As a teacher at Duke Divinity School, Brett Web-Mitchell taught a course on pilgrimage as a Christian practice. But he didn't appreciate the full meaning of such spiritual journeys until he took to the road. In 1999, Web-Mitchell walked a six-day, 125-mile pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimayo, a Roman Catholic shrine in the mountains north of Santa Fe, N.M. He's been walking ever since.

Now, he has published a book on pilgrimage called "Follow Me: Christian Growth on the Pilgrim's Way" (Seabury Books). He's also started a Web site (www.schoolofthepilgrim.com) intended to share stories and network with other people about their pilgrimages.

An ancient practice shared by all the world's faiths, a pilgrimage is a journey to a shrine or holy place. But it is also a kind of awakening to God's spirit, an attempt to reach a sacred center, a personal quest for spiritual growth.

In Genesis 12:1, God commanded Abraham and Sarah to leave their home and go "to the land that I will show you." Jesus made a pilgrimage from Nazareth to Jerusalem during the annual Passover holiday. And Muhammad made a pilgrimage from Mecca to Medina in present-day Saudi Arabia.

Although there is no hard data, pilgrimages are increasingly popular among people of all denominations and religions. Jerusalem is probably the most popular destination through the ages. Rome has always been central for Roman Catholics. And for Muslims, a pilgrimage to Mecca is a built-in requirement of the faith -- one of the five pillars of Islam. But there are thousands of smaller-scale shrines and sacred sites.

As a Presbyterian minister, Webb-Mitchell also found it an antidote to the academic studies that make up so much of Protestant Christian education.

"We're people of the great big sit," said Web-Mitchell who lives in Chapel Hill. "But the Bible calls us people of the way."

No longer at Duke, but still committed to Christian education, Webb-Mitchell wants to encourage people to take pilgrimages as a way of deepening their Christian faith.

Unlike vacations intended for rest and recreation, pilgrimages are supposed to entail some form of physical hardship and spiritual turmoil. For some it may be only blistered feet. For many, it is a life-transforming spiritual event. The beauty of pilgrimages is that they can teach people how to make decisions as a group, work out tensions, show hospitality to others along the way.

On his pilgrimages across the world, Web-Mitchell said he discovered a newfound appreciation for the Earth, an introduction to songs and rituals he was unfamiliar with, and an experience of living with an interfaith community -- what he calls a "community of the foot."

"Pilgrimages slow down life enough so we can see God in the minuteness," Web-Mitchell said. "We experience the spirit in what we would have thought was mundane before."

Since he started, Web-Mitchell has taken pilgrimages to the Church of the Black Christ in Esquipulas, Guatemala; to St. Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg in Northern Ireland; and to various Buddhist shrines in Cambodia, Thailand and Japan.

He said pilgrimages don't have be the province of the middle class or those who can afford airfare. People can make pilgrimages locally, or even walk in circles around the church. Many people take pilgrimages on labyrinths -- a circle within which lies a network of winding passages. Reprints of ancient labyrinths on canvas or outdoors laid in stones, have multiplied in recent years.

And then there are other Christian practices such as washing of feet and hospitality that can be avenues to experience pilgrimages closer to home.

A mission trip can double as a pilgrimage too, said Cheryl Henry, the Presbyterian campus minister at Duke. Henry took students from Triangle universities to the Dominican Republic in 2004 and 2005. The purpose of the trip was to help local communities recover from an earthquake and build a church, but thanks to Web-Mitchell's guidance, the students were encouraged to see it as a time of personal reflection too.

"The trip was not only to help the people there, but to spend time reflecting each day on where we saw God working in our lives," said Henry. "That made the trip transformative."

Webb-Mitchell said he hopes more people reclaim this ancient tradition and begin to see vacations as opportunities for spiritual enrichment.

"Is it possible to make a vacation a pilgrimage?" he asked. "You bet. The vacation becomes far more intentional. It's no longer mindlessness, but mindfulness. We become part of something greater than ourselves."

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