VICARS BLOG 13TH SEPTEMBER 2013.
MARGATE OLD TOWN,
KENT.
Well, it’s just nine days since we sailed Pilgrim into Chatham. ( Although she is now moored on a buoy in the middle of the Medway very near Hoo Ness, where we were all blessed by the Bishop of Rochester.)
It’s taken me a while to get down to writing this blog, at the end of an amazing three month adventure. Towards the end of the trip, I experienced so many emotions, sadness that a journey which was a year in the planning was coming to an end, a great respect for a boat that had sat eight years in dry dock that had been a perfect boat, a companion, and a home. (Pilgrim, in rough seas proved she was an extraordinary boat.) I was also looking forward to family and friends I hadn’t seen for three months. Over the last week there has also been a sense of anti-climax, as we get back to ‘normal’, after a trip that we had been planning for so long.
We visited so many inspiring shrines, churches, communities, that when towards the end of the trip, Chris asked me what my favourite place we had visited was I couldn’t say, each one had given me something in different ways.
Another important aspect of the trip that was unexpected was being made aware of various issues facing coastal towns, the sea being a main source of employment and tourism. For example, when we were in Newlyn, Cornwall, I saw a poster advertising a service of blessing of the fishing fleet. After details of the service, was a comment which made me think, ‘ when you buy a piece of cod, you also buy a fishermans life.’ I love fish, but have often complained about the price. After seeing that Fisherman go out in dangerous sea conditions I think again before having a moan. Chris and I would listen to the shipping forecast and if we didn’t like the sound of the force of the wind or the condition of the sea, we would often decide to stay put in harbour but Fisherman have little choice. In the early morning (if I was up) I would watch the Fisherman come into harbour after a nights at sea, they would then work a couple of hours preparing the catch for market, and then cleaning up their boats for the next trip.
I have also come back from the trip with enormous respect for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, men and women who volunteer to come to the aid of those in difficulty at sea. While we were in Dunbar Harbour, the Dunbar lifeboat was called out four times in two days. We also heard during our trip, lifeboats called out to assist, a man who had run out of Petrol, the lifeboat crew came out to accompany him into harbour, a crew called out as a woman was having a miscarriage at sea, and a diver who had resurfaced to soon.
In harbours and ports around Britain I became aware of those organizations that minister to those at sea, The Mission to Seafarers and The Fishermans Mission. TFM, I was particularly interested to discover supports wives who have lost their husband at sea, and also pay for fisherman to receive Physiotherapy after injury at work. Both organizations have an important role in the spiritual and social care of those who work in the Fishing and nautical industries and services.
So as well, as this being a spiritual journey, I learnt so much about our coastal communities.
Chris and I also felt we wanted nature, to be so much more a part of our life, after this trip. I bought myself a pair of Binoculars and spent a lot of time Bird watching, I now have a greater appreciation of our Britain’s amazing wildlife.
We started off with a desire to visit Celtic shrines around Britain, but the spiritual element became so much bigger, as we visited Findhorn ( Eclectic Creation centred eco-community.........I refuse to call this community ‘new age’, as it encompassed so much of a Christian ethos.) and Holy Isle, where Buddhists have their centre, for World Peace, and run retreats but are also doing so much god environmental work on the island.
So in so many ways, the journey.......pilgrimage has finished. Or has it? In so many ways this is just the beginning.......let’s face it, life is a pilgrimage. There were some places on the journey that I would like to have visited but for one reason or another it just wasn’t possible.
Chris and I want to return to Holy Island (with Nelson) for a week, there is a very tangible holiness about the place. While there I would like to visit the Farne Islands where St. Cuthbert died. ( A link here with the RNLI in that it was around the Farne Islands that Grace Darling and her Father rowed out in rough seas to rescue survivors of a shipwreck, which in later years inspired the establishment of the organization.)
Because of a growing fascination with islands, I have already been looking at the websites of Lundy and Bardsey Islands.
Bardsey Island, the site of an ancient religious community today continues to be a place of spiritual pilgrimage as well as a conservation area.
Lundy Island again a place of conservation and natural interest but also an Island that appeals because the cottages that tourists stay in are quite primitive, in that there are no televisions or radios to save energy, and after a certain time of night lights are turned off, for light people have to rely on oil lamps. For me this sounds bliss.
So now I draw this final sailing blog to a close, I was reminded what the spiritual writer Margaret Silf writes in her book ‘All at sea with God’ about the role of the anchor that it has to be strong enough to hold the boat down in any kind of terrain. But also it has to be able to hold the boat in a sea that is calm or a bit more vigorous. (I remembering anchoring and having many sleepless nights, when the wind was wiping up the sea, making Pilgrim move up and down to an endless motion. No matter how uncomfortable I felt I knew we were relying on the anchor holding us down.)
Silf goes onto to talk about the relevance of the image of the anchor in the spiritual journey. “The only trouble is they can throw down roots! We need the still point of rest and restoration that our anchor offers, but we also need to be able to let go of the mooring and set sail again. We must let go of every signpost and journey on. We cannot be ‘established.’
I hope that in the spiritual journey I am never ‘at home’ comfortable with where I am. When Chris and I were sailing I would often have a nervous feeling, not knowing what the sea would be like. Each day there was a sense of unknowing, which wasn’t always comfortable, but I was exhilarated and nervous at the same time. Basically I knew I WAS ALIVE! This is what I feel the spiritual journey should be like; we hopefully are courageous enough to face the UNKNOWN, which can be slightly UNNERVING, mostly EXILARATING, but always LIFEGIVING.
Margaret Silf quotes a prayer that was written by Archbishop Helder Camara, that describes this so well.
Pilgrim
When your ship
Long moored in harbour
Gives you the illusion
Of being a house;
When your ship begins to Put down roots
In the stagnant water by the quay
PUT OUT TO SEA!
Save your boat’s journeying soul
And your own Pilgrim soul,
Cost what it may!
