Reverend Lawrence Bartel of Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church in Old Forge is preparing to depart on a four-month Sabbatical pilgrimage from March 1 to June 30.

During the European part of his spiritual journey, he will be accompanied by his wife Amy and their children, Jens and Lydia.

Reverend Bartel, who is beginning his eighth year of ministry at Niccolls Church, said a Sabbatical Team was formed about a year ago to plan a Sabbatical at the church with the theme of, “Walking with God on Holy Ground.”

Members of the Sabbatical Team included Chairman Roger Pratt, Star Livingstone, Ken Strike, Rev. Sherm Skinner, Deb Elmer and Mary Brophy Moore.The Sabbatical is being made possible through a National Clergy Renewal Program grant of Lilly Endowment, Inc.

At the same time the Reverend and his family embark on their pilgrimage abroad, members of the congregation will actively take part in practices that include journaling in a meditation guide and walking the path of a labyrinth that will be laid out on the floor of the Fellowship Hall.

A small scale, table-top model will also be available for tracing the path by hand. A workshop explaining the spiritual discipline of walking or tracing a labyrinth will also be offered by the Sabbatical Team.

“A labyrinth has only one way in and one way out, and it’s symbolic of the journey that we’re on—a journey of faith,” said Reverend Bartel.

A labyrinth, he added, was used more than a century ago by individuals who couldn’t make pilgrimages to the Holy Land or to Rome or the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

They will also have a table-top sand box in the Sanctuary with special stones that will be laid by the children to mark the passing of days during the Sabbatical.

Reverend Bartel will begin the Sabbatical by walking alone on the dunes of Cape Cod in thoughtful meditation.

“I’m drawn to places where land and water meet,” he said.

At the end of the week, he and Amy and the children will fly to Seville in the south of Spain.

“We won’t have a car. We will be walking the streets of Seville, and for the final two weeks in Spain I will be walking the Camino de Santiago—the pilgrimage route that ends at the northwestern tip of Spain.

“I’ll be carrying a backpack and a trekking pole and staying at hostels overnight,” he said.

He will start off from Leon and he will travel on foot for 202 miles.

Amy, who speaks Spanish, will wait for her husband in Seville, where she will begin homeschooling the children about the cathedrals, their history and architecture.

The next stage of their journey is a visit to the 13th century Chartres Cathedral in France, where a huge labyrinth is laid out in the floor.

“After walking the exhausting pilgrimage of the Camino, out in the open without any walls, then going to Chartres Cathedral for a more interior journey, will be very spiritual,” said Rev. Bartel.

During the Sabbatical, he said he will be “walking with God at a sustainable pace in both new and old places.”

The “old places” will include Scotland and England.

While in college, he studied abroad for a semester in Aberdeen, Scotland.

“That was when I first sensed God’s call to the ministry,” he said.

He sensed a second call while studying in England on a post graduate fellowship, and answered it.

He will return to those places during his Sabbatical to share them with his family.

After the Bartel family returns to the states, he will conclude the Sabbatical with a personal retreat at St. Williams on Long Point in Raquette Lake, “where land and water meet,” he said.

The Rev. Joanne Bartel, a retired Presbyterian Pastor from Ithaca, and no relation to Pastor Lawrence, will lead the congregation as Interim Pastor while he is on Sabbatical leave.

She will be introduced to the congregation on Sunday, February 19.

During worship services on Sunday, February 26, there will be a Welcome Celebration in her honor and a farewell to Pastor Lawrence and his family during worship services.

It will be followed by a luncheon and a special viewing of the movie, “The Way” at 2 p.m. at the Strand Theatre.

The Camino de Santiago, often called, the Way of St. James, is featured in the film.

“The movie has just come out and Bob Card at the Strand has been gracious enough to get it for us,” said Rev. Bartel.

The film, which will offer the congregation a view and an understanding of the Camino de Santiago, stars Martin Sheen as a father who travels overseas to recover the body of his estranged son who died while traveling the Camino, and he decides to take the pilgrimage himself.

The rental fee for the film was included in the Lilly Endowment grant and admission is free to everyone in the community.