Seeker

What is a pilgrim? Someone on a pilgrimage? Through life or to places of special meaning?  Pilgrimage involves a significant journey that may be hard or long. It's travel but not tourism.   Pilgrims may follow a guide but are open to the unexpected on the way. Bishop Alan makes an interesting comment about the difference between being a pilgrim and a tourist in his post Two Roads to Remembrance . He describes 'resonant remembrance' (in contrast to 'contemplative remembrance') as messy: "You put yourself through a routine with your wits around you, but floating on the surface, so that a stray thought or impression can resonate against something in you, and bring you up against something you thought you had forgotten all about, but can now be understood in a new light." Putting myself through a routine devised by others (the programme for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land) freed me from responsibility of deciding what to do. It allowed me to be enter ...

Things I didn't do on Diocese of Oxford Pilgrimage to Holy Land: I didn't buy a drink in the 'Lowest Bar in the World". I didn't sink in the Dead Sea. I tried and failed as did others as you can see here . I didn't run round the walls of Jerusalem (or anywhere else) early in the morning. I didn't catch fish in the sea of Galilee. I didn't get re-baptised in the River Jordan. Things I did do on Diocese of Oxford Pilgrimage to Holy Land: I did drink a lot - mostly water because of the heat. I did stand in shallow Dead Sea water, with great difficulty from a floating position. I did take hundreds of pictures of walls of all sorts, some of them shocking. I did sing the British National Anthem standing in a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. (How bizarre is that?) I did renew baptismal vows at the River Jordan, was annointed with oil of chrism and then had a paddle in the water. A full immersion would have been more cooling. I've unp...