Some time ago Dave Whitsun from the Camino Podcast contacted me and asked if I would agree to an interview, and, after giving it some thought, I said yes. Below the result. The Podcast is entitled ‘Tales from Two Houses’ because it first features and interview with Nate and Faith from Pilgrim House and then my bit regarding all the different versions Egeria House has gone through over the last few years. After the Podcast, you find a very short list of links that you might find helpful.
I wrote this during the first wave of the pandemic, but for reasons unknown, never published it. Today I came across it again and thought now might be the time to share it:
We live in a world of shattered dreams:
Shattered dreams of walking a Camino any time soon again.
Shattered dreams to keep our loved ones close and save.
Shattered dreams of a normality as we used to know it.
In that shattered world we now live in, I remember the words of a priest friend here in Santiago:
Be brave, tell somebody: I care about you!
Be brave, tell somebody: I forgive you!
Be brave, tell somebody: I hold you and yours close in my thoughts and prayers.
Because that is all we can offer each other just now:
A thought
A prayer
A dream that we might meet again.
The whole world is shattered and we don’t know where we go from here.
The yellow arrows are hidden.
We have to take the yellow arrows we learned about in the past now into the sad reality that is today’s world – and make the best we can out of our past experiences, for a better future for all of us.
What we have learned on the Camino we now need to apply in this strange world we woke up to.
To share what we have.
To discard what we don’t need.
And, most importantly, to forgive ourselves and others.
This is not a time to hold grudges, but a time to hold hands, virtually and safely, to confirm one single thing:
We are pilgrims and we are in this storm together.
We can build a better world together.
If we stick and work together.
This is the time to stay physically apart so that when we meet again, nobody is missing.
Since my first journey in that winter of the Holy Year 1999, fellow pilgrims have kept asking me: “But if you’re not Catholic, why do you make the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela?”
And for more then 20 years my answer has always been the same: “Because Santiago was not a Catholic either, he was a follower of Jesus Christ, simply a Christian.”
The Apostle Saint James, the friend of the Lord, lived before the sad separation of the churches, at a time when
“All the believers lived together and had everything in common;”
Acts 2:44
That sounds like the experience we have had as pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. And that is why I believe that the Camino de Santiago is an opportunity par excellence for ecumenism.
On the Camino we can have conversations about our faith that we rarely have in our daily lives. Conversations about our different experiences and practices but more than anything else about what we have in common: The difficulties of living our faith in an increasingly secular world. The miracles of every day. Our trust in God.
The simple practices of living each day with Jesus and how we do that on a very practical and personal level.
But with this joy of sharing always comes a deep mourning that we cannot share the sacrament that all Christians have in common – the Eucharist.
I know, there are good reasons for this, but it hurts, it hurts a lot when I am in the cathedral and, just before the distribution of the body of Christ I hear those words: “That only Catholics can come to receive.”
I have a dream – That one day we can all participate in Holy Communion in the cathedral and in all the churches of the world, no matter what church we come from, because it is the Lord who invites us and who knows our hearts. And He makes us worthy to receive Himself.
I have a dream – To hear those words “All Christians are welcome at the Lord’s table!”
Paraphrasing Martin Luther King Jr. …
The first Christians were known as the ‘followers of the way’ as Saint Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles and the word pilgrim comes from the Latin ‘peregrinus’ which means he or she who crosses foreign lands as a free citizen – another thing we have in common.
We are all pilgrims to the eternal homeland – the heavenly Jerusalem, the new world where there is no mourning, no tears, only eternal joy in the presence of God!
At the end of his days on this earth Jesus prayed:
“… So that they may all be one. Like you, Father, in me and I in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ”
John 17:21
How can we tell non-believers that following Jesus is the best Way if we don’t walk together? For more than 20 years, each of my pilgrimages was dedicated to that: The unity of all Christians. Each step of my pilgrim feet was a prayer for that …
After this year that we have lived through, full of losses of loved ones and dreams, my prayer is:
Lord, help us each day to grow closer to you and to each other, do not allow the division between the churches to deepen, but help us to grow each day closer to our brothers and sisters, so that one day we can all participate all in the same Eucharist that nourishes us all.
Today I had to make a heartbreaking decision, but the announcement by archbishop Justin Welby didn’t leave me any other choice.
I hereby resign from my post of lay coordinator for the Church of England Camino Chaplaincy here in Santiago de Compostela as well from being a member of the Church of England.
The reason: Archbishop Justin Welby announced some days ago that he will take a sabbatical of three months starting July next year.
For those that don’t know this, a sabbatical is a combination of vacation and study time for, in this context, clergy that they are entitled to have every ten years.
Don’t get me wrong, I wholly approve of clergy taking time off to re-charge their batteries. But for the primate (leader) of the Church of England, this is not the time. Yes, take a holiday, spend time with your loved ones and re-charge your batteries, +Justin. But not for THREE MONTHS! And NOT during the worst time humanity has gone through in ages, and will go through for a long time to come!
By planning to take THREE MONTHS off you show a blatant disregard for Jesus’ teaching. Jesus took time off for a few days, retired to the wilderness BUT then he came back to serve those that needed him most. And he never took time off the cross …
By indulging yourself in this amount of time off and personal study of your favourite subject, +Justin, you show me just one thing – That you don’t care.
You don’t care about your clergy struggling to provide pastoral care in any safe way possible.
You don’t care about Matthew 25, because if you did, you would have established a food bank at Lambeth Palace a long time ago – and volunteered in it.
As a church leader you are called to lead, announcing that you’re planning to take a sabbatical during one of the most challenging times we all, in the UK and everywhere in the world, are passing through shows such a disregard for your own ministry – and it makes me furious.
One more thing: How many people that work in the frontline can afford to take three months off? Nurses, first responders, any emergency stuff. NONE of them!
So, take your sabbatical, take your time off, and discover that when YOU are back we’re gone because the sheep don’t follow an unfaithful shepherd, they follow one that cares about them. Or, even more importantly, they follow a shepherd that doesn’t treat them as sheep …
I am committed to following Jesus, are you +Justin?
In one short sentence – You failed to help to build the kingdom of God and I can’t be anymore a member of the church you are the archbishop of, nor to support it as I have done in the past.
Egeria House Future
I don’t know really, I still will strife to facilitate services for pilgrims that are hopefully coming this next year. I hope to welcome them and, perhaps, it is time to think about an Ecumenical Camino Chaplaincy. I will continue to provide any practical help I can to both my neighbours and pilgrims. And with the help of God, as long as I live, there will always be an Egeria House here in Santiago where those to ring the doorbell will find a helping hand …
Keep safe and sane everybody, tired and sad hugs from Santiago, SY
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