Pilgrimage - 15th Sunday After Trinity

‘Falls Road’ and ‘Shankill Road’ are deeply familiar road names to me and to many of my age, featuring as they did in regular news features on ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland throughout the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. These news reports were some of the earliest I remember being consciously aware of, and alarmed by, with all their scenes of chaos and violence.

So, it was fascinating to walk these two roads, and the neighbourhoods around them last week during our trip to Belfast for my niece’s wedding. Our guides for this ‘urban pilgrimage’ through the sites associated with the heart lands of Belfast’s Nationalist and Loyalist communities was led by two former activists from the time of ‘The Troubles’; one Republican and one Unionist, and both of whom had been imprisoned for their involvement. 

On our walk we were told some of the first-hand stories of ‘The Troubles’ in situ, bringing context, atmosphere, embodied awareness and spirit, as well as deepened understanding to this recent history. Hence me describing the walk as an ‘Urban Pilgrimage’. The ‘pilgrimage’ invited us to reflect at places and with people who have lived and been shaped by particular events and experiences; the places still marked by and telling the stories of these experiences. And now these stories are told in part to enable the sharing of an inspiring narrative of peace and community building in the heartlands of former sectarian violence.

I’m tempted at this point to keep telling the stories of the walk and my reflections on this particular ‘Urban Pilgrimage’; however, I’ll ‘press pause’ at this point because the purpose of describing this recent ‘Urban Pilgrimage’ is by way of invitation to join me and others for next Saturday’s Benefice Quiet Day based at St Anne’s church in Eastville and its surrounding community. Along with Emma Langley, recently appointed vicar of St Anne’s (and former worshipper at St Paul’s) I’m going to be introducing some themes of ‘Urban Pilgrimage’ - inviting consideration of the ways in which God’s life might be prayerfully discerned amongst the living realities of the streets of our city.

Each place has its stories of struggle and grace, of change and continuity, of connection and particularity, of the lived and living local where each life is grounded. Deepening in awareness of these realities through embodied awareness, looking with the ‘eyes of our hearts’ open to who and what is present is the practice we’re going to be exploring together.

The Quiet Day will include reflective input from myself and Emma, a guided prayer walk through one of Bristol’s most diverse and distinctive neighbourhoods, an opportunity to prayerfully explore alone or in pairs, and time and space for quiet reflection.

On the day we will be following in the footsteps of Jesus who ‘drew near and saw the city…’ (Luke 19.41). At the heart of ‘Urban Pilgrimage’ is a ‘drawing near’ with an intention to ‘see’ with the eyes of Jesus. Luke 19 goes on to say that Jesus ‘wept over’ the city, before speaking his heartfelt longing for peace. This pattern of drawing near and seeing opens us to considering our own emotional and spiritual responses: seeing, listening, feeling and discerning offering deeper awareness informing our own prayerful longings for the life of our city.

I hope that you will consider joining us next Saturday.

With my love and prayers from your fellow pilgrim,

David