PILGRIMAGES GO ECUMENICAL
This year’s pilgrimage will be an ecumenical event
organised to celebrate the Thirteenth Centenary of St Wilfrid’s conversion
of Sussex, which began when he landed at Selsey in 681. Enclosed with this
newsletter are several copies of the pilgrimage details for yourself and your
friends. This year an invitation to join the pilgrimage is being sent to all
the Sussex Churches, so applications could be much heavier than usual.
Previous pilgrims are recommended to book early, because, as in previous
years, a percentage of places will be reserved for new pilgrims.
NICK + CLAIRE
At Aidan and Imelda’s very
happy wedding in September (complete with The Crosby Brass Band) the next
pilgrimage wedding was announced. Claire Brockman and Nick Parsons who met on
the second pilgrimage along The Pilgrims Way are to be wed at St Joseph’s
Church, Epsom, on Saturday 25th July at 2.30pm. We wish them well in all their
preparations.
MR DANNY NEARLY PRIEST SIR
Danny O’Callaghan, a student
at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, joined the pilgrim family on the Buckfast
Pilgrimage. Since then he has been ordained a Deacon, and will be working in
St Joseph’s Parish, Redhill. His Ordination to the Priesthood will be at St
Mary of the Angels Church, Worthing, on Friday 3rd July at 6.30pm. I am sure
you will remember him in your prayers as he approaches this great day.
SOME OTHER PILGRIMAGES
Various events are being
organised during the course of the year by members of our pilgrim family.
Margaret Archer is organising
a second pilgrimage for the Portsmouth Diocese at Easter from Oxford to
Winchester, Details from Margaret.
Father Peter Madden is arranging
an Easter mountain-walking holiday in Snowdonia from 20th - 26th April, but
bookings for that are now completed.
Moggy Stephens is organising a
“Cream Egg Pilgrimage", which means a sponsored walk, from Eastbourne to
Arundel. The dates are April 8th - 12th and you can get details from Miss
Moira Stephens.
Aidan and Imelda are trying to
arrange a pilgrimage in Donegal, Ireland, in the summer, praying for peace.
Looking ahead to July or
August 1982, Pat Harris is starting to plan a trip to Assisi.
REIGATE REDHILL REUNION
About 80 pilgrims foregathered
at St Joseph’s School, Redhill one weekend in October, where Andy Bashford
was our most genial host. We reacquainted ourselves with the joys of sleeping
on the floor, and enjoyed a rather muddy walk in excellent company over
Reigate Hill Our grateful thanks are due to Mr and Mrs Bashford, and the
members of the Holy Family Parish, Reigate, who worked hard to make our stay
such a comfortable one. Many wrote to explain their absence. Jane Rex was
recovering from a minor operation, and Susan Martin from another spell in
hospital. We hope they are both really well again now. Nicola Langton was
playing in a netball tournament. Katherine Murphy was attending a witches
gathering in Hamburg. Maria Holcroft was on a geology field trip in South
Wales. Jacqui Caseley was away on a sailing weekend. Claire Brockman was
delivering babies in Sheffield. Nick Parsons was on a Student Cross pilgrimage
reunion.
MORE PILGRIM ROMANCE
Karen Slauter and George Evans
are now engaged. Karen and George both joined the pilgrims for the first time
in 1977 on the Walsingham Pilgrimage, but it wasn’t noticed that they were
particularly fond of one another until this last year Congratulations to them
both!
HOLMBURY ST MARY WEEKEND
About 30 walkers got together
at the instigation of Moggy Stephens, Pat Harris and Kevin Broder at the end
of October for what they described as "A weekend of walking and boozing
with fireworks and a barbeque. A good time was had by all, and they were able
to make £20 profit which was given to the Franciscan Missionaries (having
taken over their church at Gomshall for Sunday Mass!)
HELEN SMITH THE SECOND
Helen Rice met Leslie Smith on
the first pilgrimage, and so became Helen Smith the First. Helen Smith the
Second arrived on 17th May
weighing 10 lbs, a sister to Andrew, Christina and Frances, and reportedly a
very quiet baby. At the other end of the Smith family. Andrew will begin school
this month at Copthorne Convent.
NEWS FROM ROMANIA
Dawn Willson has written a
couple of interesting letters from the British Embassy in Bucharest. Romania is
a lovely country she says, full of mountains, trees and horses, which work
alongside tractors in the fields, just as gypsies still survive amongst earnest
twentieth century socialists. But she regrets the hostility which exists, as
direct contact with the Romanian people is impossible. If you befriended a
person it would probably damage their reputation, and possibly their continued
existence, so she is confined to the company of other diplomats. Dee is suffering
rather from the snow with her short legs. Dawn says that any pilgrims who happen
be passing through Romania will be welcome in their large flat.
CLERGY APPOINTMENTS
Father Bob Garrard is now
Priest-in-charge at the new shared church at Broadfield. One church has been
built jointly on this new area of Crawley, which is shared, by Bob, an Anglican,
and a United Reformed Church minister and their respective congregations. Being
a new area Bob says it is full of young families. He reckons that half his
congregation is under 10, and that most of the women are pregnant! Father Peter
Madden is now assistant priest in the pilgrim city of Canterbury. He promises to
reserve accommodation for pilgrims when Pope John Paul II visits there probably
in May 1982. If he does, I am sure there will be a group of Arundel and Brighton
pilgrims walking to Canterbury again.
BRIEF NEWS OF PILGRIMS
Jackie Moorcroft is now training
as a doctor at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London.
Rupert Quail is now living two
miles from Charing on the Pilgrims Way.
Gerard Waters is now in the
Royal Navy, and has been training at Dartmouth. He was due to pass-out and join
his first ship at Christmas.
GRAIL FAMILY WEEKS
Something for those whose young
children prevent them coming on pilgrimages. These Family Weeks are combined
holidays and retreats where children are welcomed and cared for. Dates for 1981
are: Waxwell Farm House, Pinner, 25 July-I August; St Peters Grange, Prinknash 1
- 8 August and also 9 - 16 August ; Minsteracres, near Durham, 1 August (also
young peoples week at same time ; 14 to 16 years old) ; St Teresa’s,
Effingham, 22 - 29 August; and Bencathra Centre, Trelkeld, Keswick, 23 - 30
August. For more details write to Christine Orchard. Cost for adults £55 and £27 for children. Highly recommended.
PILGRIMS IN AFRICA
In his latest letter Father Hans
Burgman (whose own pilgrimages inspired ours) writes of his method of visiting
his people in the shanty towns around Kisumu... "Every other week I live with a
family in one of our areas for a whole week, and during that time I go round to
bless the households. This is something our people really like. But we put down
our conditions. Before we do the blessing ceremony the house should be
thoroughly cleaned. And secondly, they should promise to come to a special
retreat later on, so that we can keep contact with them. In this way I have
visited and blessed more than 100 households over the past weeks. It is a
marvellous way to get to know the people and to get through to them. It is quite
an experience in itself to spend a week with an African family in a shanty
town.”.
THE SUSSEX TEAM
There has been a marvellous
response to my appeal for helpers with the Sussex Pilgrimage. 2 secretaries:
Terri Roberts on pilgrimage organisation, and Anne de Normanville on
correspondence with pilgrims. Route planners : Patrick Reeve, Mike Roberts,
Julian Martin, Pat Vaughan, Maggy Sexton, Gary O’Brien, and Brendan Cotter.
Frances Dean, Pat and Sylvia Wood, and Sarah Lane have bravely volunteered again
for the catering. And Terri Roberts for drink stop girl. One or two Buckfast
Pilgrims dared to say Sussex would be boring. From my preliminary explorations I
can safely predict that they will be amazed. Just for starters: Trundle Hill,
the Wealden Hammer-ponds, and Pevensey Marshes. And much, much more!