Sunday 22 September 2024 at 14.00 BST

Join Zoom Meeting – If you have not already received a Zoom invite by email and want to attend, let us know – no later than 21 September please:

AGENDA

1. Apologies
2. Acceptance of the Minutes of the September 2023 AGM
3. Review of The Heart of England Pilgrimage.
   A. Halls
   B. Routes & Timings
   C. Induction Service & Arrival/Celebration Day and Prayer Stops
   D. Service for Deceased Pilgrims
   E. Anything else
4. Treasurers Report: latest 2024 accounts
5. Election of Officers for Committee 2024-2025
   A. Coordinator (*** The new Coordinator may then chair the remaining meeting)
   B. Deputy Coordinator
   C. Chief Route Planner
   D. Chaplains
   E. Bookings Secretary
   F. Treasurer
   G. Communication & PR
   H. Safeguarding, Fire Safety & Security and Medical
   I. Minutes Secretary
6. Phil McCarthy: Plans for a National Walking Pilgrimage 2025 (not in August)
7. Progress on A&B Pilgrimage Routes & Theme for 9-24 August 2025 (provisional)
8. Support Team functions:
   A. Accommodation
   B. Church Liaison
   C. Ecumenical and spiritual development (inc prayer stops)
   D. Catering
   E. Quartermaster
   F. Equipment & Storage
   G. Drinks Car
   H. Van Drivers
   I. Webmaster
   J. Cross Design
9. Progress on Autumn Reunion 2024
10. Other 50th Anniversary Events – Spring Reunion?
11. Any Other Business
12. Meeting Dates 2025: suggested 12/1/2025, 27/4/2025, 22/6/2025 and the AGM
    on 21/9/2025

HEART OF ENGLAND PILGRIMAGE COMPLETE

This year’s pilgrimage from Worcester to Peterborough via Coventry was a great success. 55 pilgrims in total took part with 37 present each day on average. 14 pilgrims were new to the unique flavour of the A&B walking pilgrimage and I think they all mucked in and enjoyed themseleves. The scenery was perhaps less spectacular than on many of our pilgrimages but people appreciated a genuine esperience of rural England. Our route planners found clever routes into and out of the hearts of the cities and towns we visited which avoided the suburbs. Experiencing the ruins of the old Coventry Cathedral alongside the splendour of the new cathedral was a highlight.

If anybody wants to write a longer account of the pilgrimage from their perspective, for publication on this site and perhaps other pilgrimage and church sites, please let me know.

I thank the large team of people who made the pilgrimage possible by volunteering their efforts during the months leading up to and on the pilgtimage. It couldn’t happen without you.

Thank you to everybody who contributed to the web diary More photos have been added since the pilgrimage, and Aidan and I have tidied up all the pages, so do take a fresh look at it.

BURGHLEY HORSE TRIALS

Those who walked the first section of our last walking day this year, out of Stamford, will recall that we crossed the Burghley Horse Trials cross country course, near the “Cottesmore Leap” fence. The cross country part of the three day event took place today, and viewers in the UK can watch the highlights on BBC2 at 2pm tomorrow. I will be looking out for the Cottesmore Leap, and wondering what happened to the footpath today.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HOST 2024 REUNION

There was some chat about hosting the reunion on the pilgrimage, and now we need a firm offer. The reunion takes place over a weekend and the usual format is a walk on Saturday with overnight stays in a hall on the Friday and Saturday nights. It usually takes place either side of the school half term so this year that would be 25th-27th Ocotber or 1st-3rd November, but it could be another weekend. The venue is usually but not always in Surrey or Sussex. It was in Manchester once! Let us know if interested.

AGM 22ND SEPTEMBER – SAVE THE DATE

The agenda for this year’s AGM will be published shortly. This is the crucial meeting where we review the pilgrimage just completed and put the team in place for next year’s pilgrimage, so please set the time aside to attend if you can. It will be on Sunday 22nd September at 2pm on Zoom.

John Chenery, this year’s Pilgrimage Coordinator

It’s less than 6 weeks to go to the start of this year’s pilgrimage from Worcester to Peterborough and planning is going well. However we do have an opportunity for somebody to take a free place on the pilgrimage by becoming an additional member of the support team. This would suit a pilgrim who has previously walked with us, is unable to walk this year, and would like nonetheless to be part of our pilgrimage community again by serving in this way.

The role that is available is the one that Tineke has been doing in recent years, that of “quartermaster”. (Tineke is well but feels her fitness level is insufficient to take up the role this year) The role would involve:

• Travelling in the van with the driver John Russell
• On arriving at the hall, picking up the keys from the keyholder, recording the information they provide and passing it on
• Checking the equipment, lights, fire alarms, wifi, recycling, rubbish facilities in the hall
• Putting the non-kitchen hall equipment carried in the van in appropiate places before the walking pilgrims arrive
• Working out how the bed spaces are going to be arranged and reserving spaces for the frontmakers, backmarkers and others who need this service
• Putting up the hall arrows
• Setting up for sandwich making and supervising it
• Making sure volunteers have come forward for all necessary evening and morning tasks, liaising with the coordinator
• Checking the hall after the walking pilgrims have left and returning the keys to the keyholder

It may be possible for the successful candidate to walk some sections of the route. Having somebody to do this role, for the whole 2 weeks or a shorter period, will reduce the load on the other members of the support team and help the pilgrimage run more smoothly. If interested pleace let me know.

John Chenery, coordinator for 2024

Pilgrims from a few year’s back will remember Isaac who walked with us over several years either side of 2010 (and will recall his sparring with Peter Doran). Isaac has sent the following request for support for a charitable venture he is undertaking…

Hello pilgrims past and present, 

This summer, starting from the second weekend of July, I shall be walking the 800km of the Camino de Santiago, starting from Saint-Jean-Pied-du-Port, to raise money for a charity with whom I volunteer in Paris. This organisation, Utopia 56, works to support refugees and other displaced people in France in a political climate that is otherwise indifferent at best and outright hostile at worst– especially as in Paris the forces of the state move with brutal rapidity to ‘clear the city’ in the run up to the Olympic Games. We offer advice on applications for asylum, French lessons, recreational activities and, most importantly, tents and other materials.

These are people who have travelled thousands of miles in perilous conditions, and who are thrown from pillar to post upon arrival in what they believe will be a safe haven. In making a pilgrimage along the Camino, I hope to, at least symbolically and spiritually, walk with those who make much more dangerous and urgent journeys to safety. Any donations would be deeply appreciated, with the proceeds going to support the work that Utopia 56 does. 

You can make a donation at this link here: https://macollecte.utopia56.org/fundraisers/on-the-road-to-santiago

You can find out more information about Utopia 56 here (in English or in French): https://utopia56.org

Thank you very much in advance.

Yours, in pilgrimage, 

Isaac 

This is not an event for existing pilgrims. Rather it is an event that we want existing pilgrims to encourage a younger generation to take part in. Here are the details:

WALK FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 16 plus

ST WILFREDS CHURCH SOUTH RD

HAILSHAM, BN27 3JG

SAT MAY 25^th

9.30 registration

10am Start walk

12. 30 prayers/lunch St Pancras

Arlington

14.00 Michelham Priory

1600 Arrive St Wilfred’s church hall

1630 prayers and depart

Please bring packed lunch

Wear suitable clothes and footwear

For more info email garyobrien4@yahoo.co.uk

Bill’s funeral will be on Wednesday 1st May:

12.15 Mass in Friary Church, Haslett Avenue West, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1HR,

followed by burial at Snell Hatch Cemetery, 35D The Dingle, West Green, Crawley, RH11 7JG

followed by reception in Friary Church Hall.

If you are planning to attend, please reply here in a comment, to help Bill’s widow Chris get a feeling for numbers.

Pilgrims will be saddened to learn of the death of Bill Ward on Maunday Thursday, 28th March. Geoff Murray gave me the news and told me that Bill had sadly been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and he had been in a nursing home for the last 16 months.

Bill was a regular on our pilgrimage from 1991 into the 2010s. He loved our pilgrimages and was a much-loved figure. Many will remember the prayer stops that he led, full of wisdom.

Here are some photos to remind us of Bill. The last one was captured on the 2004 Crawley Reunion that he organised and shows him with his son and future daughter-in-law.

Terry’s funeral will be held on Friday March 15th 11:30am at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Redhill RH1 1LF.

Pilgrims will be saddened to learn of the death of Terry Dobson on Sunday 18th February.

Terry’s first pilgrimage with us was in 1987 and he was a regular for the next 20 years.

Here are some photos to remind us of Terry: