PILGRIMAGE  ITINERARY CONTINUED…

YORK MINSTER AND THE CITY OF YORK will, I suspect, provide a contrast to the exotic environment of Walsingham. The cathedral will be classic Anglicanism, in all its grandeur, and will serve to sober us up from any lingering effects of overindulgence in pre-Reformation piety. I understand that York is a pleasant city with shops and restaurants and pubs, which we will have time to explore.

I WANT TO VISIT EDINBURGH in order to attend church on Sunday morning at Old St. Paul’s Scottish Episcopal Church, located just off the “Royal Mile,” a building and congregation that has intrigued me since I visited briefly in 2007. At that time it reminded me of a cave-dwelling, built into the side of a volcanic slope, and evoked images of ancient hunters celebrating their version of the Eucharist with roasted mastodon-meat. Old St. Paul’s projects the image of a progressive, traditional, inclusive, activist parish community… and I want to see if their “reality matches their rap,” as we used to say. We hope also to visit with our son-in-law’s sisters, who live there. 

       

THE VILLAGE OF DUNS is home to our son-in-laws parents, and they have graciously invited us to stay at their house whilst they are in holiday in Spain. This will really bring us down to earth after a week of intensive church-going, and we intend to take advantage of this interlude of domesticity before crossing the Causeway to Holy Island, which is not far from Duns.