From the Rector

Pilgrimage is an important part of many religious traditions. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, is based around stories told by pilgrims on the way to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Many pilgrimages were undertaken in times past to various different shrines, which were often places made holy through the combination of the life a holy person and then the prayers said by many at the place where their remains had been laid to rest. In terms of the Holy Land, the importance of these religious sites was so great that pilgrimage turned into crusades and the shared journey was transformed into shared venture and battle as ownership of these places was fought for. Christians do not have a monopoly on sacred places, nor on the need for pilgrimage. In the Muslin faith, for example, the requirement of pilgrimage is somewhat greater than can be found in our own Christian Tradition. Nonetheless pilgrimages have become popular again in our own time. Like in the Canterbury Tales, the destination is important, for that defines the journey, but the travelling together is more important that the arriving. It is the shared experience of a common journey and the fellowship enjoyed and the friendships make, which make pilgrimage such an important experience.

Over the coming months, there will be two different experiences of pilgrimage on offer. From the 7^th August our own choir and young people will be undertaking a pilgrimage from Wimborne to Sherborne, singing at churches along the way, receiving the hospitality of those local communities, and also raising money for Routes to Roots as they go. Dates of where they will be can be found in the calendar. Even if you are not travelling with them, you might like to be part of the pilgrimage, either simply by supporting them in your prayers, or even by travelling over to be there to support them at some of their services. Do check the times on the weekly sheet. The service on Tuesday 9^th August might be an hour earlier than stated in the calendar.

The second pilgrimage is the one which Tony Watts is organising for the weekend of 1^st/2^nd October. You are invited to join him for this pilgrimage, which is to Mount St.Michel in France. If you are interested in this ecumenical pilgrimage, which Tony is arranging through St.Peter’s, please contact Tony as soon as possible on 01202 744320.

Many of those who have been on pilgrimages speak warmly of friendships made and of the lasting benefits of having shared in such a journey. Others have experienced similar things when they have shared in a parish retreat, or going to such things as Greenbelt or Soul Survivor. All of which raises the question as to whether we could not do more to engender such experiences of journey-sharing in our regular day-to-day life as a church. At St.Beuno’s in North Wales, their chapel has been transformed by removing the pews and reordering the chapel with sand coloured carpet and a false, lowered ceiling make of canvas sheeting. The altar is a pile of stones with a circular top. The feel of worshipping there is as being part of a pilgrim people who, for a time, have stopped on the journey to reflect and pray together. It is a fantastic sacred space and very suitable for a retreat house where there is an ever changing community, but always the continuity of people coming in to join what is a shared pilgrimage of prayer together.

Some of us may be fortunate enough to go on retreat to such a place, or to share in the experience of an actual pilgrimage. Yet all of us somehow need to tap into that experience and to know what it means to travel the Christian Road with a sense of being on a shared journey, which both helps to define the direction of our lives and form us into the likeness of Christ. By the time you read this, we will have had our open PCC meeting in which we might well have defined what we want to achieve as a parish in the next twelve months. What will bring life and vigour and a sense of direction to the life of our church will be a sense of being a community that can pray and worship together, as well as building together for the future. Being a pilgrim people means that it will be in experiencing the interactions between us, as we travel on together, that the life of Christ will be found. It will not be so much about what we can achieve, as how we go about sharing our lives together, that we will grow as a church as, in telling our individual stories, our faith deepens and we are drawn ever closer to Christ.

Fr.Nigel

 

Alpha Course

A date for your diaries. Bishop Graham will be leading an Alpha Course in our parish for ten weeks from Tuesday 10^th January onwards, including the weekend on 2/4 March 2012. We will need a lot of helpers from our congregation during this course, which is designed for those more on the fringes of the Church.

 

Confirmation

The new Bishop of Salisbury is due to come to us for the 10am service on Sunday 20^th November 2011. If you would like to be confirmed at that service, please contact one of the clergy as soon as possible, or contact the parish office on 749085

 

Parish Audit

Over the next couple of months Jenny, and a team she has set up, will be conducting a parish audit about the needs of our local community and how we, as a church, might respond to those needs. This work will be completed by September and is being done on behalf of St.Peter’s and PURC.

 

The Blessing of the Sea

Once again we will gather on Brownsea Island for the annual service of The Blessing of the Sea on the first Sunday in September. Please sign up in church to let us know you are coming. We need a rough idea as to how many are coming so that we can warn the boat people. Whether you have signed up or not, all you need to do on the day is to turn up at Poole Quay, collect a ticket from Fr.Nigel and get onto the boat before it leaves promptly at 2.00pm. We make no charge for the crossing, but the boat company charges us in terms of how many tickets we handed out. It will be appreciated if you can donate £5 each in the collection, during the service, to cover these costs. The service will start at 2.45pm on the Brownsea Island Quay and then move up to the church for a service. Archdeacon Stephen will be our preacher.