On May 10-11, an ecumenical group of cyclists made the 200-kilometre trek from Montreal to Ottawa in a Pilgrimage for the Planet, advocating for climate change action and culminating with a peaceful demonstration in front of the Canadian parliament building.
The 22 riders enjoyed a relatively smooth pilgrimage, aided by favourable weather and, as organizer Étienne Eason observed, increased awareness of the climate crisis.
“I served as the main coordinator of this event, but it was an initiative that came from the Eastern Synod’s Climate Justice Committee that I’m a part of,” he said, describing how the idea came from conversations with a friend on the heels of Season of Creation. “I ended up writing up a little proposal for the committee to take a look at and it just sort of snowballed over the course of the fall. We had some meetings in the new year and got some people to sign up for the pilgrimage early on.
“We wanted to make sure that we were doing something that reflects our identity properly as a church,” Eason added. “So, that’s why we chose a pilgrimage. People already associate pilgrims with religion, and it’s something that we can advocate for while also having an experience that is often very conducive to spiritual growth and discernment. The other part of it was that we wanted to do something in Ottawa, because it is the nation’s capital and we are advocating at the federal level. To get there, we wanted to embody the changes that we were asking for.”
The main ask was that of phasing out fossil fuels. In order to advocate for that, the group travelled the 200-kilometres on bicycles – a way of travelling that does not use fossil fuels.
“In all, there were 22 pilgrims who took the route from St. John’s Lutheran Church in downtown Montreal to St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in downtown Ottawa,” Eason said.
The trek was divided up into two days’ worth of cycling. The first day featured 110 kilometres, while Day 2 was roughly a 90-kilometre ride. The group spent the night at the Vankleek Hill community centre, while the local United Church provided snacks and desserts in the evening following the group’s participation in a Quaker-style silent worship.
“This was very much an ecumenical initiative, so apart from the Lutherans who were part of it, we also had Anglicans, Catholics, Quakers, Wesleyans, as well as people who were either non-denominational or just not really religious. We were able to bring together a rather diverse bunch, thus we were able to hear from those different traditions, too.”
Advocating for climate change, Eason, a student at Concordia University who regularly attends St. John’s Lutheran, knows his actions/inactions now will directly affect his future – hence the desire to act with integrity towards the issues faced in the ongoing climate crisis.
“This is something that intersects with almost every issue out there,” he said. “If you’re someone who’s concerned about poverty in Canada, well, we see the climate crisis impoverishing people around the world from climate disasters. More food insecurity because of drought. Or maybe it’s housing; we see the climate crisis destroying people’s homes in communities like Jasper and their wildfire affected communities. When we talk about care for creation, we often we have this perception that creation is something that’s separate from us. But really, we’re all interwoven with creation, and it’s something that is happening to creation. And almost inherently, that is something bad that is happening to us.”
The 22 cyclists from locations within the Eastern Synod’s geographical territory will now look to spark up further conversations on climate justice as aided by the fueling of the two-day pilgrimage.
“Everyone I have spoken with who participated in it said that it was a really invigorating experience and are hopeful that we really helped put the emphasis on hope with this initiative,” Eason said. “Even though we are talking about the climate crisis and that’s usually a very depressing and often demoralizing thing to think about, people really found a way to channel that sense of urgency in a really hopeful and embodied way through the cycling pilgrimage. We hope these attitudes will carry forward as everyone returns back home.”
