Thanksgiving 2019

Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked. 1 John 2:6

Dear Friends,

So much in the life of Jesus happens on the road while walking—teaching,

healing, sharing meals, and encountering people from all walks of life. The

passage from 1 John 2:6 instructs us to walk, even as Jesus walked, though the

text translated into English often translates the Greek walking words (periepatesen and peripatein)

with live and lived. Both words—live and walk—offer sightlines into the life of faith.

At New College Berkeley we’ve embraced pilgrimage language since our

founding in 1977, with Paul’s exhortation to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4)

adorning our institutional seal and expressing our deepest sense of calling. All of us who

have been part of the NCB community over the years have been committed to walking in

newness of life and accompanying others as they do the same.

This past summer a few of us who have been a part of New College Berkeley

over the years walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, a thousand-year old, nearly 500-

mile Christian pilgrimage trail. Of course, Jesus never walked there, and it’s even likely

that St. James, son of Zebedee and disciple of Jesus, never visited the cathedral city and

pilgrimage destination that’s named after him. Nevertheless, Christians have walked the

trail over the centuries with the hope of knowing God better or coming to know God in

a new way.

Here are a few thoughts about how the ministry of NCB has been pilgrimage.

Newness

On a geographical pilgrimage, walking in newness is experienced on a daily basis as

one walks the trail not knowing what or who will be around the next bend in the road.

Despite the routine of long days of walking, the landscape, weather, and community

groups are different every day. But more than that, what God opens in one’s own soul

changes: deepening and widening, perplexing and consoling, exposing and healing.

The newness sometimes feels raw and vulnerable, as with unrequited, heartfelt

hopes. Sometimes the newness is experienced as sheer delight and wonder, as fields and

mountains shout out their beauty and God’s grace reverberates in souls. At other times

the newness is heart-stretching, in the company of pilgrims from other lands, traditions,

and points of view.

These kinds of newness are encountered regularly in the small communities of

pilgrims that gather for NCB classes and groups. Sometimes the newness is cleansing

and healing; sometimes it’s wondrous and immersive; and at other times it’s just

challenging as our hearts and minds are stretched.

In Community

We walk the pilgrim trail as individuals, yet we walk in the footsteps of and often

alongside other pilgrims, all of whom are intending to walk as Jesus walked. Each person

aims toward the same destination, geographically on a trail, but also symbolically.

Pilgrims seek to know God better and be transformed by the journey of faith, even as

their bodies are transformed—muscle by muscle, callous by callous—on the road. The

visible pilgrimage of other people encourages our own persevering.

So, too, in the ministry of New College Berkeley. Year after year I’m with students

and retreatants who say that their discipleship is spurred and shaped by the people they

are with in the class or program.

A minister in the 30-week Spiritual Exercises this year found, surprisingly, that

his capacity for imagining Jesus’ life became alive as he gathered week after week in

the circle of sharing and prayer. He wrote: “Engaging with others in the Exercises, whose

reflections expanded my understanding of texts, prayers, and life, became a weekly

commitment and place of spiritual nourishment I did not want to miss.”

Life

On the trail it’s very clear how age is a significant factor. People in their twenties and

thirties move along at a brisk pace, many carrying heavy packs and showing little stress

from the weight and walking. At the end of the day they laugh and walk around the

town. Older folks arrive at the destination exhausted, looking for a place to sit and rest.

The Gospels show us people living the spans of their lives. There is remarkably

little comment about their physical experience of stress, illness, or aging, but there are

some glimpses. We follow Jesus’ mother from her youth to her mature experience as a

grieving mother. We see Paul through seasons of ordeal and seasoning. We see many of

the people in Scripture face their deaths.

Watching hundreds of pilgrims walk toward the horizon, all facing the same

direction, all stripped of the accoutrements of their everyday professional and communal

lives, reminds one that we are all headed in the same direction, even though some of us

will get there before others.

This is true in our programs as well. People in their early adult years spend time

with the middle-aged and older. The programs, like the Camino, are composed of pilgrims

intent on knowing God better. They aren’t social affinity groups. As part of the Graduate

Theological Union on the edge of U. C. Berkeley and partnering with local churches,

we will see in one class an elderly Roman Catholic sister from Vietnam, a middle-aged

journalist from Brazil and working at U. C. Berkeley, and a young mother from a local

Covenant church. Newness of life!

Onward!

We at New College Berkeley thank you for supporting pilgrims as they seek to walk in

newness of life. We cherish your gifts and your prayers which sustain us.

Blessings in Christ,

Susan S. Phillips, PhD

Executive Director