ali Pretty — Artistic Director of Kinetika, culture activist and walking artist, presenting on the Mountains of Hope global solidarity walks
- Professor Simon Coleman — Anthropologist from the University of Toronto, respondent and discussant, with field experience at Walsingham, North Norfolk
Presentations
Claudia Zeiske — Experimental & Personal Pilgrimages
From Mountain to Sea
Commissioned by Aberdeenshire Council as a COVID memorial, Claudia created an 18-day pilgrimage route from Ben Macdui in the Cairngorms to Peterhead on the North Sea coast, walking village to village over two years. Over 200 people signed pink tablecloths carried along the route, and a musician composed music for each stretch, with bespoke benches installed along the path.
Govan / Elizabeth Gray Walk
A pilgrimage created for the village of Govan (south of Glasgow), following the footsteps of Victorian fossil collector Elizabeth Gray — a woman whose fossils are in the British Museum but who never received recognition due to her gender.
Personal Pilgrimage: Scotland to Bavaria (post-Brexit)
After Brexit, feeling uncertain about belonging, Claudia walked 1,800 km over 90 days from Huntly in Scotland to her mother’s village south of Munich. Each day, a postcard was written to her mother, and an oak leaf was collected — resulting in a herbarium of 90 leaves. Claudia reflected that home is found in the people met along the way, not in a fixed place.
Forthcoming walk: A planned 10-day tribute walk from the east to the west coast of Scotland in memory of recently deceased artist friend Christine Borland.
Omar Sakr — Lebanon Mountain Trail (LMT)
The LMT is Lebanon’s longest hiking trail, stretching ~450 km (expanded to 600 km with loops and side trails) from the Syrian border in the north to the Israeli border in the south, crossing 80 villages of diverse religious communities — Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Sunni, Maronite, and Druze.
Key activities and achievements:
- Training of 60 local guides with a rich curriculum covering theology, first aid, storytelling, history, and management
- Average of 60,000 hikes per year, even during difficult times, as nature serves as an escape from urban tension and conflict
- Inclusive hiking programmes for people with physical disabilities and impaired vision, including runs of up to 25 km
- Development of geologic trails in partnership with the American University of Beirut, with QR codes installed on rocks
- Founding member of the newly launched Mediterranean Trails Network, with 17 members from North Africa, Western Europe, and the Eastern Mediterranean
- Development of the first long-distance Christian pilgrimage trail in Lebanon and the Middle East: the St. Charbel Trail (Camino de St. Charbel), modelled on the Camino de Santiago
Omar noted that any trail can offer a pilgrimage experience regardless of religion, and that nature itself creates a context of openness that transcends sectarian divisions.
Ali Pretty — Mountains of Hope / Walk with Lebanon
Ali described Kinetika’s journey from running a walking arts festival in Thurrock (east London) to international projects:
- Silk River (2017): Walking from Kew Gardens to Southend along the Thames, connecting 10 UK communities with 10 communities in West Bengal, India, through shared silk artworks and online storytelling
- Beach of Dreams: A national UK coastal walk asking “How can we creatively reimagine our futures?”
Mountains of Hope / Walk with Lebanon:
When the planned April thru-hike of the LMT became impossible due to war and the closure of Beirut airport, a global call-out was issued for people to walk in solidarity with Lebanon for every day in April. The result: 67 walks across 25 countries on 6 continents, from 3 April to 3 May.
The walks were framed around five questions posed by Bertrand Russell (as cited by Rutger Bregman): Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How should we live? What is sacred?
Ali read a poetic summary of the collective answers, concluding: “What is sacred? Hope… Nothing can stop the spring.”
Some participants walked the Lycian Way in Turkey (470 km), carrying silk flags painted with stories from the 27 LMT communities.
Discussion Highlights
Can any trail be a pilgrimage?
Omar affirmed that any trail offers a pilgrimage experience — spiritual, social, or personal — depending on the individual’s background and motivation.
Urban vs. rural pilgrimage
Simon Coleman raised the question of whether pilgrimage is possible in an urban or “ugly” context. Responses included:
- Ali: Thurrock walking festival as an example of urban community-building through walking
- Omar: Calcutta as an example of urban spiritual pilgrimage (Mother Teresa)
- Claudia: Found meaningful walking easier in green or coastal spaces, but acknowledged urban walking artists do important work
- Alexandra Huddleston: Argued the urban/rural divide stems from Romanticism, and that walking through industrial or difficult urban landscapes is important and should not be skipped
The “we” in pilgrimage
Simon observed that four of Russell’s five questions contain the word “we”, and that pilgrimage is not about fixed identity but about creating or recreating a sense of community through action.
Does pilgrimage need a sacred destination?
Simon offered an anthropological perspective: the sacred may not reside in a place but in people in place — found in community and in discovering aspects of each other.
Vulnerability and community
Simon noted that pilgrimage often requires making oneself vulnerable — to the elements, to others, to the unpredictable — and that this vulnerability invites connection and builds community through the guest-host relationship.
Short vs. long pilgrimages
Simon cited Walsingham’s Holy Mile (~1.1 miles) as an example of a short but deeply significant pilgrimage walk. Claudia noted that historically, wealthy landowners would send workers on pilgrimage on their behalf.
Pilgrimage beyond walking
Claudia noted that many major pilgrimages (e.g., Mecca/Hajj) are no longer primarily undertaken on foot, challenging the assumption that pilgrimage is always a walking practice.
Looking Ahead
Andrew noted that future series topics could include pilgrimage across other world religions (not yet explored) and secular pilgrimage (e.g., football as pilgrimage, referencing author Oliver Smith). A follow-up gathering is planned in approximately one month to discuss a potential new series, possibly launching in spring.
Omar extended an open invitation to join the LMT thru-hike in April (October–May being the best season), noting that approximately 380 of the 450 km are currently accessible.
Closing Words
- Claudia: “Keep walking on your own, and keep walking with people — but don’t feel you always have to use the tourist-trodden paths.”
- Omar: Invitation to join the LMT thru-hike in April, with a spirit of openness.
- Ali: “The sacred is in community” — and we need to own that word.
- Simon: Pilgrimage makes community by requiring us to need each other and to be vulnerable.
- Lora: Closed by emphasising the “radical necessity of the we” and borrowing Omar’s phrase — “spirit of openness” — as the note to end on.
Next steps
Open call to contribute creative works to the walk · listen · create Pilgrimages Resources archive.
