Friday 2nd June - Down to London or up to Zion?

Friday dawned bright and still and promised to be hot. Half the party were staying at some flats beside the canal at Hemel enjoying the hospitality of Carole and Lynn. We breakfasted well. The French doors of her ground floor flat were already open and there was a strange dissonance between the sight which met our eyes: green pastures, a meandering stream, geese with their goslings, the blue flash a of a kingfisher and the drone of distant traffic which constantly assailed our ears.

We enjoyed a lovely morning worship, lead by the smiling Angus; vicar of the most deprived part of Hemel; and shared by all our hosts.  After fond farewells, we retraced our steps through the shopping centre to the canal, stopping to chat with a toddler and his Mum who wanted to ask about our shells and turned out to be church-goers, keen to hear all about it and join us in praying for the hospitals. The morning was a long, hot crawl along the canal towpath all the way to Watford. Back to the famous five, we fell into a good rhythm, each one lost in their own thoughts (or tired haze?), just following the cross ever onwards to the great city, wondering if going down to London compares with going up to God in Zion? I wonder if Watford is equivalent to Bethany; on the outskirts of Jerusalem??  We crossed a large park, where we stopped to chat to several families who showed interest, before threading a route through residential housing to the hospital.

Waiting outside the hospital we found the smiling Jackie, complete with walking-boots and rucksack (not difficult to identify those who have come to join us!). She is a nurse specialising in stoma care at Charing Cross hospital; part of the Imperial Trust and had read it as a small one-line addition to their staff news briefing last week and decided to join us, not just for the service at St Mary’s tomorrow, but for part of the Walk. She proved to be a great companion and strengthened us on that last hawl; surely God-sent.

Our midday prayer was in the tiny chapel, shared with the muslims, in Watford hospital. The Roman Catholic Chaplain lead us in a poignant reflection on the Parable of the Good Samaritan and we anointed and prayed for a gathering of the chaplaincy volunteers and prayed over the prayer booklets we left them to distribute. Lunch was a little time-challenged, but very much needed, with the welcome addition of some chocolate birthday cake to celebrate Fred’s 21^st (plus a few??). Then it was onwards and back to the canal...’He leads me beside quiet waters’. The canal has indeed become like a familiar friend where the quiet waters do restore one’s soul.

Leaving the canal finally, we took an afternoon break at St John the Baptist, Pinner, where fortunately the flower ladies were busy arranging for a festival. The church was gloriously cool and had toliets and a water fountain!! After lovely chat with a lady who said she owed her life to the NHS, we were encouraged by the arrival of the ice-cream van/man (Dave, you just need the music now?). The final leg took us through Harrow to Northwick Park hospital. On the way I stopped to chat with a lovely retired nurse pushing her grandson down to the postbox, we are no longer surprised by the poignancy of most meetings and conversations on the road. God is amazing.

We were a small and exhausted group which gathered in the cool chapel with Chaplain Dave Byrne and Bishop Pete Broadbent to welcome us. Not sure what he made of our weary faces, but after the first hymn he no longer suggested we stand for worship!! Very few staff were present but it felt worthwhile for the encouragement we received from the occupational physio who attended and a local street pastor called Monica who later offered three of us hospitality at her home.

We were then escorted up Harrow hill by Rev. James in his landrover defender to his vicarage. Here he and his wife Fiona, helped by Kitty and Oscar, treated us to a wonderful final meal in their cool back garden.  Helped along with plenty of wine, the conversation and banter flowed freely. Jackie had joined us for the meal and we found ourselves retelling some of the incredible stories of the past nine days. Pilgrimage has changed us all... not sure exactly how yet.... but we will none if us return to Stafford quite the same people. We have met with God in so many ways; through his creation, through one another and the generous hospitality we have received, but perhaps most profoundly through the ‘hidden people’ in Society; our equivalents to ‘the widow, the alien and the orphan.’