This year's New York City Urban Pilgrimage focused on training new leaders for the nine-year-old Urban Pilgrimage project. Four people participated in the site director training course this year.

Maryann Philbrook and Melanie Veizaga returned for the 2015 training event in New York and were joined by The Rev. Jennifer Holder and Jennifer Oldstone-Moore. Rev. Holder is the chaplain of Canterbury Episcopal Student Ministry at Texas Tech. Dr. Oldstone-Moore is a professor at Wittenberg College on sabbatical who is studying at General Theological Seminary in the Anglican Year Program. Holder and Oldstone-Moore are planning to lead pilgrimages in their respect communities.

The pilgrims received the first edition of the Urban Pilgrimage training manual, which was put together by Valerie, Maryann, and leaders of the Austin Urban Pilgrimage (Sarah Watkins and Megan Clapp). During the course, Maryann, co-director of the 2015 Austin Urban Pilgrimage for the Diocese of Texas, discussed with the potential site directors the logistics and administration behind leading a pilgrimage.

Interfaith partnership has always been a part of the Urban Pilgrimage experience. By visiting different worship communities, as well as social justice outreach sites, pilgrims learn that social justice efforts in communities are strengthened by these partnerships. This year, the pilgrims also visited Romemu, a Jewish community on the upper West Side of Manhattan.  In addition to Romemu, Pilgrims also visited House of Prayer Episcopal Church in Newark, NJ where Bailey Fischer is the interim priest.

The pilgrimage ended with setting goals for upcoming projects. Maryann will be taking up the responsibilities for the administration of the pilgrimage network, and will co-lead the Austin Pilgrimage in May 2015.  Valerie (also a doctoral student at General) will be working on curriculum development and training. Her goal is to continue developing the training manual and to design the template for a curriculum for undergraduates and seminarians.  Rev. Holder is in the process of bringing students to the Austin pilgrimage while exploring setting up a pilgrimage in another community. Melanie will continue setting up the pilgrimage in Miami that will focus on human trafficking, a pilgrimage planned for late summer 2015.