Author: alwaysbridging

Day 12

Call it what you like. Some of this borders on the unbelievable. Take today. We toured Durham Cathedral and celebrated Eucharist in an ancient stone chapel. Absolutely fantastic!

Afterwards at lunch, Mary asked, so what are you going to do with all this? What popped out was that I hoped we could incorporate more of the language of Celtic spirituality into our services at home. I help lead prayers on Thursday morning where we stick with the Book of Common Prayer for the most part. Sometimes though, we fold in the intercessory prayers from the Green Book and occasionally collects and canticles from Enriching Our Worship.

Imagine me, two hours later, alone in my room, rocking out to my EfM playlists as I packed. Then, poof!, I noticed it was almost seven o’clock in Seattle and time for Morning Prayer. I zoomed in and was asked to read a canticle. I chose one from our Pilgrim Prayer & Song Book, adapted from the Northumbria Community.

With tea in hand and biscuits nearby, I enjoyed the others. Now, afterwards, I am fortified to finish packing then join in our final meeting and celebratory dinner.

Even packing can be sublime.

Day 11

It was bound to happen once. As we headed to York with its giant York Minster, I realized my phone was dead and I had forgotten to bring my USB cord for recharging on the bus.

Nonetheless, I’m certain my friends will send me photos of the ruins of Whitby Abbey glistening in the sunshine. What a sparkling day it was both around me and inside my heart.

My answer to the pilgrim’s morning question, “Why am I here today?”, was “Continuing much conscious gratefulness.” And as I fall asleep, the list of gifts tumbles out. It’s long and full of love. As I headed to a hot bath to seal the spectacular day, my 94-year-old mother called me (by her own initiative, I think!).

This is Big Love.

Day 10

I listened to the women of our own St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle singing Compline live on Monday morning. The day was ending there but I could wake on another continent eight hours away and begin the week joining in as they led worship from Seattle.

Later, we celebrated Eucharist at St Paul’s on Lindisfarne with Jennifer presiding and Steve preaching.

And we prayed “Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community” as we traveled together, contained in the bus.

All luscious.

We have gathered for Centering Prayer. We have taken turns reading scripture and leading the singing.

As our bishops gather at Lambeth Conference, we are collectively imagining that All Will Be Well as they consider God’s will for our broad and diverse community.

Thanks be to God.

Day 9

We left Scotland today and crossed over into England, landing first on Lindisfarne Island, a.k.a. Holy Island.

There is so much about this pilgrimage that is liminal for me—crossing borders, shifting accents, the weather, the effects of jet lag, changing rooms and lugging luggage, not to mention slight waves of nausea on the long bus rides.

Which brings me to the corporal nature of our group. Which could end up being, seriously, my favorite aspect of our journey together, I am surprised to say.

At least nine of us are in our 80’s, for which I am, actually, grateful. These individuals provide our steady wisdom. I flood often with love for them, perking up for instance during their check-ins after Evening Prayer.

At the same time, sometimes they ask God’s soft eyes of me and, wow, I am not there yet. Their needs require me to slow way down. I am constantly reminded that none of us gets out of this alive. So along with just accepting my irritations and letting them go, I must acknowledge my sadness—mostly as I think of my even frailer mother. In his book Being Mortal, Atul Gawande explains: What we want most as we age is to continue to live fully. And those who love and care for us want us to be safe.

There’s the rub. Paradoxically, we want two seemingly contradictory things.

My personal beliefs—about individual and group agency, about caring directly and indirectly for ourselves and others, and about the efficacy of prayer—help. Understatement. Pause.

God holds us. My desire to be and do God’s desire is, and will be, part of seeing us through.

Day 8

(For reference, Rob’s brother Dan—now deceased—played the bagpipes.)

Yesterday I followed bagpipers through Edinburgh. If they had played “Danny Boy,” I would have wept. It was not unlike the last scene in Braveheart when Mel Gibson is about to be beheaded. As he surveys the surrounding crowd, he begins to see dead loved ones showing up.

I have come here with these beloved pilgrims directly from Iona, officially dubbed “a thin place,” where heaven meets earth. My intent is to acknowledge these thin places more often as I go forward. Even in the seemingly godforsaken city, I believe they are all around me. As in, we live in thinness, whether we notice it or not.