There is great hope from its members and leaders that this summer will be an unprecedented time of renewal for the Raymond Village Community Church.
The pastor is heading off for a four-month sabbatical, and the 100-member congregation will use the time she is away to deepen its spiritual growth, as well.
While the two parties will be worlds apart, with the Rev. Nancy Foran spending time in Peru, Scotland and Canada, both she and the church body will be pursuing a common theme: how sacred space impacts worship.
“I think sometimes people get confused with the term ‘sabbatical,’” Foran said last week. “They think of it as an academic sabbatical where you go and study something and you write a book or there’s a product at the end. But a clergy sabbatical is really different, it really is a renewal time.”
Her sabbatical, which comes after almost six years of employment at the church, is also different because it is fully paid for by a nearly $50,000 National Clergy Renewal grant the church received last year from the Lilly Endowment. After detailing how they would spend the money in a lengthy application, the Raymond church was one of 150 in the country to be awarded a grant last June. After months of preparation, the pastor and congregation will celebrate a “sending-off picnic” after worship service on Sunday, bidding each other adieu and bon voyage.
For while Foran is off to far away places, the congregation is also going on some adventures of its own, including a trip in late July to Peru, Maine, to worship together in an outdoor sacred space of sorts, beside Worthley Lake at Honey Run Beach and Campground.
Church members are excited for the possibilities that lie ahead, not only for personal enrichment, but also for a deeper appreciation for God’s creation. In October, after four months, the congregation and the pastor will reunite and use what they learned in their time apart to move the church forward, possibly with better ideas for how to use their “sacred space” on Main Street in Raymond to fuller use.
“I see this not so much as my renewal time or my sabbatical time, (but) as a renewal time for me and the church, which is really a different way to look at sabbaticals,” Foran said. “If you talk to most people whose pastors have gone on a sabbatical, that person left for four months and everyone kind of sat around and waited for them to return.
“But we’re really looking at this as a chance for both me and the congregation to become renewed and to really grow in some significant and complementary ways, so when we come back, we’ll be able to synthesize our experiences and have a base for a lot of positive energy for moving on.”
Foran’s itinerary
Foran has a trip of a lifetime ahead of her. With her husband, Joseph, and their three children, the Naples resident will travel to Peru on July 10 to visit the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu and Cochequirao. They will spend about three weeks in the country that Foran believes is “inherently more sacred than other places on Earth.”
After coming home from Peru, she will travel to her family cottage in Algonquin Park, Ontario, for most of August. The home, which has been in her family since the 1960s, sits on a lake where motors over 20 hp are banned. The peace and quiet will allow her to think, study, walk, pray and meditate on the theme of sacred spaces.
In September, she and her husband are heading to Scotland for a few days in Edinburgh and four days walking the West Highland Way. The second week will be spent on the island of Iona, which, she said, is primarily a Christian retreat center operated by the Iona Community. She became aware of Iona after meeting one of its directors at a seminar several years ago.
When she’s not traveling during the four-month sabbatical, Foran will build a sacred space of her own – a labyrinth – at her home in Naples. A former long-distance runner turned long-distance walker, Foran believes walking in the woods, on the road or through a circular labyrinth offers people a chance to relax and reconnect with God.
“Labyrinths are an ancient meditation tool. It’s different from a maze. The maze is always trying to trick you. There are dead ends. You can get off course,” she said. “In a labyrinth, there is a one-way circular route into the center and one way back out again. You always know where you’re going and where you’re going to end up. Many people find a labyrinth to be a very powerful experience. When you’re walking this path, you’re concentrating and the pathway is narrow and you have to watch where your feet are going. I think in doing that you tend to empty the clutter in your mind. And people often have pretty significant insights while walking a labyrinth.”
Congregation’s turn
“We’re going to be walking right beside her in a parallel trip,” said church member Frances Mains, who is helping to organize events that the congregation will experience.
The big focus is the congregation’s trip to Worthley Lake in the Maine town of Peru, where the church youth group will camp overnight Saturday, July 23, and the rest of the church members will drive by bus or car for worship, a barbecue and hikes on Sunday, July 24. The event is being organized by a longtime church member, Brenda Olsen, who is also serving as the grant administrator, making sure the congregational activities stay on budget.
“We will be hiking in Peru, Maine, the same time the minister is hiking in Peru,” Olsen said. “So we will be looking for some of our own sacred spaces, those places where you can find peace and reflect on the area round you.”
Since Foran will be embarking on two significant treks, a five-day trek in Peru and a four-day walk in Scotland, the congregation will also hike in different locales around the area throughout the summer. Those treks will be led by church member Adma Willis.
Other congregational events this summer and early fall will focus on creating sacred space on the church property. Various experts on garden design will present on how to use labyrinths and garden beds to create beautiful outdoor spaces at the church.
“The overall theme of our renewal is the relationship between sacred space and worship,” Foran said. “So through various experiences I would be experiencing different sorts of sacred space and different kinds of worship experiences, and in complementary ways, the congregation will be exploring sacred spaces: What makes a place sacred, how do you define that and what can we do here in our sacred space, meaning less the sanctuary and more the (church) property.
“What can we do to make this space more sacred so it says something about who we are as a faith community and what our relationship is to the town of Raymond.”
The Rev. Nancy Foran, left, and church member Frances Mains,
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