The Hearts in Search of God Easter newsletter
Welcome to the Easter 2026 Hearts in Search of God project newsletter!
The Hearts in Search of God project is delighted to welcome Bishop Patrick McKinney, the tenth Bishop of Nottingham, as project patron. I am grateful for the support of the Bishops' Conference of England & Wales for his appointment. Bishop Patrick is a keen walker and was a great supporter of the 2025 Pilgrimage of Hope, walking one of the final stages with the pilgrims.
Walking the Via di Francesco for the St Francis Leprosy Guild
On 27th April 2026 I will set out from Florence to walk the Via di Francesco to Assisi and on to Rome. The walk is 322 miles long and very hilly! As a medical student in India I saw the devastating consequences of leprosy so I’m walking the Way of St Francis in the 800th anniversary of his death to raise funds for the St Francis Leprosy Guild. More information about the Via di Francesco and the work of the Guild can be found here.
Saturday 21st March 2026: The Spring Pilgrimage Gathering
During the 2025 Jubilee with its theme ‘pilgrims of hope’ there was an upsurge of interest in walking pilgrimage in England and Wales. The Spring Gathering built on this. 60 people registered for the event and several more participated in the evening social event and Sunday morning pilgrim walk.
The day started with the first public screening of the film The Way of St Cuthbert followed by a panel discussion with historian Dr Anne E Bailey, filmmaker Christian Holden and educationalist Dr Jason Baxter. This wonderful film of a group of American students walking from Melrose to Lindisfarne is a 30-minute gem. You can download a copy for showing in public from www.saintant.com
Celebration of walking pilgrimage in England & Wales
We celebrated all that was achieved during the 2025 Jubilee and shared plans for 2026. 15 organisations contributed reports and details were gathered from the websites of another 7. Details can be found in the Spring Gathering update where you can download a full report of the day. We shared ideas for how we could work better together to promote and develop walking pilgrimage in England & Wales.
The Year of St Francis of Assisi
We shared ideas for pilgrimages for peace in this 800th anniversary year of the death of St Francis. All the ideas as well as a map and database of churches dedicated to St Francis and Franciscan communities can be found here. Why not organise a pilgrim walk in your parish on the feast day, Sunday 4th October?
A proposal was made for a national walking pilgrimage in the week before the Adoremus Eucharistic Celebration on 10th -11th October 2026. There will be four Ways starting at Marian shrines and converging at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St George in Southwark on Friday 9th October for shared prayer. A small group of perpetual pilgrims will walk the full distance, joined by day pilgrims who will register for each day. More details can be found here. If you would like to be involved, please email me.
The latest companion organisation is Catholic People’s Weeks. Their mission is to revitalise the heart, mind and spirit of Catholic people today. This year CPW are walking the Augustine Camino, taking on the simple life of a pilgrim, visiting ancient churches, monasteries and shrines for blessings, prayers and Masses. They hope to offer an authentic Camino experience, with an expert guide and baggage transfer.
Hearts in Search of God project Steering Group
A Steering Group has been formed for the project. Our latest member is Joe Northam, a trailblazer and perpetual pilgrim on the Pilgrimage of Hope. Details of all the members of the Group can be found on here. We meet online about every six weeks. I am very grateful to them all for contributing their time and expertise. We continue to call on the wisdom of the project Advisory Panel as needed.
Upcoming Events
At the Spring Gathering a proposal was made for a shared walking pilgrimage calendar on www.pilgrimways.org.uk so that people can find events more easily and we can avoid clashes. This is under construction. If you are organising a group walking pilgrimage in England & Wales or a related event and would like it to be included, please contact me.
Resources
Shrines: I am grateful to Dr Anne E Bailey for details of several medieval shrines which either survived the Reformation or have been restored since, and where the saint’s relics can still be venerated. They include: St Alban at St Albans, St Bede the Venerable at Durham, St Bertram at Ilam, St Candida (St Wite) at Whitchurch Canonicorum, St Chad at Lichfield, St Cuthbert and St Oswald at Durham, St Eanswythe at Folkestone, St Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, St Frideswide at Oxford, St Melangell at Pennant Melangell, St Thomas Cantilupe at Hereford, and St William at York. The webpage includes a map and details of these and other shrines.
Inspiration
Thanks to all those who have contributed news and stories over the last few months. Topics include:
- The Extreme Way of the Cross was started in Poland in 2009 by a young priest called Fr Jacek Stryczek. Today the initiative has been taken up by many tens of thousands of people in 20 countries across the world.
- I was delighted to be invited to contribute a paper to the 2025 Lived Catholicism conference. I spoke on 'walking pilgrimage as an unsung site of synodality', but what on earth do I mean by that? Listen to the presentation to find out!
- Walk the Augustine Camino with Catholic People's Weeks: Sunday, September 13, 2026 to Sunday, September 20, 2026!
- You are invited to take part in the John Bradburne Pilgrimage Climb 2026, taking place on Saturday 13 June in the beautiful landscape of Cumbria.
The Diocesan Ways
The Pilgrim Way for the Diocese of Salford, the Way of St Theodore has been revised to include the Schoenstatt Shrine at Kearsley. The Way still starts at Salford Cathedral and ends at the St Theodore Centre at Stoneyhurst.
I would be grateful for any feedback you have about the Ways, and especially any route updates and changes. After your pilgrimage remember to download your certificate of completion.
If you have a story or a pilgrim resource or event to share, please contact me through the website.
Please feel free to share his newsletter with people who may be interested. I hope you enjoy the website, designed by the wonderful people at Everyday Christian Marketing.
Wishing you every blessing and joy of Easter as we continue to walk as ‘pilgrims of hope’.
Buen camino!
Phil McCarthy, Project Lead
