AS I WAS SAYING #2

 

Well, howdy folks! It’s been a while. Welcome back to my Big Walk, resuming after eight months (last post:  18^th October 2020).

 The one time Dean of King’s Cambridge, Eric Milner-White, adapted a thought of Sir Francis Drake into a well-known prayer; a good reminder to those of us with butterfly minds:

 O Lord God

When thou givest to thy servants

To endeavour any great matter

Grant us also to know that it is not the beginning

But the continuing of the same until the end

Until it be thoroughly finished which yieldeth the glory

Through him who for the finishing of Thy work

Laid down his life, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ

Amen.

Well, the Big Walk has certainly been a great matter for me insofar as it’s taken a lot of time and effort over five years. The reader will judge for themselves if nevertheless it’s essentially a trivial thing. At any rate, I’m continuing and I’ll hope to finish…

In April 2016, I set out to walk to every parish in the Diocese of Peterborough by a series of roughly circular walks beginning at our then home parish of St. Peter’s, Weston Favell. I gave myself a rule that every new walk should touch the circle of a previous one at some point. The incumbent of each parish visited would receive a card through the post to say ‘Vince woz ‘ere’.  I would write a blog/journal of what happened along the way (and if you’ve got the stamina, thanks to Blogger, you can still read every word).

It’s a project with a purpose.  I want to suggest that whatever our particular brand of Anglicanism, we need to cleave to each other at this time, and emphasise what unites us rather than what divides. To that end I’ve hijacked the phrase rejected by Brexit: ‘Better Together’, to which I’ve subsequently added ‘Better in Colour’. The Church needs to present itself as radical, exciting and counter-cultural.  From now on we cannot afford to be safe, comfortable and grey.

The circular nature of the walks draws attention to a feature of faith as I’ve experienced it. Old dilemmas recur. Sins are persistent, and like a troublesome virus, they return to plague us. We’re exploring a labyrinth, in which high hedges sometimes obscure the view. We’re travelling towards an omega-point whose nature is only intermittently glimpsed.

Even before the most recent lockdown and pause, I hadn’t provided an updated summary of the walks – the previous list was in the autumn of 2019, taking us to Walk 87. So, for anyone who wants to get their walking boots on to see what’s changed since I passed that way, here’s the continuing record of my progress:

 Walk 88:          Pilton (nr Oundle) – Stoke Doyle – Pilton                             (5km)

 Walk 89           Rockingham – Gretton - Rockingham                                   (10km)

 Walk 90           Gretton – Shotley – Harringworth – Seaton – Lyddington –

                          Thorpe by water – Gretton                                                      (18.5km)

 Walk 91           Warmington – Eaglethorpe – Fotheringhay – Woodnewton –

                          Southwick – Warmington                                                         (19.5km)

 Walk 92           Lyddington – Stoke Dry – Uppingham – Bisbrooke –

                          Lyddington                                                                                 (15km)

 Walk 93           Southwick – Apethorpe – Kings Cliffe – Blatherwycke –

                          Southwick                                                                                   (21km)

 Walk 94           Gretton – Kirby Hall – Deene – Bulwick – Gretton               (19.5km)

 Walk 95           Apethorpe – Thornhaugh – Wansford – Yarwell -   

                          Nassington – Apethorpe                                                            (19km)

 Walk 96           Uppingham -Wardley – Belton – Ridlington –

                          Ayston – Uppingham                                                                 (17km)

 Walk 97           Laxton – Wakerley – Barrowden – Wakerley – Laxton        (15km)

 Walk 98           Bisbrooke – Preston – Wing – Pilton – Morcott –

                          Glaston – Bisbrooke                                                                  (18km)

 Walk 99           Belton – Loddington – Launde – Braunston – Belton           (21km)

 Walk 100         Braunston – Brooke – Oakham – Egleton – Braunston        (16.5km)

 Walk 101         Egleton - Hambleton – Egleton                                                (10km)

 Walk 102         Wing – Manton – Edith Weston – North Luffenham –

                          Lyndon – Wing                                                                           (21km)

                                                  LOCKDOWN

 (Walk 103a     Weston Favell – Great Billing – Weston Favell

 Walk 103b      Weston Favell – Abington – Weston Favell

 Walk 103c       Weston Favell – Cogenhoe – Whiston – Weston Favell

 Walk 103d      Weston Favell – Hardingstone – Weston Favell

 Walk 103e       Weston Favell – Great Houghton – Hardingstone –

  Northampton – Weston Favell

 Walk 103f       Weston Favell – Great Billing – Ecton – Earls Barton –

                         Weston Favell)

                                                  RELEASE!

Walk 104         North Luffenham – South Luffenham – North Luffenham   (6km)

Walk 105         Barrowden – Tixover – Duddington – Ketton – Barrowden (17km)

Walk 106         Ketton – Empingham – Ketton                                                 (10km)

Walk 107         Empingham – Normanton – Whitwell – Exton – Empingham(20km)

Walk 108         Oakham – Barleythorpe – Langham – Burley – Oakham     (17km)

Walk 109         Langham – Whissendine – Teigh – Ashwell – Langham        (15km)

Walk 110         Teigh – Edmondthorpe – Wymondham – Market Overton –

                         Barrow – Teigh                                                                           (22km)

Walk 111         Exton – Cottesmore – Greetham – Horn – Exton                   (14.5km)

Walk 112         Ketton – Collyweston – Easton on the Hill – Tinwell –

                         Ketton                                                                                          (19km)

Walk 113         Tinwell – Stamford – Great Casterton – Tickencote –

                        Great Casterton – Tinwell                                                          (16km)

Walk 114         Great Casterton – Pickworth – Ryhall – Little Casterton –

                         Great Casterton                                                                          (18km)

Walk 115         Pickworth – Clipsham – Stretton – Clipsham – Pickworth   (14.5km)

                                                LOCKDOWN 2