Location
1A - Motivation and Experience
Start Date
29-6-2017 9:30 AM
End Date
29-6-2017 11:00 AM
Description
The new Church of England Diocese of Leeds was instituted in April 2014. To mark this development, a group of motorcycling vicars began to meet regularly and undertake ‘rides out’, across the diocese and further afield. Through a series of semi-structured interviews and more informal conversations with the Biker Revs, including staying with them at religious destinations on two longer trips in 2016 and 2017, this research investigates their experiences and motivations for undertaking pilgrimage on motorbikes. As a basis for comparison, this paper utilizes Michalowski and Dubisch’s 2001 iconic ethnographic research on an American motorcycle pilgrimage, to analyse the group’s activities. Ordained bikers identify the group as a safe space for clergy, outside the parish, where ‘I can be me’, whilst spouses of clergy recognised the benefits of spending time with ‘others like me who understand the pressures of clergy life’
Included in
Pilgrimage motivations of motorbiking vicars from Leeds Diocese
1A - Motivation and Experience
The new Church of England Diocese of Leeds was instituted in April 2014. To mark this development, a group of motorcycling vicars began to meet regularly and undertake ‘rides out’, across the diocese and further afield. Through a series of semi-structured interviews and more informal conversations with the Biker Revs, including staying with them at religious destinations on two longer trips in 2016 and 2017, this research investigates their experiences and motivations for undertaking pilgrimage on motorbikes. As a basis for comparison, this paper utilizes Michalowski and Dubisch’s 2001 iconic ethnographic research on an American motorcycle pilgrimage, to analyse the group’s activities. Ordained bikers identify the group as a safe space for clergy, outside the parish, where ‘I can be me’, whilst spouses of clergy recognised the benefits of spending time with ‘others like me who understand the pressures of clergy life’