Synod Pilgrimage Day 4

Reeth & Grinton to Marske

Today’s walk started from Reeth:  Norma drove us over the short distance, and then as she went on to park it at the end of the journey, relying on Danny to bring her back so that we could all walk together today, we bought lunch supplies from the Reeth shops and walked on to Grinton.

St Andrew’s parish church is rightly known as the Cathedral of the Dales. Again, we found that we were expected and that we were warmly welcomed. As our worship themes day  by day have focused on creation, it was good to find as we gathered in the side chapel that a table was laid out with creation and ecology themes and motifs. It was a good beginning to our day’s journeying – as though we were blessed by the angels who were on sale for a fiver a piece – each made out of an old Ancient & Modern hymnbook, another sign of ecological responsibility that recognised the need to recycle what the new book decided on by the parish was now replacing. Good too to find an ancient church able to provide toilet facilities and running water – already welcome as the day hotted up.

Path to Marrick Priory

The first couple of miles were alongside the river. Then from the back of our now spreading group came a cry for help – not a pilgrim but a sheep in distress. Henry quickly ran back with Lis’s pocket knife (are all synod moderators so well equipped?), but by the time he returned the sheep had already been gently released by Norma and was trotting away contentedly.

A little further long the way we reached Marrick Priory – the remains of a medieval building now an outdoor pursuits centre run by the Anglican diocese. Unlike the other churches we’ve been visiting, we were not expected here – but nevertheless we were welcomed warmly and shown the chapel and other older parts of the buildings, and given both an outline history and also an encouraging description of the work with children and young people today.

We continued the journey by talking the steep stone path known as the nuns’ steps – the way that the members of the community will have taken day by day to buy their provisions from the village of Marrick. After a lunch stop on a shady verge we took the track that led gently back into the valley, just short of Downholme Bridge, and from there followed the road back into Marske where the bus was waiting for us.

Marske Church provided no special welcome – none had been asked for. But we all sensed that this was a special place – and if we were to try to take a Reformed view of what we saw, perhaps some would want to affirm the positive features of box pews (strange and old-fashioned as they seem now) in keeping families together in church; and affirm the way in which all worshippers face the imposing pulpit as saying something positive about the Word that we encounter in scriptures and their exposition. If the Oxford movement of the second half of the 19^th century had never happened, and if the Victorians had gone without their urge for restoring old buildings, most of England’s parish churches would still look like this. Would that be so bad?

There was still plenty of afternoon left, so Norma willingly drove us back to Reeth, where for most of us the continuing pilgrim way seemed to lead again to the ice cream parlour. And after a rest and freshening-up back at the hostel, we gathered in Reeth again for a bar meal at the King’s Arms.