The Morphology of Pilgrimage in the ‘Toronto Blessing’

Abstract

The ‘Toronto Blessing’ has attracted over one million visitors to the host church at Pearson Airport, Toronto. Visitors, described as ‘pilgrims’ by those within contemporary revivalism, come to experience a personal and particular sense of God's manifest presence. This is marked by epiphenomena such as animal-sounding noises, ecstatic states and trances, violent shaking and shuddering, and altered states of consciousness and spirituality. This paper investigates the phenomenon described by interrogating the description of visitors as ‘pilgrims’. To what extent can those within Charismatic Renewal be meaningfully described as pilgrims? How significant is the location of the church as a centre for renewal? What is distinctive about the grammar of assent that forms the theological construction of reality for participants?

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