Walsingham

On Saturday, we finally made it to Walsingham after promising ourselves a visit for more years than we care to remember. In many ways it proved interesting but at the same time disappointing. It was interesting because of what we saw and learned, but disappointing because neither of us felt anything particularly special about the place Some would say that such places are not about feeling, but for me it is important. Iona, Lindisfarne and a whole host less well known sites around the UK and abroad have proved to be places where I have felt particularly near to the Divine but I could not say that about Walsingham, even though I know it is special to the thousands of pilgrims that visit each year.

A few years ago, Chris Peck, who was director of Lay Training here in Liverpool, set out on a journey around Britain to seek out sacred places. In his mind was a series of questions, for example: did some places have a natural sacredness of their own, which was recognized by our forbears, or where places made sacred, by acts of worship over the centuries? Chris came to the conclusion that both seem to be true. Some places, like the island of Iona, seem to have a holiness of their own whilst I think places like Walsingham have more to do with the centuries of prayer and devotion by the pilgrims.

At the start I mentioned Iona. Gill and I visited the island some eight years ago, staying at the Abbey. It was a difficult time for us both, made more difficult by the fact that I did not get on at all well with the rest of the guests. The services in Iona Abbey where not to my liking and the whole thing could have been a disaster. However, releasing myself from the guests and the abbey I spent quite some time sitting outside on a rock, said to be the place where St. Columba had his cell. Here I communed with God, and it was as if heaven and earth were the same place. It was a sacred place. I would gladly return to Iona simply for that quality.

Although St. Francis set up many hermitages, he was always drawn to St. Mary of the Angels, down in the valley from Assisi. It was to this place he came when he knew death was near. Again, I have had the privilege of visiting the church and, despite the crowds of pilgrims and tourists, I could sense something of the sacredness of the place.

So what it is about sacred places, do we have to 'feel' something, or do they posses properties that can be sensed by some people and not by others? Would some people who find Walsingham special not find anything for them at Iona?

That's what we like about God - the way he meets different people, with different needs, in different places and in different ways. Humans like to standardize while God likes to diversify. We constantly need to take care that we don't try to force people into seeing God through our eyes and our own experience. Perhaps one of the hardest lessons for Gill and I to learn is that we don't have all the truth and that other people's experiences are just as valid as our own.