Today, 2nd July 2026, I was privileged to help out with the local schools' annual pilgrimage to St Andrew's. We had just shy of 150 children taking part, split between a morning and an afternoon session. Pupils from Red Oak, Uplands, Bridlewood and Tadpole Farm took part in this event.
On a real pilgrimage, people tread the same path with total strangers over a period of several days or weeks. During that journey you meet up with many different kinds of people, from all different walks of life. You share stories, food, drink and companionship, and by the end of the journey, they are no longer strangers. Pilgrimages are not something new, nor are they just undertaken by one religious faith. The Prophet Muhammad led the first Islamic Hajji to Mecca in 632 CE. The destination end point being the Kaaba, which was built by the Prophet Abraham and his son, Prophet Ishmael.
The Hindus undertake The Kanwar, a route from The Ganges to various shrines. Members of the Jewish faith travel to The Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, which is the site where the first Temple was built by King Soloman. The first Christian Pilgrimage was undertaken by an unknown French Pilgrim who documented his journey from France to the Holy Lands in 333 CE. A journey that covered over 3,000 miles and took nearly 3 years to complete.
I am sure some of you may have studied The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 to his death in 1400, at school. This work explores a Pilgrimage being undertaken by people from different walks of life and recounts their journey, through their eyes. Every year, millions of people all around the world, of all different faiths, undertake a pilgrimage. So why do people go on a Pilgrimage and what do they expect to get out of it?
Seen through my eyes, I would say it's a chance to reflect on your own personal faith, and your own life in general. A chance to side-step every day life and allow an inner peace to descend. A time to order your thoughts and decide what is important in life and what isn't. How you make changes to live a life that reflects more deeply your growing individual faith. It's a journey you undertake with others, so there is a sense of belonging to something that is bigger than just you. To realise that problems and issues can be resolved, and, by sharing your stories with others, understand that you are not walking alone in life. Others have faced similar problems and overcome them. You will too.
Of course with a day like today, we can only give the children a sense of what a pilgrimage is like and why it is undertaken. We were very lucky to have Shaykh Shahid Khan come and talk about his Hajj to Mecca, undertaken in May 2026. Several pupils had already experienced this themselves, both this year and last, and they enjoyed sharing their own experiences with us. We had a station that talked about the Christian Pilgrimage to Camino de Santiago, experienced by our vicar Sally Robertson last year. We heard how scallop shells mark the route, and how a Pilgrim's Passport is stamped at various points along that route, as evidence of the journey you have undertaken. All pupils had a paper based passport.
Children were given a large pebble to take along with them to represent the weight of our own individual burdens or concerns in life. There was a quiet reflecting stop at The Diamond Jubilee Park, which marked the half way point on their journey, where they could relax, and share stories with each other, as pilgrims do. Before they left they all came together as a complete, single body, joining hands in a circle and doing a Mexican handwave, symbolising the unity pilgrims experience and how their stories are spread from one person to another along the way. Next they laid their stones at the foot of the cross, symbolising how you lay your burdens down and continue your onward journey with Faith and Hope, instead.
As they approached the church, they were greeted by the peal of the bells, the sound of which was carried by the wind, to Jubilee Park! We discussed how bells called Christians to prayer in the same way as The Adhan does for Muslims. On reaching the churchyard, there were three activity stations for the children to experience. As well as the two described above, the final one talked about the Scottish Pilgrimage to the Isle of Iona, something that dates back to St Columba's arrival in 563 CE. Finally there was a chance to enter the church, look at some of its features, say the Lord's Prayer together and sing a song about going on a pilgrimage.
On the return trip, the children each picked up a new rock: something they could take home with them, to remind them of their journey. None of this would have been possible without the many volunteers from various churches and mosque, within our parish. Thank you so much for being part of this experience. As for me, I learned a lot today about the Islamic faith; met some lovely children and listened to some of their happier memories, and came away feeling richer in my own individual faith.
Coral