Synod Pilgrimage

Friday August 3^rd

It’s synod pilgrimage time again, and true to past form Henry is up the front, leading the way. Little has changed: he’s organised a first day walk that ends up with a long slog through an unkempt meadow, whose distant boundary seems no nearer. We want to be shouting out from the back, “Are we nearly there yet?” And then suddenly there’s footbridge across the river, and in midstream is a flock of sheep being drive a cross by a quad-biking shepherd complete with dog and two pups, and we know that we are connecting with civilization again even before we see the pick-up coach nudging down the line.

At the first bridge

This is Coquetdale – and it’s been a magnificent start to this year’s Synod Pilgrimage, which is marking the beginnings of Non-conformity as we seek out places associated with underground dissent in those dark years that followed the Great Ejectment of 1662. We began the day at Rothbury, where we were warmly welcomed by church members, some of who are walking with us – how blessed they are to have countryside like this around them every day! We’ve made our way slowly up the valley over the course of the afternoon, stopping several time for our traditional “Mary Lowe” moments, given this year by Dave Herbert, who shows a rare gift in drawing a spiritual insight equally from ancient peel tower or modern gravel pit. The man should be on Thought for the Day!

A surprise dimension

As ever we’re a pretty mixed bunch: most have URC connections, but this first day has been spent in a variety of conversations as the twenty or so walkers have changed places and mostly got to know one another over the course of the afternoon. Back at Rothbury we began by sitting in a circle and telling one another something about a favourite tree or river (Rowena explained that both are going to feature prominently over these three days) – and since then we’ve been putting some of that into context as we’ve walked along, and in some cases have been renewing friendships made on earlier pilgrimages.

Today Meg and Rosa have been with us. Probably Mozambicans walk far more than most of us do, but the concept of walking for fun is clearly strange to Rosa – though no stranger than much else that she has been discovering over these past ten days. However, for the first time since she landed in the UK she has found someone who is willing to try out their tourist Portuguese on her – and that is sufficient to encourage her over the challenging uphill stretches.

We finish the day – well, we finish the afternoon – at the Church of St Mary the Virgin at Holystone. The world church dimension is there again as Dave leads us in singing Dr Kao’s hymn “O Lord, you are the life of the world”; and the Spirit is invoked as we pass the bowl of (? holy) water around and make the sign of the dove on one another’s foreheads. Yes, there’s a sense that God has been with us through the start of our pilgrimage – and there are hopes of good things to come later today, as we make transport arrangements to get us this evening to Thropton, and the evening meal that’s already been ordered at the Three Wheat Heads.