Small but Perfect for Pilgrimage

A priest in the diocese has just completed a year’s pilgrimage around various sites, to promote the idea of pilgrimage to others, and show that pilgrimage isn’t necessarily about busy or famous sites.

The Revd Dr Ali Green, Associate Priest at Holy Trinity, Bradford on Avon, made the trip to support and encourages the expansion of the Small Pilgrim Places Network (SPPN). SSPN exists to foster mutual support among smaller pilgrimage sites, and encourage the values of quiet prayer and meditation, hospitality, silence, space and simplicity in them.

Bradford on Avon uniquely boasts two Small Pilgrim Places, so Ali decided to has cycle or walk over the last year to twenty-three sites in England and Wales, from St Mihangel's Church in Anglesey to a Quaker Peace Garden in Cambridgeshire. She gave a reflection about her pilgrimages at the recent SPPN National Gathering in Peterborough. Delegate Dilys Stone from North Wales commented, "We really appreciated the talk, very affirming for us".

Ali said, "I made the pilgrimage as a sixty-fifth birthday present to myself, and reached sixty-six at the National Gathering. But as there are another couple of dozen sites on the network, I'm sure I'll be visiting more of them on my travels."

Small Pilgrim Places offer hospitality and a welcoming space, often off the beaten track, for quiet prayer, meditation, simplicity and silence. Diaries of all Ali’s journeys are published on the SPPN website, www.smallpilgrimplaces.org.

Member sites in the Diocese include St Mary’s, Netherbury, in the Lyme Bay Deanery, and St Lawrence, Stratford-sub-Castle, in the Salisbury Deanery.