FAITH TOURISM: tour de force in the holiday industry

Religion is historically associated with travel. Many of today’s popular destinations are founded on ancient places of worship, the site of miracles, or great monuments and works of art.

Pilgrims travelling to such well trod places were effectively the world’s first tourists. Hospices in Europe were the harbingers of hotels and keeping abreast of the time, specialist religious travel guides list monasteries and convents where guests are welcome to stay.*

An upsurge in religious tourism began following the collapse of Communism when peoples of the former Soviet Republics became legally able to worship in churches and at historic shrines. Volga cruises visiting ancient wooden churches and cathedrals have become popular. More hikers than ever are following the camino de Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain, the painted monasteries are a top attraction in Rumania as are the fabled rock churches of Lalibela and Gonder in Ethiopia.

With a history rooted in Byzantine monasteries and churches, in 2006 Cyprus initiated the first ever international conference on religious tourism - a move which has paid huge dividends. The following year, a Vatican approved charter airline began flying religious tourists to sacred sites in Europe.

The Catholic centre of Lourdes, with a population of only 15,000, receives 6 million religious tourists and devotees seeking cures. Muslims performing the hajj to Mecca number some 2 million, while the Kumbh Mela in India draws 75 million Hindus along with tourists who can witness the spectacle from the comfort of luxuriously appointed tents.

Cultural and religious tourism enjoy a symbiotic relationship. Some notable examples are Chartres cathedral - famous for its 152 Gothic stained glass windows - in Casablanca, the great Hassan II Mosque holding 25,000 worshippers during prayers, and the dazzling Golden Temple, holy of holies of the Sikhs, in Amritsar.

If Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain stirred mixed emotions, it has made people -- even atheists ---- think about their beliefs and as the stresses of urban life impinge on the individual, more people are likely to consider a spiritual holiday, if not a full blown pilgrimage.

Good Night and God Bless by Trish Clark - http://www.goodnightandgodbless.com

Images: www.worldreligions.co.uk

Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, completed 1963.

Sikh pilgrims have their visit recorded at the Golden Temple.

The iconastasis of the Lazarus Church in Larnaca, Cyprus.

A SAD DAY FOR CHRISTIANITY

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has described the decision not to allow a female hospital worker to wear a tiny cross at her neck as “bureaucratic silliness” but even more - it shows just how loony life in Britain has become.

Muslims may wear the niqab, Sikhs may wear the kirpan (a short bladed traditional dagger) but a Christian has been ordered by an employment tribunal not to wear the symbol of her faith.

I hold nothing whatsoever against religious minorities in the United Kingdom - indeed the contrary - but as a Christian citizen, I`m appalled. This decision is nothing less than madness, yet no one dares speak up for fear of being classified as either a religious bigot or a racist. Or both.

Management at the hospital concerned have suggested a compromise where the woman, 54 year old Mrs Shirley Chaplin would be allowed to pin her tiny cross to her uniform, or to wear it on a lanyard. What utter rubbish is that!

The Christian Legal Centre plans an appeal.

Praise the Lord!

Image: www.worldreligions.co.uk

RELIGIOUS PHOTOGRAPHY

SENSITIVITY IS A KEY ELEMENT

Capturing people in the private act of worship is the most sensitive and difficult aspect of any genre of photography. The opposite of “celebrity photography,” where the subject generally wants to be seen, a person in communication with their “higher power` prefers to be left in peace.

Patience is an asset. One is often advised of location only to arrive and find nothing happening. Or that the ceremony was held last Sunday. Or that it is rescheduled for next Sunday. Or that despite the priest-imam-rabbi`s- blessing, someone objects to being photographed.

With permission to photograph Sunday Mass in Havana Cathedral, I was waiting discreetly behind a column when another photographer walked in and began blitzing the congregation with a powerful flash.

“Will the photographer behind the pillar please stop taking pictures!” said the priest, in the middle of dispensing the Holy Sacraments. He had assumed it was me, and I slunk out without a single picture.

There were many moments like this during the years it took to build up a stock of world faiths, but helped by contributing photographers, the World Religions Photo Library celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2009.

The collection features the mainstream religions - Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism, as well as other faiths and cults searchable on-line. Subjects include traditional religious life in various contexts and locations worldwide, notably people practising their faith, rites of passage, sacred foods, festivals and pilgrimage, worship and dress. The site is linked to a second website focussing on faith travel and sacred sites, many of which feature on the World Heritage List.

c. Christine Osborne

Image: A temple in Mandalay Burma

www.worldreligions.co.uk

www.religious-tourism.com