Senior Pilgrimage
Each year, Berkeley seniors embark on a pilgrimage. The destination is rotating.
Berkeley Class Retreats
Photo by the Rev’d Paul Keene ’23 MDiv
2023: Jerusalem
“In a side chapel of the Holy Sepulchre at 5am, a classmate and I sat down on the cold stone steps, having stumbled on an a capella group recording a sung matins in Latin. In spring 2023, Jerusalem was a cacaphony of faith and life, lost pilgrims swirling around every streetcorner like tiny pieces of mint swirling in my plastic cup of lemonade, minarets’ calls to prayer punctuating the noise of rowdy cats roaming the streets. A thousand golden threads in our experience of pilgrimage have tied my heart to Jerusalem in the hard months since. In a city now mostly bereft of pilgrims, we have knelt where prayer has been valid and met dear friends we still pray for. For, indeed, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.” –The Rev’d Katie Kirk ’23 MDiv