There will be one more post after this, but as my Sabbatical draws to its close one of the things I thought it might be worth doing is to give an idea of some of the media that I have travelled with over the last few months.
One of the early things is actually something that I came across in the Library at the Northumbria Community; it was mentioned while I was on retreat there, and one of those on the retreat with me took the time to find it. It's a Thesis for an MA, called "Pilgrimage: Wild Goose Chase or the search for Home?" by Eileen Inglesby, in 1995. Quite how it ended up there is a bit of a mystery; no-one seems to know anything about the author. It isn't as far as I know available anywhere else - but it was an interesting read, and introduced me to another key resource. If Ela, who found it for me, is reading this - thank you!
Jack Hitt's "Off the Road", his account of following the Camino Pilgrim Route in the early 1990s, was featured heavily in that dissertation. I listened to it as an Audiobook and found interesting and entertaining. He's not a Christian, did it for his own reasons, but his insights into the community he found himself part of, of how everyone's motivations for a Pilgrimage can be different and yet valid, were ones I found informed parts of my own journey.
Another Audiobook I listened to, based on a recommendation, was "On this Holy Island" by Oliver Smith. It's narrated by the author, and I have to say I struggled with this - it's perfectly competent, and visits several places I have been to over the years, but there was a real sense of melancholy that had me worrying for him at points - he wrote this after being made redundant from his job, and there are sections where I really thought he must be quite seriously depressed. It might be better in book form rather than audio, but I really didn't connect with this one at all.
"The Way Under our Feet: a Spirituality of Walking" by Graham B. Usher (currently Bishop of Norwich) has travelled much of the way with me, and is looking somewhat dog-eared as a result! I haven't finished it, even though it's a short book, but what I have read has had an impact - it's the sort of book that benefits from reading one of the short chapters, and then taking time to reflect.
As I was getting ready to go on Sabbatical, the thing many people asked me about was the BBC Series "Pilgrimage", in particular as the one they were showing at that point was primarily in and around North Yorkshire and the North-East. So I made a point of watching as Ashley Banjo, Patsy Kensit, Ashley Blaker and the other members of their party went from near Whitby to Holy Island, passing through Durham and the Northumbria Community on the way. You do wonder how much of it is re-shot for the camera, but I don't doubt that they are all walking together; pity the camera crew that must have done pretty much every step with them! It was interesting to watch as the different viewpoints of the party came together, and interesting to reflect as well that it felt that while they all got something out of it, the journey itself didn't necessarily radically change any positions so much as deepen their understandings of their own faith (or lack of) and respect for those of the others in most cases. As they walked over the sand to Holy Island, I resolved to do the same.
Finally, another book that I've been carrying around for months was one that although it involves journeys, was just for entertainment. Meg lent me a copy of "The Magic Walking-Stick" by John Buchan, a Children's Book that I have enjoyed. Growing up, I was massively into some of the Enid Blyton books - the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Magical Faraway Tree, the Wishing Chair and many others; rather dated and sometimes problematical. In some ways the Magic Walking-Stick is in a similar vein, as a Boarding-School boy from a wealthy family in the 1930s buys a Walking-Stick from a mysterious old man, and discovers that it can take him anywhere in the world. Pure escapism!
