The ancient Christian practice of pilgrimage contains, at its heart, a promise. It’s a promise that if you start moving with intention, on a particular path and to a particular destination, something will happen. It may happen on the way. It may happen when you get there. It may happen (unexpectedly!) on the way back, or even when you get home. But something will happen. As pilgrimage routes developed, it became clear that certain journeys, like the Camino de Santiago, were more likely to result in that something, but still no one is in a position to predict what that something will be for any individual.

This has its parallels in the life of a Christian. Some of us may not remember who first told us that, if we followed this particular set of teachings, went to church, read the Bible, something would happen. For some of us, this path may be the only one we have ever known. But ultimately, all of us are on this Christian journey because of having embraced the promise that to walk on it would be transformative. We have entrusted our lives to the transformative power of the Spirit – when that transformation comes, and what it will be, we don’t know, but we have made ourselves open to it.

On Saturday 7th June, a group from St Mary’s will be walking from the ancient church of St Nicholas, Islip, through Oxfordshire countryside, to the University Church. This will be a distance of around 10 miles, stopping off in other churches on the way to allow the holiness of these places of prayer to infuse our steps. We will walk for a time in silence, to let all of our senses become alert to what God’s creation is saying to us. The next day, the feast of Pentecost when we recall the coming of the Holy Spirit on the early Church, a number of our congregation will take the next step in their journey of faith. They will be confirmed by the Bishop of Oxford. These two events are deeply interconnected: the physical walk being an outward expression of the spiritual journey undertaken by the confirmands, and by the whole church.

Not everyone will be in a position to join us for either or both of these expressions of pilgrimage. But we can all, as a church and congregation, take time over that weekend to pray: to pray for our pilgrims, to pray for our confirmands, and to pray for ourselves that, as we move along this path together, we may be transformed.