| THREE students, all aged 18 at the time, recently walked 1000 miles along the historic Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route to raise £1000 for the roof of St Paul’s, Fulflood, their parish church in Winchester.
Patrick McKearney, Philip Seal, and Julian Purlmutter (above, left to right, early in their trip) left Winchester in April, shortly after finishing their A levels. On that morning, the Bishop of Basingstoke, the Rt Revd Trevor Willmott, confirmed Patrick McKearney, and blessed the three of them, before they set off to begin their seven-week trek across France, over the Pyrenees, and into Spain to the cathedral at Compostela.
They kept in touch as they went, and knew they were supported by the parish the whole way. A 29-hour train journey brought them home, and they are now having a well-earned rest before starting at their respective universities this autumn.
Their £1000 has added to the £5000 so far raised by members of the congregation, but there is a long way to go before the parish reaches its target of £50,000, its share of the total of £250,000 needed to repair the roof. They have been helped by a large grant from English Heritage, but they have a fund-raising programme that includes cream tea in the rectory garden, a jazz concert later this month, a barn dance, a choral concert, and a “big gift day in October, when we are hoping for £15,000”, says the Rector, the Revd Peter Seal.
St Paul’s is a large Victorian church that they are hoping to reorder, once the roof is done. “The congregation, of all ages, is gently growing,” he tells me, with about 80 adults (including these students) at the parish eucharist, and up to 30 children when there is a Sunday school.
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