Dear Friends.

April is a month when people are drawn to pilgrimages.

One of the most famous pilgrimages, which took place in April, inspired Geoffrey Chaucer to write The Canterbury Tales. His celebrated work describes how twenty nine people from all walks of life met at an inn and started on a long journey to visit the shrine of St Thomas a Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. It has some wonderful descriptions of the characters, the stories they related on the journey and some iconic descriptions of the month of April.

For Chaucer, April is the time when the "yonge sonne" (young sun) fills the world with fresh life, prompting us all to leave the house and embrace its warmth. Even after all these centuries, the poet’s description of flowers, showers, and small birds singing "with open ye" remains a beautiful picture of this month. There is a sense of promise in this season that forces even the most reluctant among us to look up and notice the birds - the "smale foweles" - making melody.

If you would like to embark on your own mini pilgrimage this April, do join us on Good Friday, 3rd April, at St Peter’s Church Barton, at 11am. We shall be on a spiritual pilgrimage remembering Jesus’ suffering and death on Good Friday, before our Easter Sunday pilgrimage to church to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection at the 9.30am Communion Service on 5th April, followed by an Easter Egg Hunt around the St Peter’s churchyard.

Wherever you are this Easter, have a wonderful time,

With blessings,
Claire