Pilgrimage unpacked

Archbishop Stephen gave this talk at Carlisle Cathedral entitled: Things that I learned on a very long walk – Pilgrimage unpacked.

Boots on Camino sign on floor
Boots on Camino

Things learned on a very long walk…

Feet with walking boots standing on a way marker for Camino path
Pilgrimage unpacked
Pilgrimage unpacked

ArchbishopArchbishop Bishop who also presides over a group of dioceses or provinces. Stephen gave this talk at Carlisle CathedralCathedral (Latin cathedra' throne') Church which contains the throne of the bishop and hence the mother church of the diocese entitled: Things that I learned on a very long walk – Pilgrimage unpacked. His talk follows in full…

In 1986 just over 1,800 people walked the Camino – it means ‘the way’ – the ancient, 1000-year-old pilgrimage route to Santiago. We know this, because when you complete the journey, you get what’s called a Compostela from the Pilgrims’ Bureau. They check the stamps on your ‘pilgrimPilgrim 1. In the New Testament and Christian thought, someone engaged in the Christian journey through life towards heaven. 2. Someone who journeys to holy places (such as biblical sites or shrines of the saints) to seek God's help, to give thanks, or as an act of penance passport,’ verifying that you have walked at least 100km.

In 2016 – just thirty years later – 300,000 people walked it. Again, we know the figure from the compostelas issued. That year, I was one of them.

Enjoying the sabbatical leave that stipendiary clergyClergy Cleric, an ordained person. Derived from the Greek word for a 'lot', this term refers to anyone ordained to Christian ministry, including deacons, priests and bishops. The clergy have specific responsibilities and duties within the Church which set them apart from the laity, the ordinary members. get every ten years or so, I said MassMass (Also called the Eucharist, Holy Communion or Lord's Supper). The chief sacramental service of the Church, incorporating praise, intercession and readings from scripture. The central action is the consecration of the bread and wine by the priest, recalling the words and actions of Christ at the Last Supper and commemorating the sacrifice which he offered for the sins of mankind on the cross. In the medieval Church the Mass was celebrated daily; it was also offered for the souls of the dead in my chapel at Bishopscourt, outside Chelmsford where I was living at the time. I walked to Ingatestone station. I got the train to Plymouth, the overnight ferry to Santander, and then walked a large part of the Camino del Norte, the less travelled northern route from Irun to Santiago.  I walked about 700km, roughly 400 miles. It took a month.

So let me start with the obvious: pilgrimage has become hugely popular in recent years. It’s big business. It’s on TV.  It’s getting hard to find a ChristianChristian Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church to designate all members of the church. who hasn’t walked to Santiago! And it’s not just Christian people. Pilgrimage has always been a hugely significant part of Muslim and Jewish faithFaith 1. Belief and trust in someone or something. 2. Acceptance of particular religious teachings. and, indeed, most other faith traditions. And many of the people who walk to Santiago each year, and across all the other pilgrimage routes that are being rediscovered or newly opened across the world, do not call themselves religiousReligious 1. Concerned with religion, showing belief in God or a deity. 2. In regards to an individual, refers to a member of an order of monks, nuns or friars who follow a Rule of life – though they may well be spiritual – and walk for all sorts of other reasons, for health, wholeness, mindfulness, and to reconnect with and visibly live lightly on the earth.

So, it seems to me to be important that we reflect on what’s going on here, and what it might mean for discipleship and missionMission 1. A group of people sent out to share religious faith. 2. The task of sharing faith..

Let’s start with the obvious. A pilgrimage must be a journey before it is a destination. 

The little book of poems and stories I wrote a few years ago reflecting on my own Camino, begins with these words –

“We must be the first generation of Christians who think pilgrimage is about arriving rather than travelling.” 1

Moreover, the prologue to Chaucer’s CanterburyCanterbury City in the south east of England; the seat of England's senior archbishop, who is also bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. It was here that St Augustine of Canterbury (d.609), who had been sent by Pope Gregory the Great to convert the English in 597, established his ecclesiastical headquarters. In the Anglo-Saxon period Canterbury's monasteries were places of learning and artistry. After the Norman Conquest the cathedral was magnificently rebuilt by Archbishop Lanfranc and embellished by Archbishop Anselm. The martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 added to the cathedral's prominence as a place of pilgrimage and the east end of the church was dramatically remodelled in the Gothic style. Tales, where we are told that to “pass the long journey (the pilgrims) told each other stories”, concludes: 

“I wouldn’t like you to think that I was looking forward more to the stories than to visiting the shrineShrine In origin a Germanic word meaning a chest or reliquary, this term describes something which contains a sacred object. It can thus be applied to an elaborate tomb around the body of a saint, a cabinet containing a relic or to the whole architectural complex where such a body or relic rest of holyHoly Set apart, sacred, especially implying coming from or consecrated to God. St Thomas but there is more to be said for pilgrimages than just seeing a holy place. You often meet such extraordinary people on the way.”

Pilgrimage, then, is not simply a walk (however long or short); it is about following a route that many others have walked before, where they have encountered the Holy on route to a holy place. And often in the people they meet. 

If you’ve seen it, think about the encounters Martin Sheen’s character has in the 2010 film which itself did much to re-invigorate the Camino to Santiago, The Way.  It is hearing the stories of others, worshipping with them, eating, and praying together, having life stripped back to its essentials, and sharing the load, which bring meaning to the journey.  And in our individualistic, materialist, frantic, and over pressured culture, it shouldn’t be surprising that pilgrimage is attractive to all sorts of people, as a way of inhabiting life and of learning how to travel through life differently. 

People make these journeys because they’re looking for something. It may not be God, but it is a way of knowing themselves and their place in the earth. And it may also be a way of deliberately getting away from the pressures, demands and unrelenting busyness of so-called normal life. 

I remember walking to Canterbury over 30 years ago with a group of young people from the parishParish Area with its own church, served by a priest who has the spiritual care of all those living within it. The system evolved gradually, reaching completion by the 13th century where I was then serving. It was a glorious week. Several of the young people came to faith on that journey. One of them is now ordained and traces his vocation back to that pilgrimage. When I was back in the parish the following week, I bumped into one of the stalwarts of the church who greeted me warmly and said it must be nice to be back in the real world. Inside I wanted to scream. Because what I discovered on the road with those young people was more real and more beautiful than so much that passed for normality and had become my unquestioned reality.

The very word ‘pilgrim’ has its origins in the Latin word peregrinusPeregrinus Latin peregrinus (per, through + ager, field, country, land). A foreigner, a stranger, one who is on a journey, a temporary resident. Used in the Vulgate to describe a traveller who makes a brief journey to a particular place or someone who settles for a short or long period in a foreign land which means a foreigner, a stranger, someone on a journey, or a temporary resident. In the Old TestamentOld Testament (The Hebrew Bible). The sacred writings of Judaism which also form the first part of the Christian Bible. i. Books of the Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. ii. Historical books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. iii. Books of Teaching: Psalms; Wisdom literature: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs, Canticles). iv. The Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah (with Lamentations), Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. See also Old Testament Apocrypha, we often encounter the word sojourner (gur in Hebrew), which captures the temporary nature of our existence on earth, as we pass through this world into the next (heavenHeaven The dwelling-place of God and the angels and eventually all those who will live with God for eternity.). Therefore, to go on pilgrimage is to be powerfully reminded that the whole of life is a journey; that this world as it is, is not our true home.

These motifs and images of journey, of exile and exodus, of pilgrimage, shape our scriptures from Moses leading the people through the desert to the promised land to JesusJesus (Greek form of Hebrew 'Joshua' meaning 'Yahweh [God] is salvation') Also given the title Christ, meaning 'anointed one' or Messiah. His life is recorded mainly in the Four Gospels although he is also mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus (c. 37-c.100) and the Roman historian Tacitus (c.110). joining Cleopas on the road to Emmaus.

In the 1960s, the Japanese theologian, Kosuke Koyama, wrote a book, Three Mile an Hour God (SCM Press). Observing that human beings walk at about three miles per hour, he noted that Jesus, who is God, must have walked at the same pace, and that, therefore, love has a speed. And says Koyama, and that speed is slow. That speed is gentle. That speed is tender.

Rebecca Solnit, a more secularSecular (from Latin seculum 'world') 1. In the world (i.e. not monastic). 2. In modern use not religious or spiritual. pilgrim, makes a similar observation in her fabulous book Wunderlust 
“I like walking because it is slow, and I suspect that the mind, like the feet, works at about three miles an hour. If this is so, then modern life is moving faster than the speed of thought…”

And it was Jean-Jacques Rousseau who said –
“I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.”

Pilgrimage – or any walking journey for that matter – requires us to slow down to God’s pace.

And when we slow down things happen.

First of all, we learn what the very first Christians learned, that we are called to follow Christ and to walk in his way. Thus, it was that the first Christians were called ‘followers of the way.’ 

Eamon Duffy tells us that the “journey itself is part of the point,” as was the danger and discomfort” that mediaeval pilgrims would have certainly experienced but also the vulnerability and uncertainty and challenge that contemporary pilgrims face. He goes on – 

“So, people go on pilgrimage…. to sort their heads out. Walking or travelling can be a way of separating yourself from the world in which you are usually enmeshed, enabling you to see life with a new kind of radical simplicity, experiencing danger and discomfort.”2  

When I walked to Santiago 6 years ago, this is what I learned about being a discipleDisciple New Testament term meaning learner or follower and used of the Twelve Apostles as well as of the followers of Jesus in general. See Apostle. of Jesus and following in the way. 

I learned first that someone had been this way before me. Across the whole of northern Spain there are yellow arrows pointing you to Santiago.

It is very difficult to get lost. Although on the occasion when I disregarded the arrows and just followed the person 100 yards ahead of me who had a rucksack on his back and whom I assumed to be a pilgrim, I was somewhat disconcerted when he turned into his house in the small village we had just entered. I was lost and a mile or so off the route.

I learned that you cannot choose your fellow travellers or your companions on the road. If you are walking in the mountains in northern Spain and someone is alongside you, then unless you choose to stop or run ahead then they are your companion for the day. And when you find a bed for the night in one of the little pilgrim hostels that are in virtually every town and village across northern Spain, then the person on the bunkbed below or above you and all those round about you are your neighbours, whether you like it or not. And you must decide whether the cacophony of snoring that strikes up every night and to which you no doubt contribute when you fall asleep yourself is going to drive you mad or bolster up your prayer.

Is there anything more important the Church needs to learn at the moment? That we are sisters and brothers and fellow companions, and we cannot choose who is in and who is out.

And I learned that there is a big and beautiful space between A and B, and that while in the rest of life I usually try to get between A and B in the quickest possible time by the shortest possible route, there is a spacious depth of loveliness in every moment and every footstep if you just find yourself forced to look, indeed to slow down to God’s pace.

And I learned what enough looks like.

The guidebooks told me that if it were possible, I should try to ensure my rucksack weighed no more than 9kg. Though they seemed to imply this would be difficult to do. I weighed mine the day before I set off and it came in at just over nine. I was pleased with myself I was travelling light. And let me tell you that 9kg is pretty heavy when you are on your own walking uphill in the heat of a hot Spanish afternoon.

But let me also tell you that one of the most sobering things I learned was that I still had too much. I, for instance, took three pairs of socks and three pairs of knickers and three shirts, and I discovered I only needed two. Wash one, wear one. Wash one, wear one. That was the simplicity I discovered.

And I learned what that line in the Lord’s prayer – give us today our daily bread – that I’ve said so many times and never really understood, actually meant, ‘Please give me, Lord, enough for today; and save me, spare me, stop me, from wanting more than my share.’

Is there anything more important the world needs to learn?

And I learned how to receive the hospitality of strangers: so many acts of kindness that helped me on the way.

And I learned a vulnerability that, if I’m honest, I have never really experienced before in my life, for I am someone who has always known where the next meal is coming from and where I will sleep at night. With this taken away, not only was I dependent upon the hospitality of others, but I was also more open to them and, I suppose to God, that I’d ever been before.

And I learned a tremendous joy. I hope I hadn’t been a miserable git before I set off, but the sum total of all my walking and all my learning was joy.  And this was born out of the refining and stripping away of my life and my faith to the simple repetition of my footsteps and the rhythm of my beating heart, although it was enormously hard at times, and there were days when I wondered whether I would be able to make it. 

And I learned again that I am one of those people who needs to move in order to be still. Rousseau said he could only think with his legs. I have found I can’t really pray without mine. So, when I got to Santiago, my overwhelming desire was to just keep walking.

All of this is hugely important for discipleship and evangelism today –
•    knowing that someone has gone this way before you.
•    that you cannot choose your fellow travellers.
•    that we are sisters and brothers one to another, one humanity inhabiting one world.
•    appreciating each moment, each step, each heartbeat.
•    learning what enough looks like. 
•    travelling light.
•    receiving the hospitality of strangers. 
•    finding joy in vulnerability.
•    finding out how to pray. 

And to actually go on pilgrimage makes this very real. 

It is therefore good for our discipleship and for the ways we share the gospelGospel (Greek evangelion, Old English godspel 'good news') 1. The central message of the Christian faith concerning salvation. 2. Title given to the four New Testament books which describe the life of Christ i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 3. A reading taken from one of the four Gospels which has the place of honour in the Eucharist to rediscover our Christian identity as those who follow – and therefore walk – in the way. Going on pilgrimage and discovering the stripped back basic necessities and vulnerabilities of travelling will help us reorder our lives and reset our compass. 

Of course, not everyone is able to walk. Very recently, Stephen Need, one time DeanDean The head of the chapter (body of canons) of a cathedral or collegiate church. See also Rural Dean. of St George’s College, JerusalemJerusalem City captured and made into the capital city of Israel by King David. Site of the Temple built by Solomon, and of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. A holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims, brought out a pilgrimage prayer book where you could visit Jerusalem from your armchair at home.3 I recommend it. 

Moreover, the reason St Francis of Assisi introduced cribs and stations of the crossCross Instrument of torture and execution used in the Roman Empire. The means by which Christ was put to death and therefore the primary symbol of the Christian faith, representing the means by which he is believed to have won forgiveness for humankind. The Cross may be represented as Tau-shaped (like a capital T); with a shorter cross-bar or with a circle enclosing the upper intersection (Celtic). In medieval art a cross made of living branches signifies the Tree of Life. St Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, is said to have discovered the True Cross (i.e. the Cross in Jerusalem on which Christ died) in 326. into our church buildings was because not everyone can get to Bethlehem or Jerusalem. 

Or think about the encouragement of our interior life through the motif of pilgrimage in a Christian classic such as Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

But when you set out on pilgrimage – be it actually or virtually – you see things differently. You experience life differently. Conversations are richer and deeper. And slower. You seem to have more time. 

And in a side-by-side ‘walking along together conversation’ silence isn’t a problem. In fact, it is a blessed gift, from which deeper questions and observations emerge. Like with Jesus on the Emmaus Road. 

Inviting people to go on pilgrimage therefore is also evangelism. And since secular pilgrims seeking mindfulness and closer proximity to the earth may well outnumber so called religious pilgrims at the moment, this is surely an area where we should be putting some effort.

Actually, this is happening.

As well as places in the UK such as Iona and LindisfarneLindisfarne Also known as Holy Island, a peninsula off the coast of north-east England (Northumbria), this area is cut off from the mainland by the tide twice a day. A monastic community was founded here by St Aidan, in emulation of Iona. From Lindisfarne, missionary activity was conducted in the kingdom of Northumbria. The Anglo-Saxon community produced saints, the most prominent being St Cuthbert in whose honour the magnificent Lindisfarne Gospels were written. receiving over 150,000 visitors a year, and Walsingham around 250,000 pilgrims, and with pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela numbering in their millions, even if nowadays most of them arrive by bus, plane, or cruise liner, other sites within the UK are developing opportunities for pilgrimage. Most cathedrals – including this one – are exploring ways of meeting the challenge of turning tourists interested in the historical facts and architectural triumphs of their buildings to pilgrims who can be open to the peace and beauty of the cathedral which offers an opportunity to reflect and pray. Or the beautiful schools’ labyrinth you have here.

New networks of pilgrim paths are also being developed, such as St CuthbertCuthbert, St (d. 687) Celtic monk and hermit. Bishop of Lindisfarne 685.’s way from Melrose to Holy IslandHoly Island Name for Lindisfarne, the island off the coast of Northumbria which was home to a monastery in the Anglo-Saxon period. The monastery, which housed the relics of St Cuthbert, was sacked by the Vikings in 793. which I walked last year. Or St Ninian’s way, starting here in Carlisle, which I haven’t yet walked. Or the three-day, 25-mile, Cumbrian Cistercian Way from Piel Castle to Cartmel Priory.  

Last year, young people who travelled to Glasgow for COP 26 called it ‘a pilgrimage’.  They walked on the earth and in solidarity with the earth. This pilgrimage called attention to the injustices and challenge of our climate crisis, making pilgrimage itself a form of prophetic witness, and a sign of God’s call to do justice and to love mercy. 

I find all this hugely inspiring and I think it offers us huge opportunities for developing discipleship and furthering our mission. I hope that in the coming years under the banner of Faith in the North, and working with others in all our dioceses including this one, we can see how these things can not only shape our own discipleship but enable us to find ways of reaching out to others, especially the young. Watch this space for more information about how you can access resources and inspiration on these themes. 

And although they’re not pilgrimages, we also read in scriptureScripture Term used for sacred writings. In Christianity used of the Bible. about Paul’s missionaryMissionary Someone sent out to share religious faith. journeys. I think we might find that getting out on foot and walking the streets of our communities, might, as it did for Paul, open doors of opportunity to share the Christian faith. Many of the great missionary bishops of the past also evangelised this way. I’ve already done it once or twice here in Cumbria with BishopBishop Bishops exercised pastoral care over a diocese and authority to confirm and ordain James and I look forward to a day of missionary endeavours with Bishop Rob tomorrow. 

As we think about the whole of life as a journey home to God, and of pilgrimage as a specific way of setting aside a period of time to experience journeying and as a way of stripping back life and connecting with what is essential, then I hope we may become a pilgrim Church – a church on  the move, a church inviting others to share the journey, a church with its sights set on God and on God’s kingdom.

Finally, when I did walk the Camino to Santiago six years ago, I set myself the happy task of writing a sonnet each day. 

I like writing, but as I was on my own – and didn’t have much else to do as I was walking – I thought the simplicity and brevity of the sonnet form would be something I could perhaps compose in my head as I walked along, and then write down in the evenings at the hostels where I stayed. 

These poems, and some stories to accompany them, have been published in the book Striking Out, and I would like to finish with one of them:

I leapt! I leapt! 
 
I put down the bird that was in my hand 
and found a flock of swallows in the bush. 
 
I purchased a pig from a man with a poke, 
and fashioned two silk purses from her ears. 
 
I held an acorn tightly, and felt the oak. 
It set my faint heart beating once again. 
 
Two plus two plus two doesn’t equal six. 
Madrid is not the capital of Spain, 
 
Neither Santiago nor Seville. 
It set my faint heart breaking once again. 
 
The broth was delicious, even though I  
asked some other cooks to help with the cooking. 
 
The rain in Spain falls mainly on the hills. 
I leapt. I leapt. For once, I wasn’t looking. 

  • 1Striking Out, Pgxiii
  • 2‘Living with the Gods’, BBC, 10 October 2017 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/living-with-the-gods-october)
  • 3Following Jesus in the Holy LandHoly Land A common term for the area of what is now Israel/Palestine where Jesus spent his earthly life. Such a term expresses the allure of pilgrimage to the actual places where Jesus lived and died and was also a concept which inspired the crusading movement., Pathways of Discipleship through Advent and Lent – an armchair pilgrimage.