Today is my last day at work before beginning a six-month sabbatical. Tomorrow I'll be flying to Birmingham, England for the annual Friends Association for Higher Education (FAHE) conference at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre . The theme this year is "Where Faith and Practice Meet." I'm not presenting a paper but going primarily to be in discussion with Friends who are beginning to offer non-credit online courses.

The most interesting aspect for me is that by going to England first on my sabbatical, I am beginning to trace backward my religious heritage, England, Rome, Bethlehem. England represents my current spiritual home among Quakers. For me, Rome represents the Greco-Roman cultural influences that helped shape early Christianity. I've written about the five weeks I'll spend at the American Academy in Rome in an earlier blog. My Fall semester visit to Israel-Palestine will take me to the birthplace of my religious heritage as I live in Bethlehem (I've described this is earlier blogs as well.). There are people who would see this as an opportunity just to visit the biblical sites of the Holy Land. I expect to be doing that, but my main goal is to explore the spiritual roots of my faith. I suspect I will find that currently among Palestinian Christians and Muslims. I am being cautious about not being anti-Jewish in my dislike for the Zionist program of modern-day Israel. My main interest during this phase of my sabbatical will be on life in the occupied territories and how learning about that can inform my research and ministry among Jews, Christians, and Muslims.