Aim

1. Begin with a class discussion about journeys. In its broadest sense a journey is any movement by a person away from their home, almost always followed by a return, and in which the person who has journeyed generally gains something. Look at examples, e.g.
   • a walk round the park (the "gain" is pleasure/exercise/meeting friends etc.)
   • a shopping expedition (the "gain" is food/clothes/looking round town etc.)

   Some journeys might not fit into this pattern so easily - e.g. visiting an aged aunt in hospital - and some journeys are forced - e.g. having to go with your parents to visit an aged aunt in hospital - but there is usually some kind of gain for someone in any journey and this provides one of the links between this issue and religion/ethics.
   
    

2. Ask the pupils about the number of times they have left their house over the last couple of days. What was the purpose of each journey? What did they gain from each journey? After talking about a few examples, use the worksheet to help the children recall all the different kind of journeys they and their family make and to reflect on the purpose of these journeys. The first few examples have been suggested to help them get started.
   
    
3. When the children have finished this worksheet, gather them together to discuss the results. Clearly journeys are an inevitable aspect of life - even recluses have to have some mechanism for getting food! In the final row the idea of pilgrimage has been introduced. Did anyone claim to have been on a pilgrimage? What about going on a weekly journey to church/mosque/synagogue etc.? How many people were able (and remembered) to include this journey? What do people "gain" by making these kinds of journeys?
   
    
4. Introduce the concept of pilgrimage across world religions and its function. Hopefully people return from pilgrimage a changed person - either physically (e.g. after a visit to Lourdes) or their inner-person has changed. They have made their journey to be in a special place, and in the presence of God, and that action changes the person within.
   
   To reinforce this introduction to the concept of pilgrimage, the pupils can then do their own research by using the world map. Using atlases and encyclopaedias, the pupils should mark each place of pilgrimage on the map and research which religion thinks of the site as sacred. Lhasa is the Dalai Lama's headquarters. And Nashville is where Elvis is buried - not a site recognized by any major religion, but visited yearly by thousands of "pilgrims"!
   
    
5. Supplementary activity: divide the class into groups and give each group a particular place of pilgrimage to research. Why is each place special - what stories are connected with it? What kind of ceremonies/rituals go on there? Do they happen all the year round or only at special times? Jerusalem is special to three of the major religions and researching it could be divided among three groups, each group looking at the city from the perspective of a different religion.