The Road to Heaven
I didn’t arrive in Brugge knowing much about Anselm Adornes. I left feeling like I had met a fellow waymaker + come get certified in transformative mediation with me!
“There is only one road to Heaven, and it is equally long from all corners of the world.”
— Account of Anselm Adornes’ journey to the Holy Land, 1471
A few weeks ago I discovered a fellow waymaker in an ancient church in Brugge.
Brugge feels a bit like stepping back into the Middle Ages. Cobblestone streets curve gently past windmills and guild halls. The entire city is surrounded by a canal with seven bridges that allow entrance into the city.
On a recent visit two weeks ago with my wife Amanda and several of my children, one place drew me in more deeply than I expected: the Jerusalem Church, founded in the fifteenth century by Anselm Adornes.
Anselm Adornes was many things at once: a merchant in one of the most international ports in Europe, a traveler who journeyed to the Holy Land beginning in 1470, a mayor, diplomat and mediator navigating political tensions, and a man deeply shaped by encounters with people far different from himself. His life unfolded across Italy, Brugge, Egypt, Jerusalem, and later Scotland—each place leaving its imprint on how he understood the world and the humanity within it.
Brugge in Anselm’s time was one of the great trading ports of the world. Long before passports and global markets, this city was already a meeting place of languages, cultures, and religions. Ships arrived from Africa, the Mediterranean, the Baltic, England, Spain, and beyond. Wool, spices, silks, metals—yes. But also ideas. Beliefs. Ways of seeing the world.
To live in Brugge was to live in difference. Anselm learned his first lessons about humanity there—on the docks, in negotiations, in the fragile trust between strangers who needed one another to survive and prosper. Trade required curiosity. It demanded the ability to see the person across the table not as a threat, but as a human being with dignity, story, and worth.
But it was a visit to the Holy Land that deepened this way of seeing.
On February 19, 1470, Anselm set out with several other companions on a journey that would last more than a year. After his return, the story of that journey was written down in Latin by his son, Jan—a record not just of places visited, but of a worldview expanded.
Traveling to Egypt and the Holy Land in the fifteenth century was not tourism; it was risk, vulnerability, and reliance on others. Anselm encountered faith expressed differently, humanity organized strangely, holiness located in unfamiliar places. Such journeys have a way of unsettling certainty while enlarging compassion.
Their route traced the edges of the known world. They traveled through Genoa and on to Rome, where they were granted an audience with Pope Paul II. From there, the group faced a decision. While many pilgrims chose the safer route through Damascus, Anselm—drawn by curiosity and adventure—opted to travel to the Holy Land via Alexandria.
That choice led them through North Africa and into Egypt, to the Pyramids of Giza, to Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine. For centuries, St. Catherine’s had been a place of refuge for travelers—a sanctuary of hospitality, scholarship, and protection at the crossroads of faiths and empires. To pass through its gates was to encounter a rare space where difference was not merely tolerated, but preserved.
Eventually, they reached Palestine.
In Jerusalem, they were granted a rare permission: to spend two nights and a full day inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
The return journey carried them through Damascus, Beirut, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Brindisi—a reminder that pilgrimage is never a straight line. The road loops and bends. It exposes you to peoples and places you did not plan to meet, and in doing so, it quietly reshapes how you see the world.
What emerges from the account of this journey is not triumph or superiority, but humility. Anselm appears genuinely open—to cultures, to people, to complexity. Not merely tolerant, but curious. Not defensive, but expansive.
He seems to arrive at a simple, disarming conclusion: no country and no people stand above another. Those who have traversed the world, the account suggests, come to see that the same forces shape human life everywhere. The stars move as they do for everyone. Fate and fortune govern all people alike, regardless of language, land, or belief.
This openness later showed up in his work as a mediator, where the ability to see humanity on all sides is not optional—it is essential.
One line from the account of his journey has been playing on loop in my head since my visit to the Jerusalem Church:
“There is only one road to Heaven, and it is equally long from all corners of the world.”
— Account of Anselm Adornes’ journey to the Holy Land, 1471
For a man of his time, this is a remarkably generous vision. It acknowledges difference without hierarchy. It refuses the temptation to place one group closer to God, truth, or worth than another.
Everyone walks.
Everyone travels.
Everyone begins from somewhere particular.
The road is equally long.
Not shorter for the familiar.
Not steeper for the stranger.
Not reserved for those who begin in the “right” place.
When Anselm returned home, he did not leave Jerusalem behind. He built it into Brugge.
The Jerusalem Church stands as more than an act of devotion. It is a translation—a physical confession that holiness is not owned by one land or one people. Modeled after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, it embodies a conviction formed on the road: that what is sacred elsewhere can shape us here, and that encounter does not diminish faith—it deepens it.
Standing in that church centuries later, I realized why Anselm’s later work as a mediator mattered so much to me. You do not learn to hold opposing sides with dignity unless you have first learned to walk among difference without fear. Waymaking is not merely a skill. It is a way of seeing—a belief that humanity does not disappear when agreement fails.
Anselm’s life suggests that openness is not weakness. Curiosity is not compromise. And seeing the humanity of the other does not threaten our own—it enlarges it.
Standing in the Jerusalem Church, I couldn’t help but think about how urgently we need this way of seeing today.
Anselm’s account describes faith encountered “in many forms and habits,” and the necessity of patience when moving among people who live differently. The road, Anselm seems to discover, is a teacher. It strips away the illusion that one way of being human is the default.
This is what struck me most—not how much Anselm traveled, but how deeply he allowed difference, and the people he encountered, to change him.
We live in a world of difference—cultural, political, religious, ideological. Too often, difference becomes a threat to manage or an enemy to defeat. We reduce people to labels, stories to stereotypes, neighbors to positions. Curiosity collapses into certainty. Humanity shrinks.
The life of Anselm offers a quieter, harder path.
To see people who are different from us first as people.
To remain curious about lives we do not understand.
To believe that dignity does not depend on similarity.
This is the work of the waymaker—not eliminating difference, but learning how to live within it with humility and courage. It is the work of merchants negotiating across cultures, travelers learning new customs, and mediators holding space between competing truths. It is the work of anyone willing to walk the long road with others rather than insisting their corner of the world is the center.
Brugge reminded me that bridges are built not only of stone and wood, but of imagination and empathy. Anselm Adornes reminds me that the road forward—toward peace, toward understanding, toward something like heaven—is long for all of us, and shared by all of us.
As I left the Jerusalem Church and stepped back onto the streets of Brugge, I carried Anselm’s life with me.
There is only one road.
It is long.
It stretches equally from every corner of the world.
The question is not whether we are walking.
It is whether we are willing to walk together.
Transformative Mediation Training
I’m excited to invite you to join the second or third cohort of the Transformative Mediation Certification Program a 40-hour training for a select group of Utah’s leading mediators, attorneys, social workers, educators, and change agents:
Second Cohort:
📍 Utah State University, Heravi Pavillion, Logan, UT
📅 January 29-31, 2026 (30 hours in-person)
💻 Follow-up online modules in 2026 (10 hours)
💲 Tuition: $1500
Third Cohort
📍 Law & Justice Center, SLC, UT
📅 April 16-18, 2026 (30 hours in-person)
💻 Follow-up online modules in 2026 (10 hours)
💲 Tuition: $1500
We would be honored to have you as part of either of these select cohorts, helping set the standard for transformative mediation across Utah and beyond.
Training Highlights
Lead Trainer: Chad Ford, JD, MA
Associate Professor, Utah State University
Internationally recognized mediator, peacebuilder, and author of Dangerous Love
Schedule Overview:
Day 1, Jan 29/April 16: Foundations of Transformative Mediation
Morning (5 hrs)
Welcome & Orientation
Conflict 101
Transformative/Narrative Mediation
The Inner Work of Mediation
Afternoon (5 hrs)
The Pre-Mediation Process
Large-group debrief
Role Play #1: Pre-mediation interviews + first mediation session (fishbowl).
Feedback and group reflection.
Large-group debrief
Day 2, Jan 30/April 17: Narrative & Relational Dimensions of Mediation
Morning (5 hrs)
Creating Space
Working the Conflict Story
The Worldview Lens: Seeing Beneath the Story
Afternoon (5 hrs)
The Worldview Lens: Seeing Beneath the Story(cont’d)
When Things Get Tricky: Handling impasse, escalation, and high emotion
Role Play #2: Mediating across cultural/religious differences (pairs).
Observers provide structured feedback on empowerment and recognition.
Large-group debrief
Day 3, Jan 31/April 18: Practice Integration, Ethics & Application
Morning (5 hrs)
Problem-Solving: Transformative Approaches
Reconciliation
Ethics in Mediation
Afternoon (5 hrs)
Integrated Final Role Plays w/ USU students
Participants work in rotating mediator roles with full case scenarios.
Feedback from trainers and peers.
Developing Your Mediator Practice
Application to legal, social work, HR, community, and academic contexts.
Reflecting on personal style and growth areas.
Closing Circle & Next Steps
Preparing for online follow-up modules (specializations).
Building a professional network of transformative mediators in Utah.
Online Follow-Up Training (10 Hours)
To ensure participants not only learn but also implement transformative mediation practices, the certification training includes 10 additional hours of online learning and coaching following the in-person sessions.
1. Application Workshops (5 hours)
Two, 2.5-hour online sessions will provide targeted training on applying transformative mediation principles across different contexts. Each session will include demonstrations, case discussions, and small-group practice.
Divorce & Family Mediation
Environmental & Community Disputes
Interfaith & Cross-Cultural Mediation
Social Work & Human Services
Workplace & HR Mediation
2. Conflict Coaching Labs (5 hours)
Participants will engage in group-based conflict coaching calls (1 hour each, scheduled across five weeks). These sessions allow participants to:
Share real-world challenges they are encountering in practice
Receive feedback and guidance from facilitators
Troubleshoot common obstacles with peers
Deepen confidence in applying transformative mediation tools in their professional spheres
Participants who complete the program will receive a Professional Certificate in Transformative Mediation jointly awarded by HPI, UDR, and DB as well as up to 40 hours of CLE credit, including two hours of ethics training.
Come Join Me for a Fireside on January 11th in Logan, Utah
Come join me for a special fireside talking about how to become a better Christian peace builder on January 11th at 6:30 pm at the North Logan Stake Center, 1650 East 2600 North, North Logan, Utah 84341-1669
“that what is sacred elsewhere can shape us here… encounter does not diminish faith—it deepens it.”
Love that expansive and enriching orientation to difference.