Joanna Bogle reflects on the spiritual potential of a new Camino route and its value to people today.
People have walked to Walsingham for centuries. It is a stirring thought that in just over 30 years’ time – when today’s teenagers are middle-aged – the shrine will be a thousand years old. Pilgrims will be marking Walsingham’s millennium. In recent years there has been an increasing amount of research about the origins of the shrine, and about the ancient routes that led there.
Now, in a joint enterprise bringing together not only Christians of different denominations but also public authorities, the London-Walsingham route has been the subject of useful work. Signposts will take pilgrims along the way, and I have already experienced the delight of these, along lanes and meadowland paths in Norfolk where the discreet but clear wooden signs somehow link today’s pilgrim to the thousands who have walked before.
My first introduction to Walsingham was like that of so many others – a long coach ride, with what our American friends call a “comfort stop” as the only interruption in a rather dreary journey, and an arrival in the car park of a modern church. As the day developed, with prayer in the ancient Slipper Chapel, and a walk long the Holy Mile, I experienced something of the glory of Walsingham. But to get the full flavour of Walsingham, something more than this is needed.
I rediscovered Walsingham by walking. The excellent John Paul Walk, launched in memory of the great pope by the splendid Dominican Sisters of St Joseph, based in the New Forest, became an annual joy. We prayed, we sang, we had Mass in glorious ancient churches by friendly arrangement with the local Anglican clergy, we slept in church halls and schools, and we arrived triumphantly at Walsingham to a grand welcome at the packed Sunday Mass.
In more recent years I have walked with Fr Dominic Robinson SJ and a team based at St Mary’s on Farm Street in London, and it was through this that I learned of the new initiative to guide walkers along the ancient routes. We were introduced to the project in Norwich, and were among the first pilgrims to follow the signs that took us along the lanes and paths. Nothing large or garish – you need to look carefully to find the signs, and that is part of the charm. And there will need to be regular work done to keep the route usable – nature works her own way with brambles and nettles.
But the upkeep and the information is all part of the project: a mix of genuine ecology and good scholarship, a love of the outdoors and a love of history. It is a large venture, aimed at nothing less than reviving the walking routes as part of a spiritual and cultural revival among those huge numbers in the population for whom pilgrimage and prayer are unknown. There is a spiritual hunger in Britain: you can feel it and sense it. Rather than lament it, or allow a variety of nonsensical, bogus or indeed sinister things to fill it, let’s offer the truth and beauty of Christian pilgrimage.
It has been widely noticed in recent years that the Camino to Santiago has become fashionable and popular: people walk it, write about it, make videos of their journey, and try to convey something of what it meant to them. Walking to Walsingham is part of this same experience – the physical walking linked to the spiritual journey. Not only that, the route from London has been recognised by the Confraternity of St James – anyone walking 25 km of it can put it towards the 100 km needed to claim the official Camino credencial on arrival in Compostela.
Organising a full-scale London-Walsing-ham pilgrimage takes a lot of work – places to stay, arrangements for meals, practical plans for everything from backpacks to blisters. Organising a part-way walk is easier and achievable: a full day’s walk through Norfolk countryside that begins at a suitable gathering-place and finishes at the shrine, or a series of walks that follows the route on day pilgrimages over a period of weeks.
Thanks to groups like Youth 2000 and the annual New Dawn conference, Walsingham has become known to new generations of Catholics since the Millenium. Now it is time to widen the scope even further. As we look towards Walsingham’s own millennium, it is not unrealistic to see the pilgrimage to this shrine as something that could answer something of the spiritual needs of our country and era.
God has put a longing for goodness, truth, and beauty in our hearts. We all need fresh air, exercise, companionship, and a sense of purpose. Let’s walk to Walsingham!
Andy Bull has produced a London to Walsingham Camino guidebook to help pilgrims engage with the re-established route. The whole pilgrimage of just over 175 miles could be accomplished by a fit walker in a fortnight or less, but the guide caters for multiple approaches. The new Camino will be officially launched at Walsingham on the weekend of March 24-26, including events at both the Catholic and Anglican shrines and an ecumenical service at the site of the original Holy House in the Priory Grounds.
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