JourneyOnline
WE wanted to do an epic journey – or another one in Lyn's case – and Everest Base Camp was definitely off limits!
A chance conversation with then Archbishop Battersby gave us the idea of a pilgrimage, which seemed to fit our criteria of "epic-ness".
We were never going to manage 36 days off together, but there were 20 days between Synod Standing Committee (Shirley) and the Festival of Homiletics (Lyn), so we planned to start at St Jean Pied de Port (in France, and the traditional starting point for the Camino Francés) and walk to León, 400km away.
It was only much later that we discovered that the distance to León is actually more than 470km!
Every day there were challenges for, after all, walking 20 plus kilometres a day stretches your body's boundaries.
There were mountains, steep descents, poor weather, limited food options and blisters with which to contend; but the idea of doing a pilgrimage is to go on, to see what the day brings.
Shirley used the time for thinking and made up amazing word games about the experience.
Lyn replaced counting steps with hymns.
Did you know that "This Is the Day" plus "Halle Halle" takes 50 steps?
Meeting people along the road and engaging our story with their amazing stories was a highlight.
Annabelle was walking with Emilie in her heart, Emilie who has Multiple Sclerosis.
The pilgrim menu each night is served with free bread and red wine.
Every night we enjoyed breaking bread and on one memorable night we held hands with two French pilgrims we had just met, and said grace together to the astonished looks of people at nearby tables!
At times when we were feeling a bit low and thinking "What are we doing?" people were there to help, in all sorts of ways: to offer advice, strap our feet, take time to chat, share their stories.
The best advice came at one of those times.
This is a pilgrimage; like Jesus who had to carry a cross, on a pilgrimage we carry our accumulation of life that is a burden, and the pilgrimage helps us to learn humility, patience and adaptability.
For many of the millions of people who went before us this had been a spiritual pilgrimage, and so it was a particular delight to come upon crosses, labyrinths, small sacred spaces.
We didn't need to think about where God was, because God was there before us, beside us, beneath us and within us. God seemed to intrude into the day in many ways – and thank you for all the lovely supportive texts we received along the way.
We felt loved!
We learnt that we were resilient, and able to face new challenges.
We learnt that we needed to develop those lessons of the Camino: humility, patience and adaptability.
Photo : Queensland Synod General Secretary Dr Shirley Coulson and Wesley Mission Brisbane Superintendent Minister Rev Lyn Burden at Sahagún in the province of León on the last day of their pilgrimage. The pilgrim statue is outside the 13th century Iglesia de la Trinidad, which houses one of the town’s pilgrim hostels or “albergues”. Photo courtesy of Dr Coulson and Ms Burden
