Revd Robert Icke and his friend Professor Simon Piaseck have recently completed a pilgrimage from Chester Cathedral to Lichfield Cathedral. Simon, recorded their conversations, which will form part of a collection of papers on pilgrimage.
"It all came about quite quickly," said Robert, who is curate in charge of St James in Latchford. "Simon and I have known each other as friends for a few years. He works at Liverpool University and had been talking about writing some papers on pilgrimages. Neither of us had ever been on a pilgrimage and I suggested that we should go on one. Just ten days later, on 23 June 2021, there we were, at Chester Cathedral, ready to take our first steps on our 93-mile pilgrimage to Lichfield Cathedral."
Bishop Mark met with Robert and Simon (pictured right) in the hour before they began their journey when they shared some tea and biscuits and prayed for a safe journey ahead.
The pilgrimage from Chester to Lichfield has been well-traveled by pilgrims throughout the ages. It's called The Two Saints Way. The route pays homage to two game-changing Mercian saints from the 7th century – St Werburgh and St Chad. St Werburgh opened several convents before being buried at Chester Cathedral. St Chad, a disciple of St Aidan at Iona, preferred to travel around on foot, not horseback so he could speak with people easily, and would apparently spend long hours standing in his well in prayer. His shrine and well at Lichfield worked many miracles, necessitating the building of a pilgrim cathedral as early as 700AD.
The journey took Robert and Simon nine days to complete, through some great countryside, along canals, through fields, woodlands, over hills, and into churches. The aim was simply to experience a pilgrimage and to see what happened along the way.
Simon took along an audio recorder which he used to document all of their conversations. The conversations will form part of a collection of papers he will publish later this year. When asked what they spoke about, Robert said: "Our conversations spanned the whole spectrum. We talked about creation, God, work-life, growing up as children. There were times when we just talked about just giving up, but they soon passed, especially when people along the way were so supportive of what we were doing."
Robert and Simon have raised nearly £2000 from their pilgrimage walk. The money will go to St James Primary School in Latchford, to help those who have fallen behind due to the Covid pandemic.
Robert said of his pilgrimage, "At the end of the journey we'd felt we'd trodden the same path that people had walked for the last 1300 years and that we had all experienced the same desire to have oneness with God."
Robert is already thinking about his next pilgrimage, "I'd like to do Lindisfarne, but need to wait for my feet to recover a bit first."