“We followed all the rules. We were really careful, washing the shopping, washing our hands, but it is highly transmissible,” Reverend Jo Haines (see photo) said. At first she experienced it as a bad bout of flu. ‘It was after 10 days that my breathing started to be affected, I was getting very short of breath. I spent about three days in bed laid on my front because it was really the only way I could breathe. I lay there and prayed.” While the rest of her family recovered, for Revd Jo the illness continued for months with breathlessness, a recurring fever, fatigue and muscle pains.Revd Jo is Team Vicar of Emmanuel and St Mary’s Church in Weymouth, Dorset. She had another set back to her health recently as a result of the virus, with the return of the fever.‘Long Covid means that my body seems unable to regulate its temperature” she said. “I’m fine cognitively but if I put too much physical demand on my body I get a high fever, fatigue, and my joints become stiff and ache.”She pays tribute to the support of her congregations, colleagues, retired clergy and lay ministers, alongside the support from the Diocese of Salisbury. A mental health nurse in her former profession and more used to being a care giver than a patient, Revd Jo says “living with Long Covid has highlighted the importance of well being, something that should be a priority for all clergy and lay ministers anyway.”
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.
