St. Michael's of the Valley

One important aspect of Jesus’ ministry with the disciples was their time spent traveling together, walking along, talking, stopping to pray, to eat, and to rest. We often remember Jesus’ teaching, but not the context. There was a good reason Jesus always seemed to be going away to a quiet place to pray. We can hear from God in quiet places as well as in church. Some of the more important events of Jesus’ ministry happened in remote locations while they were traveling with Jesus—The Sermon on the Mount, The Road to Emmaus, The Transfiguration, and the call of the first disciples on the beach.

This is an eco-ministry that began in the Diocese of Northern California a few years ago, before the pandemic.

We brought the Holy Hike ministry to my previous church. It was vital in keeping the children and youth connected during the pandemic. Though we couldn’t have church in-person, we took many Holy Hikes in the beauty of God’s Creation and this kept our young parishioners engaged. Some of my previous parishioners also had particular interests, for example, fishing, birds, history, or railroads, and we would often find a way to incorporate those elements into our hikes too.

St. Michael’s of the Valley, Ligonier and St. Francis in the Fields, Somerset have partnered to launch an official chapter of Holy Hikes in the Diocese, known as Holy Hikes of Southwest Pennsylvania. We piloted a series of hikes in 2024, as a way to test how the ministry would go and to understand how congregations might collaborate. After a successful initial season, we are ready to launch the ministry diocesan-wide. 

The hiking season runs from May to October, although our official launch is delayed until June this year, and the hikes take place in the morning on the third Saturday of each month. We will start the hikes at 10 a.m., but some of the team will be there about 15 minutes early to welcome hikers. (If the weather is forecast to be hot, we may move the start time to 9:00 a.m. Please look for announcements on Facebook from the diocese.

During the hike, we hold a service of Holy Communion, stopping along the trail to read the scripture and say the prayers, while sharing the Eucharist at the end of the hike or at another appropriate setting along the trail. It’s a lovely way to have a worship service!

If you or your congregation are interested in participating–and, perhaps, hosting hikes in your part of the Diocese, we invite you to join us for one of our hikes over the summer to see how we do them and learn more about how we determine which trails to use.

Once you decide to host your own hike, we will coordinate communications about the various hiking locations for those third Saturdays during the hiking season. Our hope is that each monthly Holy Hike Saturday will have 3 or more options for hikes in different areas of the Diocese, and we encourage groups of congregations to partner with each other to host them.

In addition, we believe this is an important opportunity for members of the Diocese to invite friends, family and neighbors–especially those who might not want to attend Sunday morning service–to attend something a bit different. We have found it’s a wonderful way to build community beyond our four walls

• If you are interested in participating this year, please contact our ministry team member Katie Ong.

• You can also look for information about upcoming hikes on the Diocese’s Facebook page,

• in the “Events” section of the St. Francis website and

• St. Francis Somerset Facebook page, as well as on

• St. Michael’s Holy Hikes webpage and its Facebook page and on

• St. Michael’s of the Valley Calendar of Events Tab.

Please plan to join us.