Synod Pilgrimage - Friday

Well, the Pilgrimage is over.  Five o’clock, and we were gathering outside the URC at Crookham, ready to meet up with Dougie James who designed both the Selkirk and Crookham Peace Gardens.

It was a slower start than recent days, with a coffee stop before we even started. Norma drove us to Cornhill where yesterday’s stretch had ended, and once fortified we were back on the disused railway track heading south. The day was turning extremely hot, and the sight of Linda’s car (rather  than Norma’s bus today) carrying our packed lunches was extremely welcome.

at Flodden Field

 

Another hour’s walking and the Flodden Cross into view – and soon we were greeted in the car park by Clive Hallam Baker who led us up to the viewpoint across the Battle Field, and talked us through all the events of the fateful day in 1513 when not just James IV of Scotland, but literally thousands of soldiers from both armies, lost their lives.  

Chastened from this vivid telling of the story, we made our way down the hill through the battle field and on towards Crookham. Soon we were being led around the garden by Dougie, who helped us understand the journey through conflict to reconciliation which the design and planting of this magnificent garden.

at Peace Garden

Then we made our way to the village hall as his guests, where he served us a splendid meal, and then led a few moments’ discussion and reflection as we tried to share something of what this week’s pilgrimage had meant to us. By walking here from Selkirk we had walked in the footsteps of men going to battle, and the challenges of what peace and reconciliation might mean to us 500 years later had been on our minds all the way.

Rowena raised the matter of boundaries: the Scottish-English border had sometimes been the focus of our jokes, but there is something serious about the divisions that are universally recognised but which keep people unreconciled. Graham recollected one of Rowena’s stories, about the snowflake that finally broke the branch of the tree: how significant our own seemingly insignificant contribution to peace may be!

Charles had earlier in the day asked the most challenging question of Clive, while at the Flodden Cross: if James knew that the English had four armies while he had only one, why on earth did he choose to go to battle. Reflecting on his earlier question, Charles reminded us now that people who start wars aren’t really clever.

This and more to reflect on as the days after the pilgrimage go by…..

Tomorrow, most of us will be taking part in the Ecumenical Pilgrimage on Holy Island. Our thoughts move from Flodden back to the Lindisfarne Gospels. But as pilgrims, wherever our way may be leading us, we know that the same Lord accompanies us still on the journey.

 

John Durell