The month before last I wrote about, amongst other things, my love of walking and the journeying, physical and spiritual, that we all undertake during the course of our lives. We began Holy Week of course with a short journey/procession on Palm Sunday, and later that week recalled the journey of Jesus to Golgotha and the cross. And following Jesus’ resurrection, which we celebrated in large numbers in Church on Easter Day, there are some wonderful accounts of journeys in the Bible, foremost amongst them that of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, where they encounter the risen Lord but don’t recognize him straight away.

One journey that really struck me however during this period, and about which I preached on Palm Sunday, was the pilgrimage to Canterbury of the newly appointed and soon to be installed 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally. Writing about that 87 mile journey from St Paul’s Cathedral in London to Canterbury Dame Sarah mentioned making the journey “with others and in the footsteps of the past.” Clearly referring to one of her predecessors, Thomas Beckett, she also mentioned those people who, across the world and across time, walk and have walked the pilgrim paths of faith each and every day. The installation service in Canterbury Cathedral was very striking, moving and deeply inspirational, not least at the very beginning when Dame Sarah knocked on the outer door with her staff requesting entry. On being challenged by a small group of schoolchildren as to who she was and why she was requesting entry, she replied “I am Sarah, a servant of Jesus Christ and I come as one seeking the grace of God, to travel with you in his service together.”

It’s unlikely, though not impossible, that Archbishop Sarah will ever find her way to Great Budworth or Antrobus, but the shared sense of purpose and journeying that she has conveyed in only a short time is, for me, quite wonderful and truly inspirational, and I look forward with great hope and expectation to her ministry among us. Dame Sarah’s Archiepiscopal colleague the Archbishop of York will, however, be visiting our Diocese in June, promoting Pilgrim Places in the North, a venture taking place over the next year or so and celebrating the 1400th anniversary of the baptism of the pagan King of Northumbria, Edwin, by the first Bishop of York, St Paulinus, in 627 AD. As a Parish, and Deanery, we are taking part in this initiative, so please watch this space, and others, for details of local journeys, events, pilgrimages and so on. There are some Pilgrim Places leaflets and prayer cards at the back of Church. You might also be interested in watching the Celebrity Pilgrimage programme which was broadcast in the week after Easter, with an interesting group of celebrities, of all faiths and none, making their way from south of Whitby Bay to the holy island of Lindisfarne, following in the footsteps of St Cuthbert, one of the most celebrated of the northern Saints.

And as we all make our Easter journeys towards Ascensiontide and Pentecost let us continue to refresh, deepen and strengthen our faith in the one who lived, died and rose again for us, and who walks before us on all our journeys, each and every day.

May God bless each one of us in this coming month.

Amen.

The Revd Alec Brown.