What is it Like to Experience a Holy Hike? – A Personal Reflection by Laura Snow Hawkins
Environmental stewardship can play out in many forms. One intriguing and deeply meaningful way is by participating in a Holy Hike.In the following story, Laura Snow Hawkins, Coordinator for Holy Hikes Upper South Carolina, gives us a thoughtful explanation of Holy Hikes, takes us on a personal journey to experience one, and shares how your church can get involved.
(Photo: Fr. Gary Eichelberger, St. Andrews at Conestee Lake Nature Park. September 2019)
What Is a Holy Hike?
Holy Hikes is an Eco-Ministry that seeks to "connect communion with God through God's Creation"—Fr. Justin Cannon. Holy Hikes take place on trails, in parks, gardens, zoos - wherever worshipers can experience God in nature. The Hike is like a progressive liturgy, similar to the Stations of the Cross, according to Laura Snow Hawkins. Generally, at the mid-point of the hike, the Holy Eucharist is celebrated. Different things are used for The Lord's Table: park benches, rocks, and picnic tables. Hiking activity levels are generally easy so that people of all ages and abilities can participate in the hike. For many, worshiping in nature opens hearts and minds to the love and majesty of God's creation.
What is the Mission of the Holy Hikes Ministry?
Holy Hikes began in 2010, founded by Father Justin Cannon of the Episcopal Diocese of California. Currently there are sixteen Holy Hikes Chapters located throughout the United States. Father Cannon explains that the ultimate goal of this ministry is to help individuals be renewed in their love-relationship with the earth, the universal church, and with their Creator. He believes the environmental crisis today represents a broken relationship between the human community and the earth. Too often creation is seen as merely an object to be used rather than a subject with which we live in relationship. Holy Hikes call us to relate to all of creation in a communion-centered way. Holy Hikes lead us beyond the walls of comfort, to take a step toward reunion with the earth and all its life and beauty.
What is it Like to Experience a Holy Hike? – A Personal Reflection by Laura Snow Hawkins
My first Holy Hike experience was August 2016 at DuPont State Forest in North Carolina, led by Father Dorian Del Priore. It was the most moving spiritual experience for me in worship. Like your first love, you never forget it. It amazed me how much more receptive my heart and mind were when I was in nature. I recalled the times that I would be in the deepest conversations with God: gardening and walking in the woods. Seeing the synchronicity of nature, the relatedness of all that was going on around me, I couldn't help but be in awe and wonder. What is my part in this place? How did all this get here? Who has walked here before me? What message or lesson will I take back with me when I leave this place? I can't but help notice that when I'm in the forest, I see the handiwork of God the Creator. I get a quiet sense of calm that comes over me. I don't want to talk. I want to listen, look, touch, taste, smell, feel, open up all senses and feelings when I'm in this oneness with the Trinity. I can't always explain it, but I can feel it body and soul; heart and mind, in the total being that I am. In the woods, I can truly feel the child of God coming out of me in adoration of my Father.
Father Dorian calls us to worship with the opening acclamation and the collect for purity. Hearing the water flow near us, birds chirping, the breeze on our faces and the voices off in the distance, there was a sense that the service had already begun. God is clearly here and as we are gathered here I have the confidence to say, "This is the House of God". I could feel God waiting, wanting and drawing us near. I just wanted to be quiet, to be in a personal devotion to draw nearer to the presence of God that I am experiencing at this moment! It was a more intense calling than in my usual worship on Sundays in a building. I look up. The arching branches of sourwoods and white oaks that make the cathedral ceiling above our group of worshipers are architectural wonders that not only draw my eyes toward heaven, but they are brimming with life! I reflect on the timbers and rafters that make up the interior of the churches in which I have worshiped that draw my eyes toward heaven and hold dear the life within by providing shelter, comfort and safety from storms and darkness.
I walk along in silence. Taking it all in as I walk, I am tuning my ears to see if I can recognize the call of birds, looking at plants, rocks, bugs and hearing the sound of our breathing as we climb the first elevation on the trail. I’m breathing in, I feel my heart beating and my chest expanding as it deeply takes in the mountain air. I look at my hiking companion, my husband, and laugh out loud. The silence is broken as I joke with him that I am not out of shape but rather he still takes my breath away! At the top of the small climb, we are rewarded with a view of three water falls (Triple Falls). We stop and read a Lesson at the overview of the falls. It is early in the morning, rain in the forecast and we pretty much have the trail all to ourselves. With the mighty sound of the roaring falls behind us, the Word of the Lord in the Old Testament has even more intensity and a sense of drama to it. We climb further and then descend to the Little River to stop to read a Psalm and a little further on, we read another Lesson. We take a brief moment to walk to the base of the High Falls to get a group picture.
(Photo: High Falls, DuPont State Forest, NC. August 2016)
We get back out on the Triple Falls/High Falls Trail and find a picnic shelter just off the trail. Father Dorian reads the Holy Gospel and delivers a short homily giving God thanks, praise for this creation. We say the prayers of the people, confession, and give the Peace. We watch in silence as Father Dorian prepares the table for the Holy Eucharist. (The photo was taken after the Eucharist, but I just wanted you to see the view we had as we were receiving Holy Communion). There are just no words that express what I am feeling here. The best I can come up with are awestruck, and full of the Glory of God. I am Christ-filled…humility, yet overflowing with Love, Peace, Joy, Hope, Goodness. I feel anointed with the Holy Spirit, intense and flowing through me and around me like the water going over the falls. There is a sense of union and unity with all the people and creatures and there’s a brief glimpse of God’s eternal Kingdom. I have never met or known most of the people on this hike but I feel as familiar as I do with friends and family that have always been around me. There’s a sense of timelessness. The best way I can describe this is experience is it is a bit of heaven here on earth.
(Photo: Eucharist at High Falls Trail, DuPont State Forest, NC. August 2016)
I don’t want this moment to end! I am almost in tears of joy. I have not felt this close to God and all of Creation. We say the Post Communal prayer and as we leave the picnic area, there is a quiet reverence. The voices heard are quiet whispers. There are deep sighs from some because the words seem to fail in our sense of awe and peace. We continue to climb. As our pace quickens, the group forms more of a line and conversations pick back up. I start talking to the others in the group. We share our spiritual biographies. Some are cradle Episcopalians, some of us came via the Baptist, Methodist and the Roman Catholic Churches…no matter where we came from, during the Holy Communion, we were one in Christ. One more stop before we reach the covered bridge to receive the Blessing and Dismissal. After pictures and conversation at the Covered Bridge, we return back to the High Falls loop to begin our descent back to the parking lot.
(Photo: First official hike as Holy Hikes Upper South Carolina at Lake Conestee Nature Park. April 2018)
We continue to walk, share and comment on this experience and how we need to do this again. Just as we’re almost in sight of the parking lot, the clouds burst forth with a soaking rain that washes, cleanses and refreshes. For me, it was the visible sign of the cleansing power of the liturgy: the prayers, the Holy Communion, the unity of the worshipers, and the presence of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I am reminded of my Baptismal Vows to renounce Satan and evil, to turn to Christ and accept him as my Savior, putting all my trust in his grace and love…which is flowing abundantly right now.
How Can You Share in the Holy Hikes Experience?
Laura Snow Hawkins formed Holy Hikes Upper South Carolina with the help of Father Justin and Father Furman of St. Peter’s, Greenville. Their first official Holy Hike was held at Lake Conestee Nature Park in April 2018.Now there are scheduled Holy Hikes every third Saturday, and anyone is welcome to join.
(Photo: First official hike as Holy Hikes Upper South Carolina at Lake Conestee Nature Park. April 2018)
Contact Laura at [email protected] if you have any questions about starting a Holy Hikes chapter in your parish, or if you want her to coordinate a hike for your parish. You can also join Holy Hikes USC on Facebook at
Holy Hikes Upper South Carolina - Home | Facebook
For the National Chapter and to start your own chapter go to https://holyhikes.org.
