On my 2020 pilgrimage I followed my usual pattern of walking from home in the Brecon Beacons area of south Wales, but this year making my way to the great cathedral of St Swithun in Winchester and then on to the Isle of Wight. On my return journey I came through Salisbury and Gloucester before arriving back home five weeks after I set out.
This was my sixth annual pilgrimage and I have found that each year a theme emerges that seems to encapsulate my experiences as I walk. Perhaps it’s not a surprise that this year’s theme was ‘COVID-19’. However, my pilgrimage allowed me to see many examples of the way churches and communities are responding to the challenges, and also the opportunities, of this extraordinary time.
As churches began to open for private prayer, very pleased to be able to call in at the RC Church in Usk, south Wales Dove of hope, here in the porch of the parish church in Usk Walking through Bristol and very aware of the Black Lives Matter movement, street art was a reminder of the struggle for ethnic justice in the city and beyond Making use of the many tracks and byways on Salisbury Plain, this one named after the historic village of Imber ‘Support the NHS and key workers’ rainbow installation at Winchester Cathedral Visiting the historic church of St Boniface at Nursling near Southampton At Quarr Abbey, a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery on the Isle of Wight Inside the magnificent parish church at Lymington in Hampshire, set out for socially-distanced private prayer The 18th century Moravian Church at Bremhill in Wiltshire Inside the Mariners Church in the docks area of Gloucester Display exploring the wearing of masks at a city-centre Baptist church in Gloucester The parish church at Dixton near Monmouth, close to the river Wye and badly flooded earlier in the year