Our Shrine Of Lady Of Walsingham Pilgrimage
My task was to interview the people we meet at the Walsingham Shrine and throughout the
weekend we (Sorcha and I) spent there we were able to interview a number of very
interesting people. However interviewing seems like the wrong term to use, I found that we
were actually engaging with people two way conversations. They were as interested in us as
we were in them and this meant that we had to reflect on our own experiences whilst
understanding their reflections which lead to interesting dialogues. From these conversations
I was able to get sense of the powerful emotions that drew people visit Walsingham and I
realised that a Walsingham Pilgrimage was about individual spirituality and emotions, a
group bonding activity, and a place to have a relaxing break.
Getting away from it all
We spoke to a group partaking in a ‘ladies only’ trip with their fellow parish members. They
had come from Surrey and we spoke to them after breakfast in the large bright dinner room.
They were sitting together, drinking coffee, chatting, laughing together and all seemed happy
and relaxed. It was the second time they had come as a group and they said it was a chance to
get to know each other better and talk to one another.
One lady said two very interesting things that I think summed up what this group and many
of the other people in Walsingham felt about their experience there. Those people included
both religious and non religious people.
Lady 1 “it makes you feel very humbling, especially the healing ministry. Everyone is in the
same boat and everybody has the same sort pressure from worries and concerns and it does
makes you feel as if you shared your troubles and you come out feeling lifted. It can often
make you feel quite drained, a bit like if you have had a real session of crying you can end
up feeling whoof... I think you can do it here, everyone is in the same boat, nobody looks
at you and thinks ‘like oh look she’s been crying’ and that’s lovely to come and dump you
problems at his feet.”
Question ‘ Would you say that is differ from your normal worship at home?
‘Weekday worship can become bit robotic. You can just stand there and go through the
prayers, hymens and psalms and your thinking about what you’re doing tomorrow. This is
very different.’
Lady 2 ‘ and for us to come away from the family and be together and just be a group of
women, is really lovely.......... Time for you and time for God, it’s so important.’
What I found most interesting about these comments was the ‘getting away from it all’ sense
that they agreed on. The fact that they were able to have a break from real life and focus on
themselves is possibly what pilgrim is about. A chance to totally focus one’s own spirituality
in a space that has been designed to do so.
I found the place its self, re-iterated this idea of getting away from it...time to think and
contemplate God. Logistically Walsingham did this by providing very comfortable and
accessible accommodation, food and areas of relaxation. But I believe it was the actual
atmosphere that made people feel like this. The openness and community sense could be felt
most strongly at the services and this enabled people to express their faith openly and without
shame, as away from the normal routine of worship experienced at home this was a special
away from home service. As the Lady 1 mentioned ‘Weekday worship can become bit
robotic........... This is very different.’ I also got a sense of the inclusiveness of the services.
All were welcome (including us, many who were not Christians) and a book was produces to
give a step by step guide to the services so everyone could follow the correct steps. This
inclusiveness was also part of the strongest thing that created the atmosphere at Walsingham.
This atmosphere Sorcha and I felt was created by a ‘multi- level access’ that made
Walsingham experience a positive one for the people we spoke to.
Faith, Multi-level aspects and secular attraction
We discussed that multi-level was in a way like multi- faith. This was for three reasons.
Firstly and most importantly because of the religious aspect we found that your Christian
affiliation did not matter. This sense was created by the presence of Roman Catholic,
Anglican, Methodist and Russian Orthodox churches in the village. We did hear that there
was some tension between them but this was from only ‘gossip like’ chat between us. At no
point did I actually hear or see any evidence of tension between the dominations. Everyone
we spoke to seem unconcerned about faith domination, in fact Christian faith itself. Also long
as you were here to experience Walsingham in a respectful way it was encouraged. We found
an example of this unconcern of dominations was found when talking to three ladies from
Manchester. They were on their first visit and staying 3 nights.
Lady 2 ‘when we come here we realise that there is not a lot of difference between the
Church of England and the Catholic Church. It’s one of the nicest things. We when to the
Church of England last night and the Catholic service this morning and there is no
difference. You know everyone is a Christian’
This quote summed up the overall feeling that Christians we spoke felt.
The third lady said that she did not attend a Christian church and that she was a healer’ ‘It
touches me what other people believe in’. And therefore she was at Walsingham to
experience others belief, which is what we were also doing.
None of the people we spoke to or the feeling that we felt had any animosity towards
different Christian dominations or even non- Christians (although it was assumed at first that
you were there as a Christian).
The second reason for Walsingham being multilevel was created by the actual environment
Walsingham was in. It was set in the most wonderful, picturesque village which had other
attraction like the ‘snowdrops’, the historical abbey and just a place to have a day trip too.
One older couple we met try to come to Walsingham at least twice a year on a day trip just
because it is so beautiful. This is a view that resonated with a large amount of people we
interviewed outside the shrine and confirmed what I also felt about the Walsingham. I am not
sure whether the peacefulness of the village was created the presence of the shrine or because
(of me at least) Walsingham felt like home because it was so ‘English’.
This ‘Englishness’ was something that I, as a secular pilgrim to Walsingham, felt was why
Walsingham has such a multi level aspect to it. Through its ‘Englishness’ I felt Walsingham
felt familiar and therefore like home which helped people to relax and feel at peace, whether
they were Christian or not. It’s actually environment, which was very quiet, beautiful and
traditional (by traditionally I mean the presence of tea shops serving cream teas, pubs with
roaring fires, local shops that shut on Sunday) greatly added to Walsingham ‘at peace’ feeling
because in you where getting away from the real world of starbucks, traffic, work load and
returning to a familiar place where you could relax physically, mentally and spiritually.