Tower and Town, July 2015

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Clergy Letter: Walking St Cuthbert's Way

At the time of writing I have just got back from walking the St. Cuthbert’s Way with my wife Rachel and another couple who are close friends. Carrying all our own luggage (arranging a car to carry the bags we felt was cheating although we had booked nice B&Bs for each night!) we walked the 65 miles from Melrose to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne over the course of a week. The route took us through varied landscapes – up hill and down dale – through woods and up over high barren moorland. We had decided to make it a pilgrimage and punctuated our days with short times of prayer using a liturgy of the Northumbrian Community – Morning Prayer before we started out, Midday prayer followed by a time of walking in silence before a lunch break, and then Evening Prayer after arrival at the B&B and Compline before retiring to bed. We had all read a book about the life of St. Cuthbert – a Celtic Saint who lived and ministered in that area as a monk and then a bishop in the 7th Century – and used this to help us reflect on our own Christian walk as we talked together. We eventually arrived at the Holy Island of Lindisfarne where Cuthbert had for a time been Abbot.

Lindisfarne is a tidal island with a causeway and can only be accessed at low tide. There is now a road for vehicles but we took the sandy walkers’ route, sometimes getting a bit bogged down in the wet muddy sand. When we arrived the car park was full and there were many visitors in the small streets. But as the tide came back in the afternoon visitors departed and the place became more peaceful. The following day as we waited for the bus which would take us to Berwick where we would catch a train home, cars and coaches returned to the Island.

Our experience of Lindisfarne is a good illustration of what can happen when we pray. It can be a bit of a struggle getting there with all the ‘baggage’ we carry – to make time for prayer. There is the hubbub within our minds – all our thoughts, the people in our hearts and tasks we need to do. But if we make time to still ourselves then the peace of God can come in, like the tide, and surround us and enable us to be receptive to his presence and his voice. Eventually the tide will go out, the time for prayer will come to an end and we are able, with new strength, to go back out to face the world.

David Maurice