Dear Friends
It’s not long since I’ve returned from my 3-month sabbatical trip – and what a trip it was!
We travelled through France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro,
Kosovo, North Macedonia, Greece (including 3 days on Mount Athos), Bulgaria, Romania,
Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany and back to France – after 16 counties and
6308 miles what have I learned?
Well perhaps a few things…
Firstly, the world is full of good people in surprising places – help, hospitality, laughter and
wisdom can come when and where least expected. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Jesus
so often took his disciples to liminal places (mountains, ‘foreign’ towns, seaside’s, deserts
etc) – to surprise them and give them a bigger view of life and of God. For no other reason
travel is good for us too – it gives us a bigger view of the world and therefore of God and of
ourselves and our place in the world.
Secondly, I remain surprised at how busy and important the pilgrimage sites of Europe
remain – visited, respected and worshipped in by people of all ages and in large numbers. I
have the sense that this is different to the UK and wonder why? Is it a result of the
Reformation (where we lost much of both our pilgrimage sites and culture) or a more social
and cultural phenomenon (are we more materialistic and temporal than our European
neighbours?). What might an engaging pilgrimage site look like in our culture and context
where people are increasingly spiritually inquisitive (might this be a good time to rejuvenate
pilgrimage in our land?). There is much to ponder here…
Finally (for now), through my travels in the Balkans and the former Soviet states of Eastern
Europe it was very clear just how deeply rooted and long lasting the fruits of war and
oppression are – the end of conflict marks a very long and expensive (in terms of the healing
of communities) journey back to peace and trust and wholeness. Conflict really does need
to be avoided at the highest cost – we all need to be a source of peace and hope and healing
in our communities – the consequences of not being, can be higher and longer lasting than
one can possibly imagine.

Yours in Christ

Simon