A Parish Pilgrimage to Bishop Eton

John Elcock • October 3, 2024

In this article, first published in the August 2024 edition of the Archdiocese of Liverpool's Catholic Pictorial, John Elcock describes his parish's first walking Parish Pilgrimage from the Blessed Sacrament Shrine in Liverpool city centre to the historic Shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at Bishop Eton in Woolton.

We start in the heart of the city. Dawson St is adjacent to Queen Square bus station, with all the attendant hustle and bustle of a busy Saturday morning in Liverpool. Many visitors would be unaware however that behind an unassuming porch facing the taxi rank is a place of sanctity and prayer.

The Blessed Sacrament Shrine moved here in 1985 as a focus of Eucharistic devotion, under an apostolic mission of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. On our visit, the first of several daily Masses was nearing completion and the simple piety showed by the large congregation, representing the many diverse backgrounds and nations in the city, was a humbling and profoundly moving start to our pilgrim journey.

From Whitechapel we turn left and head up Church St with all the secular distractions offered by a busy retail district of a large city. Take a moment perhaps to pop into Pauline Books where the ministry of the Daughters of St Paul continues to provide an alternative source of meaning to the lives of all the busy shoppers passing by. At the top of Bold St the remains of St Luke's Church give us a chance to reflect on conflict, the tragedy of war and the ongoing need to pray for peace in our troubled world. From Leece St turn left onto Hope St, bookended by its two great Cathedrals, and reminding us of the fruitful strides for Christian unity made by Archbishop Worlock and Bishop Sheppard throughout the 1980s.

Enter the Metropolitan Cathedral to Christ the King. A circular walk around its giant nave is an act of prayer in itself, an almost overwhelming experience. Pause at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and light a candle for someone you love at the Lady Chapel. The exhilarating sound of the newly refurbished organ accompanied us joyfully down the piazza and east into Oxford St. Outside of term time the University is quieter and the peace camp at Abercromby Square has moved on. Learning is at the heart of our faith, our Universities an important part of our civic culture. We walk by thinking of St Anselm and his encouragement to seek an understanding of both.

Turn right onto Crown St. Bear left, and walk across Crown Street Park; even in the city we are reminded of God's creation through birdsong and the beauty of its trees. At Overbury St you may take a short diversion north if you wish to St Anne's RC Church, served by the wonderful city mission of Fr Peter Morgan. At the time of our pilgrimage this area had just witnessed the tragedy of the summer disturbances, light and hope however was joyfully evident in a group of community

volunteers gardening and painting at the asylum centre.

Head east along Smithdown Lane then left onto Earle Rd. We pass the magnificent brick frontage of St Dunstan's with its symbols of the four Evangelists, then continue onto Lawrence Rd past St Hugh's RC Church, the tall bell tower of St Bridget & St Thomas, and along the high street rich with the busy comings and goings of the many new communities, who as diverse generations before, seek to build new lives in our city.

At the junction of Wellington Rd, turn left. Walk north past Frontline Church where many young people now explore faith and friendship at the site of a former drill hall. Turn right into Wavertree Park and aim for the path between the running track and the football pitches. Walk across 'The Mystery' along the avenue of trees to the gates on Fir Lane then past the churchyard of Holy Trinity to the junction of Woolton Rd. At this point of our pilgrimage we are now on our final stretch with less than a mile to the monastery at Bishop Eton.

Passing St Stephen's URC on your right continue along Woolton Rd to its busy junction on Queens Drive. Cross carefully then continue straight and into the pleasant suburbs of South Liverpool. Pass Green Lane on your right, where back in 1982 Pope St John Paul II stayed during his visit to Liverpool. A little further turn right into the grounds of Bishop Eton.

We end our parish pilgrimage in the Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation, served by the Redemptorists, and which holds the first copy outside of Rome of the famous icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. In 2023 parishioners at Bishop Eton, working with the Redemptorist community, set-up a new lay-led Shrine Ministry, re-establishing the weekly Novena service and with exciting plans for Bishop Eton to become yet again a place of pilgrimage. Since 1866 generations of Liverpudlians have walked to the Shrine at Bishop Eton to ask the intercession of Our Blessed Lady, and by completing this walk we felt not just a sense of

achievement but also a greater understanding of the richness of our city and the power of walking as a form of prayer. As families of parishes, we can pray that the 2025 Holy Year which Pope Francis has titled Pilgrims of Hope is our chance to to get to know each other as Christians, just a little better.

Details

Blessed Sacrament Shrine, Dawson Street, L1 1LE to Our Lady of the Annunciation, Bishop Eton, Woolton L16 8NQ. Distance: 4.5 miles (7.3km), 2 hours of walking, mostly flat and wheelchair accessible.

Guidance

Please travel with caution and observe all traffic signals. Please check church opening times in advance.

John Elcock is a member of the Shrine Ministry Team at Bishop Eton.

Useful links

www.blessedsacramentuki.org

www.bishopeton.org.uk

www.ourladyshrine.org

< Older Post

Newer Post >

The Pilgrimage of Hope is open for day pilgrims to register!

By Phil McCarthy • June 5, 2025

Registration for day pilgrims to join the 2025 National Walking Pilgrimage of Hope is now open! The Pilgrimage of Hope is a national walking pilgrimage with four main Ways converging at the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th September 2025, for shared prayer and celebration. The four main Ways start at the Catholic cathedrals in Cardiff, Leeds, Norwich and Southwark, London, and will bless our nations with a Sign of the Cross and with the Gospels. The routes are named after the Evangelists and use established hiking routes and are off road as much as possible. A small group of 4-6 'perpetual pilgrims' will walk the full distance of each Way, and up to 20 day pilgrims will be able to join for day stages. Stretches which are suitable for wheelchairs and buggies have been be identified. There will be opportunities for non-walkers to provide enroute support, hospitality and prayer. There are possible feeder routes to the four main Ways from all the other Catholic cathedrals of England & Wales for keen long-distance walkers, so people from every diocese can organise their own pilgrimages. More information and registration Information about how to support the Pilgrimage with prayer and hospitality and how to register to walk stages as day pilgrims can be found here . Wishing you every blessing and joy during this Jubilee year, as we strive to become ‘pilgrims of hope’. I hope to meet many of you in Nottingham on 13th September. Buen camino! Phil McCarthy, Project Lead

Walking in the steps of London's saints

By Colette Joyce /ICN • June 4, 2025

A group of 25 pilgrims gathered at the English Martyrs Church by Tower Hill last Thursday morning, Feast of the Ascension, to take part in the Westminster Way Jubilee Year Pilgrimage, led by Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Colette Joyce. At each station we prayed and reflected on saints connected to London and the inspiration they continue to be for us today: St John Houghton and the Carthusian Martyrs of the Reformation, the missionary St Augustine of Canterbury, St Anne Line who sheltered priests and held secret Masses in her home during the Elizabethan persecution, St Erconwald, St Ethelburga and St Etheldreda. We remembered the scholars of the 7th century who brought learning and education to both men and women, and St John Henry Newman whose own spiritual journey of conversion and prophetic sense of the nature of the Church had a profound influence on the 20th century leading up to the Second Vatican Council. From the church we walked past the Tower of London, where so many Catholic martyrs met their fate during the Reformation, stopping to pray at the site of the scaffold where St John Fisher and St Thomas More were executed. Our next stop was Mary Moorfields, the only Catholic Church in the City of London. From here we walked to the Charterhouse, once a Carthusian priory and home to the first martyrs of the Reformation. The Prior, St John Houghton and Companions were hung and quartered for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Watching from his cell window, St Thomas More witnessed the monks being dragged on hurdles from the Tower of London on 4 May 1535. He is said to have admired their courage and faith as they went to their deaths, viewing them as "Cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms going to their marriage." From here we walked to St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, one of the oldest Catholic churches in London. Built around 1250 as the town chapel for the bishops of Ely. After the Reformation It had several owners . For a a time it was used by the Spanish ambassador as a private chapel. During Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, it was used as a prison and a hospital. The Rosminians bought St Etheldreda's in 1874 and have restored it beautifully. As we were walking during Laudato Si' Week, pilgrim leader Colette Joyce invited pilgrims to reflect on the flora and fauna of London on our way. London is a surprisingly green city, blessed with around twenty percent tree coverage - which makes it technically a forest! We are especially grateful to the Victorians who planted the ubiquitous London Plane trees which can be found in streets and parks all over the city, while there are more than 400 other species of tree to discover. "The entire material universe speaks of God's love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God… contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us." (Laudato Si', 84-85) After a stop at Corpus Christi Church in Covent Garden - where former parish priest Fr Francis Stanfield wrote Sweet Sacrament Divine and Mgr Ronald Knox preached his famous homilies on the Blessed Sacrament - we made our way down the Strand, past Traflagar Square, through Whitehall, down to Westminster Cathedral. On our arrival, we weary walkers were greeted by the Cathedral Dean, Fr Slawomir Witoń. We ended our pilgrimage with prayers in the Martyrs Chapel and a reflection from Fr Slawomir on the life and witness of St John Southworth, patron saint of clergy in the Diocese of Westminster. The pilgrims received the final stamp in their Pilgrim Passports and a blessing before returning home. Colette Joyce, Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Read more about the Westminster Way: https://westminsterjusticeandpeace.org/2025/06/02/walking-the-westminster-way/ This article was first published on Independent Catholic News: Independent Catholic News Image: Pilgrims at Westminster Cathedral (Archdiocese of Westminster)

The Psychology of Pilgrimage

By Phil McCarthy • June 3, 2025

In this podcast I discuss the psychology of pilgrimage, especially as it relates to visiting First World War battlefields and cemeteries.

Walking the St Wulstan Way

By Peter Chisholm • May 31, 2025

Pilgrims joined Fr Gerry Walsh tracing St Wulstan’s life and legacy, from Worcester Cathedral to Clifton Cathedral as part of the Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee, “Pilgrims of Hope” celebrations. Participants explored their faith while journeying through stunning landscapes and historic locations.