Synod Pilgrimage - Thursday

We started our day with haggis for breakfast. A Scottish idea which is a jolly good one. Then prayers and the theme for considering  today was "Borders" because we were starting our pilgrimage walk from Kelso in Scotland and finishing at Cornhill on Tweed in England. What do borders mean in the context of peace and to the Christian.

We walked through Kelso which gets my vote for one of the most pretty towns in Scotland stopping at the ruined abbey which must have been magnificent in its heyday. It was destroyed by the English in the time of Henry viii and the monastery disestablished later as part of the Scottish reformation.

We then left Kelso and headed for our destination following the south bank of the Tweed. Lunch was spent at Sprouston where Mary read us the charming story of the Reverend Frazer and his wife winning a Daily Mail nationwide competition for the best bunch of sweet peas in the British Isles ( note British Isles and not United Kingdom ).

After this I am sorry to report that the walking got very hard indeed. I was put in mind of T S Eliot's poem about the Magi :

"A cold coming we had of it, just the worst time of year
For a journey, and such a long journey"

The reference to the cold coming aside the words by Eliot accurately express the atmosphere among my fellow pilgrims in the afternoon. The sun burned down relentlessly. There was little shade and almost no breeze. It was tough and even Graham who is very fit and keen on sport looked tired at the end of the day.

I had to ask a local man for directions to the tea shop in Cornhill and he replied in an accent identical to that used in Kelso. Yet each village is in a different country. So as regards language at least there are no borders between Kelso and Cornhill. But there is a border between Scotland and England and there are differences between the two countries which will be tested by a vote on independence for Scotland in the near future. Borders separate humans but in Christ there are no borders. Christ is here for everyone. In the words of the hymn:

" In Christ there is no east or west,
In him no north or south,
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth..."

Caroline Byles