People from across the deanery of Malvern and Upton took part in a pilgrimage to the Cathedral on Saturday. There were two different starting points for the walkers at Great Malvern Priory and Upton-on-Severn Parish Church, where the walkers began with prayer. The Malvern group then called in at Madresfield and Powick, while the Upton group walked via Kempsey before meeting at Diglis Basin to walk to the Cathedral together.
The group were met at the West door of the Cathedral by Dean of Worcester, Stephen Edwards and Area Dean of Malvern and Upton, Gary Crellin. They then prayed together in the Lady Chapel before enjoying tea and cake organised by the Friends of Worcester Cathedral in the Chapter House. Many of the group stayed on to enjoy Evensong, during which the second lesson was read by Gary as Area Dean.
Gary said: “We wanted to build a connection from our parishes to the Cathedral. There is a line of sight from some of our churches to the Cathedral and it seemed like an opportunity to get to know each other as well as the Cathedral better.”
Jan Wyatt from St Andrew’s Church in Malvern walked with her husband Derek from their home in Barnard’s Green before joining the group at Malvern Priory. She said: “We have moved into the area relatively recently and walking with fellow Christians was a good way to get to know the area and the people. Every so often we would pick up more people, which was really lovely.”
Jane James from St Peter’s Church in Malvern Link with Cowleigh was responsible for planning the route for the Malvern group. She said: “We are keen to encourage a pattern of pilgrimage between our churches and for St Peter’s to be welcoming to pilgrims. To do that, we need to understand what pilgrimage is all about, and the best way of doing that is to become a pilgrim! We followed St Wulfstan’s Way, a former bishop of Worcester who founded Great Malvern Priory and it was lovely to have a welcome at the Cathedral at the end.”
Tim Toman is a member of Upton on Severn Parish Church and was part of the group following the Severn Way to the Cathedral. He said: “It was a great opportunity to spend the day with friends from churches across the deanery. The weather was perfect, and the route was pretty flat. We also stopped at Kempsey for a picnic lunch and others were able to join us there.”
The pilgrims were given a small card as a memento of their visit which included a picture of the icon of our Lady and Jesus which is in the Cathedral’s Lady Chapel and a reminder that they had been prayed by those at the Cathedral.
Dean Stephen said: “We’d love to encourage more parishes and deaneries to visit us. Every person in our diocese should see the Cathedral as their mother church and feel at home here. We would be happy to organise a tour of the Cathedral from one of the Canons giving people an idea of what it’s like to live and worship here and are always happy to offer tea and cake!”
