Welcome

Every Wednesday as we come out of Church, we greet the ramblers off on their next walk together. Walking with someone else can be quite a different experience to making the journey alone. It can feel like a bit of an adventure or a time to focus on each other and get into a deep conversation. If your friend has already travelled the route, it can be a time to notice things along the way, as they point out a particularly rare plant or an interesting boundary marker or even the best way to get across the field without getting wet feet!

Our Diocesan Bishop, Bishop Stephen, who last year walked the Camino, wrote a number of poems about that journey in a little book called ‘Striking Out’.( Published by Canterbury Press 2018) In one chapter called the ‘The Spaces in-between’, he writes,

‘Between A and B there is a vast space.
But with eyes on the road , and a brisk pace,
You’ll never see it………’. ( pg15)

In our fast moving world there is little time to think about the ‘in-between’ space – our eyes are often on the destination and the deadline. But this season of Lent is a time for making a journey, where we can pause to look at the ‘in-between’ space. The space between the Christmas season and Easter Day. And what is more- we have a travelling companion, Jesus Christ! He invites us to make the journey with him. He may want to engage us in deep conversation or to point our things along the way. He may simply wish to travel with us in that comfortable silence which marks the trust between friends. The invitation is there- all that is asked of us is a willingness to travel that ‘in-between’ space for the next 40 days!