Finding A Way Pilgrimage

“Listen, your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!” — Genesis 4:10

As part of the Province I Indigenous Peoples’ Justice Network, the Finding A Way Pilgrimage seeks to witness to the 350th anniversary of King Philip’s War. This conflict, which started in 1675 and some say never truly ended, was full of horrible atrocities whose legacies continue to this day.

Over the course of three years, we will have events across the Province as we listen in sacred silence to the wisdom of land and body to help reckon with, witness, grieve, and honor our complex past with the hope of slowly undoing these patterns of harm. We will likely have five main events, with preparatory series to train our bodies’ ways of hearing held through The St. Paul Center for Theology and Prayer, the Harvard University Native American Program, and individual communities throughout the Province.

The first main event will be leading up to Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2025, which is at the same time as the anniversary of the Deer Island Massacre, a horrific tragedy where over 500 Nipmuc people were forcibly taken from their homes in Natick and removed to Deer Island in the Boston Harbor, where they were left to die in the cold without food, water, or means for shelter. We will spend three days walking from Cambridge to Deer Island on the path taken in 1675, culminating in a day of prayer on Deer Island led by local Indigenous historians. A Natick Nipmuc family approached us asking for this remembrance, and we are working with them to create a four–day pilgrimage.

For more information about King Philip’s War, we invite you to read Lisa Brooks’ book Our Beloved Kin. To get involved, please be in touch with your local parish or community, or you can email our chaplain Rita Powell.