Let us Walk (and Sing)

There are lots of things to enjoy when on pilgrimage: the beautiful countryside, the rich encounters, the food, fellowship and fun; even walking long distances. And there’s a pleasing simplicity about life on the pilgrim path. There was also, on the ‘Let us Walk’ pilgrimage, lots of singing and a highlight of the week for me was a musical evening we shared in a pub in Greenwich, where we’d arrived only just in time for a meal, having done a marathon 19 miles that day. 

The 5-day walk was the latest to be organised by veteran pilgrim Phil McCarthy and timed to come in between two key events in the Church’s calendar. One was the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis on October 4th; the other the Adoremus Eucharistic Congress of the RC bishops on October 10th. It would take us from the church of St Francis in Maidstone on the Monday to St George’s Cathedral in Southwark on the Friday. And it would involve a group of ‘Perpetual Pilgrims’ doing the whole thing, with others joining for a day or two. Phil had asked me as well to bring my guitar in the hope that we might do in the evenings what I’d done on a Musical Pilgrimage in June and what pilgrims were surely doing for centuries, namely singing.

Suitably fed in both body and spirit we set off for that day’s 18 miles, which included a welcome lunch stop in a café in Trosley Country Park, where there was a generous sharing of food and snacks. We ended up eventually, tired but content, in the pretty village of Otford, where Yim Soon and I were taken in for the night and given generous hospitality by a woman called Kate. Her friend Ann came round to meet us and when she told us that in 2022 she’d walked the Camino (and also explained the circumstances which had led her to do it) I got the guitar out and sang a song I’d written after my first Camino in 2015 (link below). It was a really special moment. 

Wednesday was the day when it rained. All day! But that’s life. You take the rough with the smooth. And on pilgrimage, as in life, sometimes you just have to put your head down and get on with it. We arrived in the end, dripping, at St Vincent’s church in Dartford. Prayers were said in the church and then were given tea and cakes by a woman called Jennie. Yim Soon and I were fortunate to be spending the night with Jennie and, amongst multiple little acts of kindness, she put the heating on so that we could dry our stuff. She also accompanied our group to the Royal Victoria and Bull for food and music. On account of us being in the home town of Mick Jagger I included in the playlist an old Stones’ classis ‘Out of Time.’ I was gratified to see the pilgrims roaring out the chorus with gusto. ‘Baby, baby, baby you’re out of time; I said BABY, BABY, BABY, YOU’RE OUT OF TIME.’

On Thursday it was sunny again and perhaps we appreciated that all the more because of the wet day that had preceded it. It was a long but lovely walk with a kind of eclectic landscape that included both industrial estates and a footpath along the rather exotic sounding ‘Crayford Creek.’ The last of our 19 miles took us through the beautiful Greenwich Park (where we were welcomed by the singing parakeets!) and to Our Ladye Star of the Sea, where we had a short time of prayer and sang a Taizé chant. Then it was a bit of a mad dash to check into the Travelodge and climb into two hastily arranged Ubers to the Plume of Feathers. We got there, to our enormous relief, just before the kitchen closed. 

Back in June on the Musical Pilgrimage, I’d done an ‘Irish evening’ in one of the pubs en route and it had gone down particularly well, with both pilgrims and locals. I’d decided, therefore, that the Plume of Feathers would also be the venue for an Irish night. I got out the guitar as the pilgrims were finishing their meals and went into an instrumental version of ‘The Black Velvet Band.’ I became aware that someone was singing the words. I turned and saw a woman at the bar, who clearly knew the song well. I began to sing with her and so did our group of pilgrims and it led into an evening that was simply magical. And for me it was a sort of culmination of the pilgrimage, with all of the ups and the downs and the rain and the shine that we had lived through as a group. There we were in a pub in London after walking for miles and miles and having been soaked to the skin the day before. There we were sharing a moment of pure joy. And sharing it with others. That woman at the bar sang along to all the songs. And she explained to me as we were leaving, ‘My dad was a folk singer and what you sang tonight was virtually his playlist.’ I was so touched.

It was ‘only’ about 10 miles on the fifth and final day and we were joined for that final trek along the Thames by a large entourage of ‘Day Pilgrims.’ It was very nice, as ever, to chat with people, some of whom were undertaking their first ever pilgrimage. There was also, as ever, the opportunity for interesting interactions with passers-by. As the iconic Tower Bridge came into view, a ‘random’ person was procured to take a group photo. This man, Phil, turned out to be a mine of knowledge about the Beatles and showed us pictures of a photo shoot the Fab Four had once done just across the river from where we were. As with Mick jagger the day before (whose statue we’d passed when coming into Dartford) you never know who you’re going to meet on the pilgrim path!

Our ‘Let us Walk’ pilgrimage ended with a time of prayer in a side chapel of St George’s Cathedral and, yes, there were a couple of songs: ‘Make me a Channel of Your Peace’ at the start; ‘To Be a Pilgrim’ to send us off (to the pub, that is!). 

That latter hymn, written in the 17th Century by John Bunyan, seems to focus on the challenges facing a pilgrim and includes the wonderful line ‘No hobgoblin nor soul fiend Shall daunt our spirit.’ Yes, there are ups and downs in pilgrimage, as in life. But what gifts, amongst them music, await the intrepid spiritual traveller, and as Bunyan’s song concludes, 

Then fancies flee away

We’ll fear not what they say

We’ll labour night and day

To be a pilgrim.

And here is the link to the song, ‘El Camino’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSdf_S25bDI