Crossing the Diocese - the Pilgrimage
Week 1: Melton Mowbray to Bottesford
6 February – Ash Wednesday
A small gathering at the Cathedral for the Ash Wednesday service. It had
all the benefits of intimacy, sensitivity and warmth. The liturgy
included the imposition of ashes which I felt touched people deeply.
Compared with some thirty years ago, the Church of England seems to be
getting used to this sign of penitence in Lent and there was a strong
sense of people being deeply moved by the words “remember that you are
dust and to dust you shall return”. They were particularly poignant for
me, remembering that Bishop John had first agreed to do the Lent
pilgrimage with me in the Cathedral fifteen months ago.
At the end of the service there was a sort of ceremony of being got
ready for the walk. It included disrobing, a strong sense of handing
over some present responsibilities in order to be free for the walk.
That put me in touch both with how unsettling that can be, but also what
a relief it can be.
As the congregation left, there was a strong sense of their identifying
with that piece of ritual. I gave each one of them a little wooden cross
and it evoked a significant response.
Thursday 7 February
The day begins with the Leicester Radio car arriving at 7.30am. There is
a live interview with Ben Jackson all about the walk. The young lady
managing the radio car throws her arms around me after the interview,
telling me how exciting she thought it was and what a wonderful idea. I
gave her a little wooden cross and she burst into tears!
So onto St Mary’s Melton. East Midlands TV were there doing an
interview. We were joined by Rosemary Austin which made it especially
moving, since I had a feeling she was there walking on John’s behalf for
the first day of the pilgrimage. We left St Mary’s with the TV cameras
following our first few 100 yards – until I discovered I still had a
live microphone attached to my lapel!
The first mile was through the country park in Melton and then to the
Visitor Centre where the manager provided tea and coffee. She is a
member of a local New Wine church and talked animatedly about the
Visitor Centre, the people who come and the plans for the future.
Then on two or three miles to Scalford. We arrived at least 45 minutes
early. There was time to sit in the church yard and look at the
crocuses. The church treasurer, a life long worshipper at Scalford,
joined us telling stories of the village and of her father’s time as
church warden before her. Her deep emotional attachment to the church
had made the recent debate about removing all the pews and creating
space inside the church for the children from the church school and
other groups to use it was clearly a hot issue in the village.
Eventually the school children arrived and Beverley Stark led an
imaginative assembly with them, giving each one a chocolate in the shape
of a heart which they were not to eat until they had seen a sign of
God’s love.
We moved onto the pub in Scalford where 20 of us gathered around the
table for lunch. Animated conversations about the sale of Scalford
Rectory many years ago, about country life and about why I was doing
this walk. After lunch I spoke to the Leicester Mercury to update them
on the progress I was making.
Then we moved onto Wycombe where there is no church but where one of the
residents, walking with us, lives in the former Methodist Chapel. He now
calls it the Mission House and he emerged at the front door with a
bottle of Famous Grouse whisky which two or three of us were encouraged
to enjoy!
Then walking on, with six of the school children, to Chadwell. The boys
seemed to be enjoying the walk with us – each wearing a little wooden
cross on a cord around their neck which they proudly displayed to any
passer by. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact this walk
has made on them, but I have a feeling it is something they will
remember for a long time. At Chadwell church the rest of the school
joined us again and the children were asked to say whether they had
eaten their chocolate and what signs of God’s love they’d seen that
afternoon. There were some very telling answers. That was followed by a
question and answer session with some really penetrating questions from
the children, including “why is there so much evil in the world if God
is a God of love?”
Eventually we left and finished the journey to Waltham church across the
fields. This was the most attractive part of the walk, taking us through
some of the loveliest Leicestershire countryside. At Waltham church we
said evening prayer using their new electronic projection system which
they are getting used to using. The church has been reordered at the
front to create an open space for worship and it was possible to see how
transformational that could be in a traditional church.
There was time after Evening Prayer for an hour and a half of space
before getting ready to go out to the evening gathering in Waltham
village hall. Here some thirty or forty people had gathered for dinner.
After dinner I spoke to them all and invited questions. This was perhaps
the most animated part of the day with questions from a number of
invited people who are not churchgoers and wanted to ask about Islam,
the absence of young people from church, whether the Church of England
is in decline, what we should do about gay people etc. I could see the
real benefit of these kind of events with invited non-churchgoers,
especially in rural areas like this. Eventually we got home at 10pm.
Friday 8 February
During breakfast in Beverley and David Stark’s house, Mike Smith arrived
with news of the row breaking over Archbishop Rowan’s remarks about
Sharia law. Radio Leicester wanted an interview and back in the office
there was some concern about the fact that Prince Charles was due to
visit the St Philip’s Centre today. It feels as if the routine demands
break in even when out and about on the walk. As soon as breakfast was
over I did a live interview with Tony Wadsworth on Radio Leicester as
the top news story at 9 o’clock.
Immediately into Waltham parish church where the children from the
village school had gathered. The story of Moses was told using overhead
DVD projected onto a giant screen. It was all very well done and
followed the theme of pilgrimage.
As we left Waltham we made our way past the village Post Office, popping
in to chat to the proprietor and noticing that every single newspaper
was leading with the storm of the Archbishop on its front pages. From
there we walked on to the village deli where we were given two flapjacks
for the journey! Then to the village hairdresser who told me that I had
confirmed her in Bottesford church five years ago. As we walked on I
talked with one of Beverley’s parishioners who is going off to a
Bishops’ Advisory Panel to seek selection for training for ordination.
She was a remarkable lady, telling me as we walked about her life’s
journey and her questioning about whether she should be ordained.
We arrived at Stonesby where we bumped into a local farmer, a Methodist,
whose family had farmed nearby for eight generations. Then on to Saltby
walking and talking as we went. My companion on the way had been
churchwarden at Sproxton and had spent his time in retirement renovating
a narrow boat. Next month he is planning to spend nine months on the
boat touring all the canals of England and told me about his plans. We
walked across stunning open farmland bathed in warm early spring sun and
were serenaded by a skylark as we went.
Then into Saltby where I telephoned my daughter Rachel in Paris,
celebrating her 30th birthday. We had lunch in the converted Methodist
Chapel which is now used as a community centre and where about twenty
people gathered to eat and send us on our way.
And so onto Croxton Kerrial. On this part of the journey two ladies each
with two dogs joined us and we made good headway, finding ourselves with
enough time when arriving in Croxton Kerrial to pop into the local
village school. The children were intrigued to see us as most of them
had seen us on the regional television news the day before.
So finally we made our way to Branston. Another group gathered at the
church to greet us as we said a brief Evening Office. Paul Botting took
us to his house for a shower and a cup of tea before returning to
Branston for dinner in the pub. We had a very good meal and were brought
a round of drinks by a group of strangers at the bar. People were
generally intrigued to see us and there was much conversation about how
the walk was going and why we were doing it. We distributed one or two
wooden crosses and talked a bit about what we were up to. Then into the
parish church again where about twenty five people had gathered with
glasses of wine. We talked about the walk and about the pilgrimage and
then got into conversation about people’s experience of living in the
countryside. In the group was a farmer, a doctor, and a village school
head teacher. Each of them had a perspective on what was happening in
the countryside and it gave us a chance for an animated conversation
about the speed of change and the place of the church. We brought the
conversation to an end at about 8.50pm with a prayer. It had been
another good day, with a series of people genuinely delighted to see us
and a day’s walking in beautiful sunshine and some of the nicest
Leicestershire scenery.
Saturday 9 February
Breakfast with Paul Botting and a chance to look at his extraordinary
Manchester United shrine in his living room - full of photographs of
Alec Ferguson and the “Busby Babes”. At Branston church we are met by a
small group of parishioners and Archdeacon Richard and Helen Atkinson
joining us for the day. Richard brought news of yesterday’s visit by
Prince Charles to the St Philips centre in Leicester which had all gone
extremely well.
From Branston we made the short walk to Eaton where, up on the hill, we
could see the church and hear the bells welcoming us into the village.
We were greeted with coffee and biscuits and croissants before a short
time of prayer. Walking on towards Stathern, we took our leave of David
and Beverley Stark at the parish boundary and then followed an hour’s
walk towards Stathern where we arrived to be greeted by John Deave in
the churchyard. By the time it had got to 11.30am some thirty or forty
people had gathered in the church (this being Saturday lunchtime) for a
brief midday prayer. I was asked to dedicate some new seats in the
chancel. After an attempt to speak briefly to everyone in church we
walked through the village to the Village Institute, stopping on route
to have a word with the proprietor of the local Post Office. By the time
we got to the Institute, lunch was all prepared for all of us and, as
usual, I tried to make my way round talking to everybody and then saying
a few words after lunch. Telephone calls were arriving from the media
trying to arrange an interview in response to the story about the
Archbishop of Canterbury. It is clear that the media management of this
Archbishop’s crisis has been an enormous task for the London staff.
At 2.30pm we made our way out of Stathern on our way to Knipton, walking up a steep hill and then through woods for an hour and a half in dappled sunlight. By now we were reduced to a little group of Paula, Helen and Richard and there was a chance to walk and talk in a slightly different way. Half way along we were joined by Rachel Ross (plus dog) who accompanied us all the way to Knipton. After a brief pause and another cup of tea and a biscuit, we finished off the final hours walk to Belvoir Castle, making our way through the grounds and up the hill to the castle in stunning evening sunlight. Carpets of snowdrops were everywhere and as we got to the top of the path, the cannon was fired from the veranda. Stuart Foster walked into the castle with us and there was just time for a quick bath and change before meeting the Duke for dinner in the Manners Arms.
It was then back to the castle for the evening concert, which was given
by a group called Chrysalis who Stuart had invited along with an
audience of about sixty people who were on the fringe of church life. I
think they were slightly puzzled about what they were doing in the
castle along with a Bishop who was on a pilgrimage, but the music kept
everybody lively and at the end I was able to say a few words of
explanation. It has been an extraordinary day of visiting the simple
churches of the Vale and walking through beautiful scenery ending in
this weird experience in the castle. It is clear that there are
considerable expenses needing to be met on the castle and all the
surrounding grounds. Perhaps some pictures will have to be disposed of
in order to make that possible. But that is a conversation we did not
get around to last night!
Sunday 10 February
After a cold night with temperatures dropping to -5, I managed to make
the old iron bath in the corridor work in order to get warm before
breakfast. At 7.45am Stuart Foster and Paula met me for us to make our
way into the main drawing room to meet the Duke and Duchess before
breakfast. We talked about maintaining the castle, the drop in visitor
numbers, the difficulty of attracting significant coach loads to north
east Leicestershire. The Duke showed us some of the paintings of his
ancestors and talked about the possibility of needing to dispose of some
of the more valuable paintings in order to fund the maintenance of the
castle.
Breakfast was seated at the great dining table and served by the Butler
– an enormous cooked breakfast which was served up without negotiation!
I failed to eat all the black pudding! During breakfast Radio Leicester
called in for an update for the Sunday morning show and added the
inevitable questions about the Archbishop’s furore.
We set off at 8.40am with Paula Hollingsworth and I making our way on
foot to Redmile church in bright early morning sunshine. On arrival we
were greeted by Robin Stapleford and Stuart Foster and made our way into
the church with a standing ovation from the congregation gathered from
the whole Vale of Belvoir team. At this point it was clear that the
concept of walking through the parishes was beginning to capture peoples
imaginations in a very genuine way. I spoke briefly in the homily slot
about pilgrimage, about our experiences on the way reminding everyone
that Archbishop Rowan Williams is also a pilgrim like us, perhaps
sometimes losing his way but still seeking to follow his Lord. And I
tried to make clear that the media and a secular society has absolutely
no understanding of what that means, feeling free to vilify, persecute
and attack him. Even more frightening is the fact that leading voices
from our own church behave in exactly the same way. We walked on from
Redmile along the canal side in what was becoming almost a summer’s day
to Barkstone. There another thirty people had gathered for midday
prayer, and then eight of us went to the local pub for lunch. Stuart had
brought in two young men in their late thirties who he is training up to
be churchwardens. Stuart is exploring the possibility of buying the pub
as a base for mission and outreach in the Vale. Again an inspiring
vision of how to find new ways of engaging with the community.
The final walk was a three or four mile stretch into Bottesford from
Barkstone. Here again there was opportunity to talk at length with
Stuart about his life and work in ministry. These conversations have
been amongst the richest and most fruitful part of the walk so far. We
arrived at Bottesford church (via a brief loo stop in the house of a
clergy widow) to find another thirty people gathered for the Evening
Office. I said a few words at the end and realised that speaking to
these little gatherings is going to be an important part of the
pilgrimage pattern in the weeks ahead. They will need to hear from me
about my experience and about how it can become an experience in which
they can share. The signs are here that there is potential in this walk
for transforming the experience of episcope in the diocese for the next
few years ahead.
+Tim February 13th 2008
