Devon Pilgrim offers people the chance to “take a journey of the heart” on routes which include Dartmoor and the ancient seat of the bishops of Exeter at Crediton.Each pilgrimage is divided into sections which start and end at a church, so they can be walked in one go over several days or in shorter segments.The churches all have a ‘pilgrim corner’ with prayers and meditations for people to engage with and a pilgrim stamp for walkers to mark their progress in specially designed Pilgrim Passports.The Bishop of Exeter, Robert Atwell, said “We associate pilgrimage with the medieval world but in our generation, we have rediscovered its grace.“People of all backgrounds are walking the ancient paths and, in so doing, entering upon a journey of the heart.“Many of them are discovering that God walks with them in their life.”Devon Pilgrim is part of Growing the Rural Church, a Diocese of Exeter project to help rural churches to be sustainable for the future and to engage with their local communities creatively.It is supported by a £1m Church of England Strategic Development Fund grant.Sarah Cracknell, Growing the Rural Church Project Manager, said “Pilgrimage is having a resurgence, whether it is the Celtic idea of the inner journey or the medieval tradition of travelling to a specific place to seek help or ask for direction.”
The “cope” – or processional robe – was designed by Terry Duffy and features a photo montage illustrating aspects of black British history since the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush on 22 June 1948.It includes the original ‘British citizen’ passport issued to Alford Gardner, a passenger on the ship, and an image of Sam King, another of the ship’s passengers, who later became the first black Mayor of Southwark. The image of the Jamaican-born Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, is also included.The photo montage recalls the murder of Stephen Lawrence and alludes to racial discrimination faced by migrants in Britain including the sign ‘No Irish, No blacks, No dogs’ a notice displayed in the windows of some rooms for rent.The cope was commissioned by the Church of England’s National Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns in 2018 to commemorate the Windrush 70th anniversary.It has since been available on request to churches and clergy across the country. It was, last year, worn by Fr Andrew Moughtin-Mumby for the “National Service” for Windrush Sunday.Now, the Revd Shavaun Shodeinde, who was made a priest in 2021, wore the cope at the first Mass she presided over at St Mary Magdalene, Wandsworth Common.“My late Grandfather, who was part of the Windrush generation, came from the West Indies to England,” she said. “He fostered Christian faith in me and enabled me to witness, through our heritage and ancestry, an example of what it means to be Christ-like.
I’m not normally a fan of weddings. Funerals are great because you learn things — and anyway, the outcome is certain. But weddings? When you reach my age you realise there are a diminishing number of Saturdays left in your life, and the case is not obvious for standing around with people you don’t know and may never see again.But this Saturday was different. There was something perfect about it. The marriage, short and very sweet, took place in the lovely little church of St Michael and All Angels in the Derbyshire village of Church Broughton.Kate was marrying Doug, the ceremony officiated by her mother, Jane, who’s about to retire as the local vicar and makes you wonder why the Church of England so long denied itself the calm, steady, unshowy spirituality that a woman can bring to the ministry.At the reception in a sunny rural garden I was overtaken by a perfect peace. It was so, so English. The gathering was not (in today’s lingo) diverse, but its very heterogeneity — English families, mostly of a certain class, nice people, mostly rural, mostly local — gave the occasion an air of mild, friendly self-assurance: the England of George Eliot, who well knew this corner of the Midlands: an England still so recognisable.I say “an” England. There are other Englands and we love them differently; but in an age of identity politics let’s recognise that this England too has a quiet identity, as strong as it is gentle.
