Norfolk Pilgrim

¶  From a History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2 There was an old religious house on the Suffolk side of Thetford founded by Uvius, the first abbot of Bury St. Edmunds in the days of Cnut. It was said to have been founded in memory of the English and Danes who fell in a great battle near by between King Edmund and the Danish leaders Ubba and Hingwar. It was served by canons who officiated in the church of St. George as a cell of St. Edmunds. About the year 1160, in the days of Abbot Hugh, Toleard and Andrew, the two surviving religious of this cell, depressed with poverty, visited the abbot and expressed their strong desire to withdraw. At their suggestion the abbot and convent of St. Edmunds resolved to admit to the Thetford house certain Benedictine nuns who were then living at Ling, Norfolk. The bishop of Norwich, the archdeacon of Canterbury, and the sheriffs of Norfolk and Suffolk gave these ladies and their prioress Cecilia an excellent character, and the change was...

Ascension Day is a major feast day. I go to church on major feast days. Just because the churches are closed in lockdown is not sufficient reason to break my rule. Today it was St. Peter's, Belaugh. I chose a high place for Ascension Day. As disapproving Puritan described it as  -   " The Steeple house [of Belaugh St Peter, stands high, perked like one of the idolatrous high places of  Israel "  Quite likely, if the founders establish a Christian church on what had been a pagan place of worship. I like it that I came by boat. I think St. Peter might have liked it too! Maybe the Broads should be twinned with Galilee. I imagine a 'chippy' Jesus mending boats in the boatyard beside this river. And I think Peter would chuckle at the amusing notice! No fishing! Snippets of pslams and hymns come to my mind as I climb the pilgrim path " Who can ascend the hill of the Lord, who can stand in his holy place. He that hath clean hands and a pure he...

I was in Abersoch, on the Llyn Peninsular, with my mum, her sisters and my cousins. During the Buzz bomb campaign, beginning June 44,  we all lived in that corridor along which the VIs flew towards London. They dropped where ever the fuel ran out. It was best not to be standing underneath. What did you do in the war grandad ?  Built sandcastles.  This photo was marked on the back by my mum. "Abersoch 1944" From left to right, " Val Sharp (her dad was with 8th Army as a medic - Uncle Norman was a dentst);  a stranger is next; then Michael Goodchild,  Caro Morris now Musson, (her dad. Uncle Morris was commanding a Corvette in the Atlantic) ; John Goodchild (I don't know where Uncle Ernest Goodchild was)  and there's me, Richard Woodham. If mum's got the date right, and it is 1944, then I was only 18 months at the time of this pic. My memory is a little hazy. I think Mother and I lived with Aunty Joan Sharp and Val, Aunty Hilly Morris and Caro ...

How necessary, some have asked, was the total closure of our parish churches, so that not even live streamed services from the church building was permitted? There is a growing sense among one section of the Church of England that the decision owes more to the resurgence a Puritan spirit within the church. "The Privatisation of religion,"  Bishop Peter Selby called it in an article in the Tablet;  and, more accessibly here on a YouTube Easter Message for members of the congregation of st. John the Divine, Kenningto n. The big guns may be lining up in defence of the Church as Holy Place with a function more important than a museum of curiosities or a sheep shed.   In a thoughtful and inspiring sermon, part of BBC4 Sunday Worship service marking the 800th anniversary of Salisbury Cathedral, Bishop Nicholas Holtam had some important things to say about church buildings. The words were used in connection with the much loved Salisbury Cathedral, bu...