The invitation / booking form for the reunion is now ready. This is our first 2-night Autumn reunion since 2019. The walk includes Beachy Head and the lunch venue is an old pilgrimage favourite, the Tiger Inn at East Dean. Since the reunion is only 3 weeks away, please respond to the invitation as soon as possible if you are coming. The form is to be filled in by hand and posted, but please email also to say the form is in the post. Also please email if you are planning on going on the walk only. We hope to share the fun and fellowship of the reunion with past, present and future pilgrims.

John (not me!), Gary and Maurice are kindly organising a pilgrimage “reunion”, based in John’s home parish of Christ the King, Eastbourne. This will be the traditional pilgrimage reunion format of 2 nights in a hall, with a walk and evening meal on the Saturday. All are welcome, especially those who have not been on one of our pilgrimages before!

Hold the dates for now and the details and booking form will be available as soon as possible.

Today our webmaster Aidan is starting on a multi-day walk which is rather more challenging than our normal pilgrimages: the ascent of Kilimanjaro, which he is doing to raise money for the Kwale Eye Centre in Kenya.

Aidan was the champion our use of Naismith’s rule to plan the timings for each day of the walking pilgrimages, however he remarks that the formula will not apply in this case as it does not take account of oxygen deficiency at extreme altitudes!

Please see Aidan’s Go Fund Me page to donate.

Please note, that owing to an enforced change of our accommodation bookings, the first rest day of the St Thomas Way Pilgrimage will now be in St Athan not Cardiff i.e. we will be staying 2 nights in St Athan and only 1 night in Cardiff. The revised schedule is:

Day 1 Sat Aug 13 Travel to Swansea and Induction

Day 2 Sun Aug 14 Swansea to Port Talbot

Day 3 Mon Aug 15 Port Talbot to St Brides Major

Day 4 Tue Aug 16 St Brides Major to St Athan

Day 5 Wed Aug 17 Rest Day in St Athan

Day 6 Thu Aug 18 St Athan to Cardiff

Day 7 Fri Aug 19 Cardiff to Caerphilly

Day 8 Sat Aug 20 Caerphilly to Newport

Day 9 Sun Aug 21 Newport to Usk

Day 10 Mon Aug 22 Usk to Abergavenny

Day 11  Tue Aug 23 Rest Day in Abergavenny

Day 12  Wed Aug 24 Abergavenny to Longtown

Day 13 Thu Aug 25 Longtown to Ewyas Harold

Day 14 Fri Aug 26 Ewyas Harold to Hereford

Day 15 Sat Aug 27 Celebration Day in Hereford

Day 16 Sun Aug 28 Journey Home

Pat’s funeral Mass will be at St Joseph’s Redhill at 10am on Wednesday 15th December.

Pilgrims will be saddened to learn of the passing of one of our former pilgrim walkers from the Redhill area. Pat was an active pilgrim between 1991 and 1996, and until the stiles got too high for her.

Pat died on Thursday 25th November. Sarah, her daughter, writes: “I was hoping that you could let any of the pilgrims she walked with know. She truly loved going on the A&B Pilgrimages. We thought she was mad! It gave her such strength and focus after my dad died though. She was always so uplifted when she came home.

Her funeral mass will be in St Joseph’s Redhill, date TBA, hopefully before Christmas.”

If you knew Pat and would like to share memories or a photo, please reply to his posting with a comment. Like some of you I did not know Pat. In looking for something to share in these times, in the Middle Ages it was believed that if a pilgrim died whilst on pilgrimage, they would by-pass purgatory and go straight to heaven. It is a comforting thought to us all on life’s pilgrim journey …

and may Pat rest in eternal peace. Amen

Best wishes

David

Pilgrimage Coordinator

We’ve tracked down a couple of photos of Pat from the 1992 St David’s Pilgrimage.

The web diary for the reunion day is here

Further to the previous post with the reunion invitation, there is now a booking form. Please download it, fill it in, and attach it to the email that you send to  reunion21@thepilgrims.org.uk along with the details requested in the previous post.