Setting out from home once the easing of Covid restrictions allowed, my 2021 pilgrimage took me to the ancient cathedral of St Albans in Hertfordshire. I then walked into central London and returned home, still on foot, via Reading, Swindon and the Bristol area.
My pilgrimage had something of a ‘Roman’ theme with Alban, together with Julian and Aaron of Caerleon (which I also visited), being the earliest recorded Christian martyrs in the history of England and Wales. Being executed in about 300 CE, their stories belong to the era before the legalisation of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
On a more contemporary note, as churches have increasingly been able to offer opportunities to worship ‘in person’, I was able to share in services reflecting a wide variety of traditions and in very different situations. Above all, an encouraging time in what are still very challenging circumstances for many of us.
Garage doors in rural Monmouthshire 
Prayer corner in Staunton in the Forest of Dean 
Contemporary stained-glass window at Bulley near Gloucester 
At the Oxford Oratory Roman Catholic church 
A pilgrim’s welcome at St Albans cathedral 
Mural made by young people using litter. Alongside the Grand Union Canal in west London. 
At the parish church of Sunninghill and South Ascot in Berkshire. ‘This church is open and all are welcome to come and use this space for private prayer’ 
Contemporary Christian witness in Reading in Berkshire. At the 700 year old Greyfriars Church. 
‘Pilgrims today’ painting in the parish church at Goring in Oxfordshire 
Detail of the Millenium window, Holy Cross church, Chiseldon, Wiltshire. St Augustine’s mission to the Anglo-Saxons in 597 CE 
‘Share, care, serve, grow’. The Baptist Church at Chipping Sodbury near Bristol 
A well-earned break at Caerleon in south Wales
