Catholic People’s Weeks Pilgrimage along the Augustine Camino
For 80 years Catholic People’s Weeks (CPW) have been providing 'holidays that make a difference' - where you’ll find faith, food for thought, fun, and friendships both new and old. This year they decided to have a walking pilgrimage.
As well as seasoned CPW walkers the pilgrimage attracted people new to CPW, new to pilgrimage walking and a group of Pilgrim Cross folk of which I was one.
Our pilgrimage began quite early on a Sunday morning at Rochester Station, where 25 people met with varying degrees of excitement and trepidation, before setting off to Rochester Cathedral for a pilgrim blessing, the first stamp for our pilgrim passports and our first taste of the expert and informative leadership of our guide, Andrew Kelly (author of the guidebook and creator of the route https://augustinecamino.co.uk/guidebook/).
As we left the cathedral the bells began to ring and our pilgrimage had begun. We quickly fell into a pattern recognizable to anyone who has walked a Camino route: walk, eat, sleep, repeat - while stopping at churches (and cafes and hostelries) to stamp our pilgrim passports and admiring the beautiful countryside along our way. But there were also some distinctive CPW characteristics. We were each assigned to groups to be responsible for the liturgy that punctuated our days: morning prayer; Mass said by our chaplain, Fr Chris Hughes, on “holiday” from his parish in North Shields; evening prayer; and a couple of reflections linked to the theme of the day.
The theme for the week was “Peace, Power and Pilgrimage”, but each day had its own theme within this: the Cross (Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross); Peace (Our Lady of Sorrows); Community; Action (Hildegard of Bingen); Shared Power; God’s generosity. One of us brought a guitar and recorder to provide musical accompaniment and we found the other resources we needed via the internet and apps on our phones; leading to a WhatsApp group full of prayers, hymns and spiritual poetry and readings. And it emerged that several of our number (not me) could sing beautifully, including in one case in Gallic. Salve Regina became one of the recurring songs of our week, along with the Sheffield carol, Hail Smiling Morn, drawn from the Pilgrim Cross repertoire.
Two of our daily Masses stand out in my mind. One in a woodland clearing with an altar improvised from a fallen tree and acorns dropping around us as we prayed. Another was where we celebrated (almost certainly) the first post Reformation Catholic Mass in an ancient church, with the blessing of the current Anglican incumbent. Other spiritual highlights were participating in Evensong and being blessed close to the site of the original shrine of St Thomas at Canterbury Cathedral, and the many opportunities to pray quietly, in the open air, in venerable churches and at the shrine of St Augustine at the pilgrimage’s end in Ramsgate.
The county of Kent was a joy to walk through, and highlights of this glorious countryside included: woods, rivers, vineyards, the downs, apple orchards (harvesting underway and many windfalls available), hops (and hop-picking), mushrooms, marshlands, horses, pigs, cows, sheep and goats and, of course, beautiful villages, churches and pubs, too.
Our guide Andrew proved to be an inexhaustible source of information about every church and holy site along the route. Our five hostel nights were much improved by our volunteer cook, Mary McHugh, who rose to the occasion so well. Thanks are due to Andrew, Mary, our CPW leader, Anne Dixon, and to Brid Fitzpatrick, her unflappable aide de camp.
As CPW’s roots are in education, primarily in faith formation, we enjoyed a packed programme which included a talk or discussion session most evenings. Topics included Medieval Pilgrimage, Non-violent peace building, Christianity in Britain at the time of St Augustine, and the paradox of pilgrimage and power.
Above all the week was deeply rooted in the pilgrimage experience. So, we began as a mixed group, some strangers, some old friends, and as we walked together, we became community and friends and the family of God united in His presence. I hope CPW organise another pilgrimage - I’m ready to sign up!
Alison Gelder is a member of the Hearts in Search of God Steering Group
More about Catholic People's Weeks can be found here.
