Blessings from England! WE made it!!! Pilgrims have been arriving today at the Rubens at the Palace Hotel to embark on our time together over the next 13 days. It's so comforting to be greeted by members of your church family when you have been navigating "trains, planes, and automobiles." (Thanks, Reg!) We are also meeting some new friends who are joining us from other dioceses.
Earlier today while we were awaiting our room assignments, a couple of us found a delicious spot around the corner for brunch (avocado toast picture!) There was also a little time to start reading our new women's bible study book and sip on a warm beverage.
With some pilgrims still a little weary from international travel, we met this afternoon for a walking orientation of the area around our hotel lead by Ian Markham, Dean of Virginia Theological Seminary. (Check out those photos, too!) Tonight, we will gather for a welcoming dinner in the Rembrandt Room at the hotel to reflect on the spiritual practice of pilgrimages and pray together with compline before bedtime.
I can already feel God's hand on this journey. Join us tomorrow to learn about Sunday's adventures!
-Kristin Bennett
Today we were delighted to attend Eucharist as guests of The Very Rev. Dr. Mark Oakley, Dean of the Southwark Cathedral. In his sermon, Dean Oakley shared a particularly personal story. He recently reconnected with his birth mother and learned that he had been misled about the circumstances of her leaving. All his life he believed she left because she didn’t care about him. She was able finally to explain that she had suffered severe postpartum depression, which led to divorce and loss of custody. She explained that she had always loved him, followed his entire life from a distance and was very proud of him. He left the meeting with a new understanding of the situation, which transformed his life from then on. His sermon encouraged us to allow the Spirit to enter, give us a clearer understanding of God’s love for us and transform our hearts accordingly. Very powerful!
We enjoyed a traditional English “Sunday Roast” at the Cathedral and learned a bit about its history. Lancelot Andrewes oversaw the translation of the King James version of the Bible there. C.S. Lewis was influenced significantly by the writings of Lancelot Andrewes. William Shakespeare attended the Cathedral (which is near the Globe theatre) and his brother is buried there.
Oh, and the Cathedral mascot, Hodge, is a black and white cat who had the run of the place, even during the service!
The rest of the beautiful, sunny day was on our own, so we had Christ Church members scattered all over London. Amen!
-Jennifer McLeod
Today after breakfast, we traveled the short distance across Lambeth Bridge to Lambeth Palace, which is the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. We were delighted to have the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, lead us and the palace staff in morning prayer. After morning prayer, we had a guided tour of the palace to include the archbishop’s private chapel, where we saw the window where the desk is located that Thomas Cramner wrote the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549.
One of the palace gardeners guided us through the palace gardens, where the delight was to see a giant White Marselle fig tree, which came to Lambeth Palace in 1556 by the last Roman Catholic Archbishop.
Our pilgrimage continued in the afternoon where we visited Westminster Abbey. The Dean of Westminster Abbey hosted us for lunch in the Jerusalem chamber. This is the room where Lancelot Andrewes presented the King James version of the Bible, and it was read aloud for the first time. This is also the room where King Henry IV died.
We received a personal tour of the Abbey, visiting spaces that tours don’t usually get to see. For example, we visited the archaeological site for the new King Charles III Sacristy. There we saw remains of people buried back to the Romans.
The Chapter House was the place where Parliament met before the House of Parliament was built. We visited the shrine of Edward the confessor, the Crypt of Kings, Poets Corner, the burial site of the Unknown Soldier from WWI.
We closed the day with the fantastic setting of Choral Evensong on the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Pilgrimage is a time to meet God with fellow pilgrims. This was an impactful day being in the space where Catholics and Anglicans have met God for centuries. We were in the spaces where Kings and Queens, Lords, and Commoners have prayed to God for guidance for the nation and the people. Today, a group of pilgrims from the USA gathered to meet God in the place where Anglicans first met God.
-The Very Rev. Billy Alford
This morning we left the hotel and took the Tube to a station within walking distance of St. Paul’s Cathedral (London). Once again - we had a wonderful personal guide. It was a good visit but St. Paul’s is just too big for me.
I found the thin place in the most unexpected space: the American Memorial Chapel. In short - it is a chapel created by St. Paul’s in honor of those who fought and died during WWII on British soil. In the chapel - there is the Roll of Honor, a book of remembrance presented by the then General Eisenhower on 4 July 1951. Over 473 pages, it lists the name, rank and service details of the 28,000 American servicemen based in Britain who died in WW2; each day a page is turned, a continuous process done since November 1958.
We have 6 military veterans in our pilgrimage group and our guide invited them each to turn a page. We were all sort of in tears. A very thin place indeed. The chapel isn’t tucked away out of sight. It is directly behind the high altar - a place of honor. You can read more about it here: https://stuffaboutlondon.co.uk/war-memorials/the-american-memorial-chapel-st-pauls/
- The Rev. Fergie Horvath
Today we left London and arrived at Canterbury. The Canterbury Cathedral is the historical cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury and is one of the oldest Christian structures in England. It was founded in 597 by St. Augustine who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
Isn’t it incredible . . . We’ve visited the site of the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and shared Morning Prayer with the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury - a continuous line in our Faith tradition. I am amazed just thinking about it.
At the cathedral - we attended Evensong and then had a reception in the garden and dinner in the cathedral refectory hosted by a canon priest representative of the Dean of the cathedral (who is on holiday). We then met with the priest and - in the dark by candlelight - did a sort of stations of the cathedral walk throughout the cathedral. The entire hour walk was a thin place for me. The priest paid special attention to the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket. We ended with Compline.
I hope you are finding your own “thin places!”
- The Rev. Fergie Horvath
Canterbury is a lovely place to wonder the narrow streets, taking in the melting pot of pilgrims visiting the cathedral and other historic places to visit in town. Steps from our hotel are endless choices of coffee bars, restaurants, bars, and shoppes.
Midmorning we assembled together to load the motorcoach and take a lovely drive through the countryside of Kent. We arrived at Sissinghurst Castle Garden, a family estate that still has residents living on the sprawling estate. As a member of the National Trust, Sissinghurst has a country castle, active farm, and exquisite English gardens to enjoy.
Shortly after arriving, we devoured a “Ploughmans Lunch,” a lunch that the workers may have packed up and taken with them into the fields they were tending that day. Sausage roll, fresh baked breads, local cheeses, apples from the orchard, and other seasonal delicacies.
Next, we explored the gardens, a maze of manicured hedges and boxwoods, dahlias in bloom in rich oranges and yellows, statues and garden art saluting the greats, as well as some hiding spots for clandestine meetings.
Rarely would I say that the roads that took us to our destination were as grand as the Castle Garden that greeted us. England is so full of surprises and continues to enchant me.
-Kristin Bennett
Today we left Canterbury and arrived at Cambridge. After some free time in the afternoon, we met the professor of music at the Kings College Chapel. We had the chapel all to ourselves (and yes - it’s the chapel of the King’s College boys choir that some of us may watch at Christmas.
The professor spoke about music and the theology of music as it relates to Pilate’s question to Jesus, “What is truth?” How does music answer this question? I believe - in his opinion - it is without words. It was a fascinating lecture and left me with much to ponder.
The chapel is beautiful and the stained-glass windows are exquisite. It was a “thin place” indeed.
-The Rev. Fergie Horvath
After our first night in the University Arms Hotel in Cambridge, we took a short-day trip to “Little Gidding” about an hour away from this college town of 31 different schools. Each small village the motorcoach drove through seemed to be the ideal spot for a country chapel and estate. After the roads were seemingly more and more narrow and more and more rural, we finally arrived at the Ferrar Estate that houses the Little Gidding Chapel, St John’s. It’s here that Rev. Fergie Horvath (Church of the Good Shepherd, Greer, SC) led us in Holy Eucharist. (See the attached photo of that sacred worship space.)
Harrison gave a wonderful sermon about our human tendency to point fingers at others when navigating life’s challenges, when all the while, our creator is holding His arms out wide to us and inviting us into a relationship with Him. During the service we sang acapella “Come thy fount of every blessing” and “Amazing Grace” while receiving communion from a chalice and patten used in the 1600s by the Ferrar Family. FERRAR HOUSE - Home
We couldn’t have asked for better weather while visiting Little Gidding. We were able to walk the grounds, enjoying the flower gardens and rural views surrounding the main house and chapel. One of the headstones I saw in the churchyard contained these words, “We cannot Lord thy purpose see, but all is well that’s done by thee.”
Following our spiritual feast, we ate a delicious lunch of locally grown carrot and apple puree soup and bread, followed by “Sticky Toffee Pudding” for dessert. Susan Capp and her team extended great hospitality and even showed us some of the other heirloom communion treasures from the safe. It’s not hard to see why TS Eliot was so enchanted by this place that he wrote about it in his poem “Little Gidding,” the fourth and final poem in his “Four Quartets.”
-Kristin Bennett
Transfer day from Cambridge to Broadway. Upon arrival to this small village in the Cotswolds, we encountered a little food market and live music festival in the town square. Dogs are walking their owners around and it's wonderful to see all the happy people enjoying this sunny day! I can already tell that our time here will be special!
We have settled into our fourth and final home, The Lygon Arms. This hotel is warm and inviting and reminds me of Flat Rock or The Highlands. Many of us found restaurants serving the traditional English Roast lunch to refuel us for the final days of our pilgrimage. I enjoyed pork loin, cauliflower, broccoli, and potatoes.
-Kristin Bennett
Today we traveled to Oxford to visit Magdalen College, pronounced Maudlin, where CS Lewis studied, became an esteemed Fellow, and wrote many of his treasured fiction and non-fiction books.
Our group had a tour of the campus including the historic chapel, the historic library with a CS Lewis exhibit, and the Addison trail behind campus featuring hundreds of healthy stagg ready to great us.
After a delicious lunch of sea bass, The Rev. Dr. Laura Biron-Scott led our presentation and tour. Laura is a Magdalen College Chaplain and the Rector at CS Lewis' parish, Holy Trinity of Headington Quarry. We were so grateful to meet her and learn from her knowledge of one of the literary masters, CS Lewis.
-Kristin Bennett
With just 2 days left in our pilgrimage together, I’d like to reflect back on the handout that the Dean of VTS (Ian Markham) gave us the first night that we gathered together. On the sheet he listed distinctive themes that we would experience in these 2 weeks: worship, academia, the public life of England & the Church, the responsiveness of the Church into the world, and last but not least, the beauty that surrounds us – in stunning cathedrals and beautiful gardens. And so with the garden in mind (knowing we will see a stunning one today), I’d like to offer two thoughts for your consideration, as well as a song.
First, yesterday we lived and walked among the campus of Mary Magdalen College. It was a beautiful place. And when I think of Mary, the garden is a major theme that comes to mind – a place where she sees her risen Lord. Anglican priest, scholar, and poet Malcolm Guite writes about Mary and her garden experience this way:
“Men called you Light so as to load you down, and burden you with their own weight of sin, a woman forced to cover and contain those seven devils sent by every man. But one man set you free and took your part, one man knew and loved you to the core. The broken alabaster of your heart revealed to him alone, a hidden door, into a garden, where the fountain sealed, could flow at last for him and healing tears, till, in another garden, he revealed the perfect love that cast out all your fears, and quickened you with love own sway and swing, as light and lovely as the news you bring.
”This meeting of the risen Jesus with Mary outside of the tomb, was holy, personal, and led to a new way of life for Mary and the apostles.
Second (with the garden still in mind), perhaps the reason visiting a garden is so important, is so we can quiet our minds and listen for the voice of God. Walter Brueggemann, an Old Testament scholar, and professor, writes about listening to God this way:
“Our lives are occupied territory… occupied by a cacophony of voices, and the din undoes us. In the daytime we have no time to listen, beset as we are by anxiety and goals and assignments and work, and in the night the voices are so confusing, we can hardly sort out what could possibly be your voice from the voice of our mothers and our fathers and our best friends and our pet projects, because they all sound so much like you. We are people over whom that word Shema has been written. We are listeners, but we do not listen well. So we bid you, by the time the sun goes down today or by the time the sun comes up tomorrow, by night or by day, that you will speak in ways that we can hear out beyond ourselves. It is your speech to us that carries us where we have never been, and it is your speech to us that is our only hope. So give us ears. Amen.”
-The Rev. Fergie Horvath
Today was our last day together. Our pilgrimage had resonated with us all on so many levels. We have made new friends and strengthened existing relationships through our amazing experiences over the last two weeks.
This morning, the majority of our group traveled by coach from picturesque Broadway in the Cotswolds to Stratford upon Avon, a market town with eight hundred years of history.
Once there, we had the opportunity to explore this historic city. A number of us saw the birthplace of Shakespeare. Others saw Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare and some of his family are buried in the sanctuary. Some took a relaxing and leisurely boat ride down the Avon, while the rest of us attended Shakespeare’s play, Pericles.
We ended the evening with a farewell dinner for all.
Shakespeare’s epilogue in his play, Pericles seems a fitting end to our time together:
“So on your patience evermore attending, new joy wait on you. Here our play has ended.”
-Claudia and Bob Coleman
Please pray for our safe travels home! Thank you for coming along with us on this spiritual adventure of pilgrimage. God's blessings to all!
STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS ON A TRIP TO FRANCE, SEPTEMBER 2025
