Pilgrimage Postings
An Occasional Newsletter for Pilgrims ~ Number 3. June 2004.
Edited by the Rev. Canon Stephen N. Brannon & James J. Rawls
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The Pilgrims Return
As you may recall from English 101, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales tells the story of twenty-nine medieval pilgrims bound for the shrine of St. Thomas á Becket in England’s famed Canterbury Cathedral.
Earlier this month, our faithful band of twenty-nine modern pilgrims returned from their visit to Canterbury and to more than a dozen other sacred sites throughout England.
By design, the pilgrimage was a journey inward as well as outward. The pilgrims visited magnificent cathedrals and picturesque parish churches, but always with the intent of deepening and renewing their faith. It was a richly creative enterprise, inspired by the words of theologian Richard Niebuhr that “pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys.”
The band of pilgrims included members of five Sonoma Valley churches: Trinity Episcopal, Sonoma United Methodist, Sonoma Valley Community, Faith Lutheran, and St. Francis Solano Catholic. Also included were members of churches in San Francisco, Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Fortuna, Mill Valley, Belmont, Capitola, La Jolla, and as far away as Utica, New York.
Among the unexpected highlights of the pilgrimage was attending a festival service in St. Paul’s Cathedral with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Also in London, the pilgrims visited the eighteenth-century home and chapel of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. In the stillness of a church where hymn-writer John Newton was pastor for twenty-eight years, the pilgrims sang in reverent awe Newton’s most beloved hymn, “Amazing Grace.”
While in Canterbury, they shared a dramatic reading of Thomas á Becket’s final sermon, delivered just four days before his murder in the cathedral in 1170. They also walked among the ruins of St. Augustine’s Abbey and visited lowly St. Martin’s church, founded in the sixth century, the oldest parish church in England. An early afternoon was spent boating on the tranquil waters of the River Stour.
In Winchester, the pilgrims visited not only the city’s famed cathedral and castle, featuring the purported Round Table of King Arthur, but also the hidden-away St. Cross Almshouse, England’s oldest charitable institution. At St. Cross they received the Wayfarer’s Dole of ale and bread, “honestly requested and willingly given” to pilgrims since the twelfth century.
Our day on the Salisbury Plain included a stroll around mysterious Stonehenge, attendance at Choral Evensong in Salisbury Cathedral, and a visit to the modest stone church where seventeenth-century poet and parson George Herbert once presided.
In addition to stops in Glastonbury and Wells, the pilgrims spent several days among the “dreaming
spires” of the colleges at Oxford. Highlights in Oxfordshire included an amble down a leafy country lane to ancient St. Margaret’s Church and Holy Well, site of Lewis Carroll’s inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. At nearby Headington Quarry, the pilgrims visited the private home of author C. S. Lewis, spending a few quiet moments at the wooded pond where Lewis set his Chronicles of Narnia.
The Boon
Pilgrims return, by tradition, with a “boon,” something good that will enrich their lives in the world of everyday living to which they return. Remember our definition of pilgrimage is a transformative journey to a sacred center.
One returning pilgrim expressed well this sense of renewal: “I had been changed by this pilgrimage, but I do not expect to know how for a long time…. We were resuming our day-to-day lives, our journeys of perpetual pilgrimage.”
Recalling the words of Doris Donnelly, another confessed, “I came as a tourist, but I’m returning as a pilgrim.”
Martin Robinson, in his classic account of pilgrimage, also has noted this dimension of the unexpected along the Pilgrim’s Way: “Those who come without understanding the need for an internal journey to mirror the physical journey may end up more bereft than before…. Even so, some who travel without a well-defined faith can be surprised by the discovery of a dimension which is unsought and even unimagined.”
With grateful hearts we join St. Augustine in saying: “Sing Alleluia--and keep on walking!”
A Scottish Pilgrimage
Another pilgrimage, this time with a Celtic flavor to sacred sites in Scotland, is set for June 2005.
Once again, we’ll be visiting familiar landmarks as well as “hidden gems” far from the typical tourist trail. Included on our itinerary will be visits to the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle and its winsome St. Margaret’s Chapel; the High Kirk of St. Giles along the Royal Mile; the royal residence at the Palace of Holyroodhouse; and the modest home of sixteenth-century reformer John Knox.
We plan to spend a day on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, a remote hermitage where the intrepid Celtic missionaries St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert lived and labored in the seventh century.
Another day will be spent at the ancient ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, surrounded by gnarled yew trees, and among the lichen-covered walls of nearby Melrose Abbey. Since we’re in the neighborhood, we’ll also pay a visit to Abbotsford House, the beloved home of author Sir Walter Scott.
Traveling by coach along the “bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond,” we’ll arrive by ferry in the Western Isles. After exploring the Isle of Mull we’ll set out for Iona, known as the Cradle of Celtic Christianity. For centuries pilgrims have been coming to this mystical island where St. Columba lived and where The Book of Kells was fashioned.
Registration will be limited to thirty participants. As before, arrangements will be handled by ACIS and we hope to have the lovely Miss Nicky Watts back as our Tour Manager. For more information, call Trinity Episcopal Church at 707-938-4846 or e-mail snbrannon@aol.com
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