Spring sunshine, with no rain forecast until late afternoon, perfect! At 9am on Easter Monday six pilgrims set off from St Luke’s in good spirits.
Onwards to North Watford where we were joined by three more pilgrims, one of whom was aged 7 and a first timer!. We walked on to the beautiful, but waterlogged, Munden Estate, where conditions deteriorated after we crossed a bridge by the river Colne and encountered a deep stream across a flooded field. It was while contemplating our options (basically none) that we met a stranger by the name of Stuart who without hesitation offered to give us a piggyback. One by one, he carried us to the other side, and his exceptional kindness will stay forever in all our memories. What a blessing he was.
Near Bricket Wood we were joined by another four of our party (one of whom was 4 years old) who told us it was “a bit muddy up ahead”. This turned out to be an understatement, but we were able to navigate our way around the worst of it, giving the young pilgrims piggybacks, but at times we had no option but to wade through the River Ver. Our feet were wet and muddy by now.
Nothing, however, could have prepared us for the notorious ‘boggy field’ near Hedges Farm. It was more like a rice paddy field and there was no way around it. We managed to get the two children over the barbed wire fence into the next field, which was drier ground. The rest of us waded through the water, up to our calves in places, and miraculously no one fell in.
Once across, some of us tipped the water out of our shoes and wrung out our socks, a photo was taken (see top photo) and we smiled in the sun having overcome the flood challenge.
There was more mud ahead but before long the magnificent St Albans Abbey came into sight. What a bedraggled bunch we were, squelching our way up the hill, watching the hundreds of other pilgrims holding their banners high, already filing in at 2:30pm, and we hadn’t even had our picnic!
We rested, ate a quick sandwich and then we entered the Abbey as the last processional hymn was being sung… “When through and forest glades I wander, and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees”… On an ideal Spring day this would have been our experience, but not today. God so richly blessed our walk in other wonderful ways and a great sense of achievement was felt by us all.
The sermon led by Bishop Jane was a series of reflections given by three Christians, one of whom had been greatly encouraged by the following Bible reading before taking part in a triathlon, and worrying about the swim:
‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you’. Isaiah 43:2
This was meant for the St Luke’s pilgrims that day, who might have been weary, wet and muddy but were without doubt feeling loved and cared for by God every step of the way.
Jill Rogers