Walking as Pilgrims of Hope Conference Report

Phil McCarthy • July 19, 2024

In preparation for the 2025 Jubilee with its motto ‘pilgrims of hope’ the Hearts in Search of God project held a conference. The aims were to help dioceses and other Catholic organisations to undertake walking pilgrimage during the Holy Year confidently, and to build a community of people involved in walking pilgrimage. There were 32 onsite participants with 75 registered to join online. The event was recorded, and the content of presentations and discussions will be used to create a resource on walking pilgrimage and the Jubilee.

Participants met at the Church of St Mary Moorfield, 4/5 Eldon Street, in the City of London. The City is the square mile inside the ancient Roman walls of Londinium. It is a city, ceremonial county and local government district with its own Lord Mayor, Corporation and police force. During the Nineteenth Century it was the centre of global trade. In 2022 London came second after New York in the Global Financial Centres Index. Before the Great Fire of 1666, there were over 100 churches in the City. By the start of World War Two there were just under 50, half of which were badly damaged by bombing, 5 beyond repair. By the late 1960s after restoration and rebuilding there were 39 Anglican churches in good condition. Some are now redundant or used for other purposes. There is only one Catholic church in the square mile, and our pilgrimage started there.

We were welcomed by Fr Chris Vipers, Parish Priest & Director of the Agency for Evangelisation, Archdiocese of Westminster who described the history of the church and parish. We listened to St Luke’s account of the Walk to Emmaus, and Cath McCarthy, my wife and a spiritual director, led us in prayer. Fr Chris blessed us, and we set off. During our 1.2 mile walk we passed the churches of St Botolph, St Ethelburga the Virgin with its Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, St Helen, Bishopsgate, St Mary Axe, St Andrew Undershaft, St Peter-upon-Cornhill, St Michael, Cornhill (built on the remains of the Roman Basilica), St Edmund, King & Martyr, St Clement (of ‘oranges and lemons’ fame), and the site of the former Church of St Laurence and Corpus Christi College. Finally we arrived at 1 Angel Lane, the office of CCLA, who generously provided the conference venue.

We were welcomed by Willie Hartley Russell, Client Investments Director, CCLA. CCLA (Churches, Charities and Local Authorities) Investment Management is the UK’s largest charity fund manager with £13 billion in assets. It is well known for managing investments for charities, religious organisations and the public sector. Uniquely, CCLA is owned by its investors. It is a pioneer of ethical and responsible investment and launched a Catholic Investment Fund in 2021, designed to reflect the teachings and mission of the Church. I am grateful for their generous hosting of the conference.

The conference started with an explanation from me of why we should walk as ‘pilgrims of hope’ in the Jubilee and what we know of the practical implications of the Papal Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee and the document on indulgences.

Next was an inspirational online presentation by Juliana Kazemi on ‘Walking pilgrimage as personal transformation and formation in faith’ based on her experiences as an American pilgrim on the Cornish Celtic Catholic Way. She described what inspired her and her family to walk as pilgrims in the UK during 2023, and then to plan to return in 2024. She explained what the pilgrimage means to her and shared her ideas about how we might inspire more people, especially the young, to walk as pilgrims of hope during the Jubilee. She argues that pilgrimage is an antidote to many of the disillusions of our time through walking, beauty and tradition. Her wonderful presentation can be watched by clicking on the button below.

TALES FROM THE CORNISH CELTIC PILGRIM WAY

After lunch we had two panel discussions with contributions from experts on walking pilgrimage. They were:

• How to plan a pilgrim route to maximise the spiritual, physical and social benefits of the walk, by Andrew Kelly, creator of the Augustine Camino and Shrine Director

• How to risk assess a route for health & safety and how to brief walkers about the risks, by Rowan Morton-Gledhill, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Leeds and coordinator of the St Wilfrid’s Way Camino

• How to organise group pilgrimages including group safeguarding and event insurance, by John Chenery, Arundel & Brighton Ecumenical Walking Pilgrimage coordinator and Alison Gelder, Pilgrim Cross representative

• How to organise and undertake a school pilgrimage to ensure a safe and spiritual experience for all involved, by Stuart Keene, Assistant Headteacher & pilgrimage organiser, St Edward’s School, Poole

• How to engage young people in walking pilgrimage, encourage them to join existing pilgrimages and organise their own, by Beth Przybylska, Strategic Project Director of Catholic Youth Ministries Federation (CYMFed)

• How to offer pilgrim accommodation as sanctuaries rather than stopovers, by Dawn Champion, Head of Community Operations, British Pilgrimage Trust

• The challenges of building fundraising into a pilgrimage project, by Dom De Boo, Community Fundraising Executive CAFOD

The day ended with prayer led by Sr Margaret Donovan, Sister of the Holy Cross. The Sisters of the Holy Cross CIC has supported the project with grant funding, and I am very grateful to them. The conference was followed by a convivial dinner.

The day was productive. The learning from the presentations will contribute to the group pilgrimage resources page of the Hearts in Search of God website. Hopefully every diocese and many other Catholic organisations will be inspired and encouraged to undertake walking pilgrimages during the Jubilee, perhaps alongside people of other churches and faiths.

Phil McCarthy

GROUP PILGRIMAGE RESOURCES

< 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.