THE diocese of Exeter has celebrated the launch of a new 20-mile pilgrimage route from Lee Abbey to Lundy Island, a place associated with a long and deep Christian spirituality, the Revd Jane Skinner, who plotted the route, says.
Mrs Skinner is the Team Rector in the Parkham Team Ministry, which includes the island 12 miles off shore. “This route gives us sea and land and sailing on the water, with an island destination at the end of it. What more could you want?” she says.
The pilgrimage is planned to take four days, in five stages. Pilgrims gather at St Mary’s, Lynton, to join the Lee Abbey community at morning prayer at 8 a.m. The journey takes them first to Heddon Valley, and on to Combe Martin and then Ilfracombe to board the two-hour ferry journey. (In winter, the island is reached by helicopter.)
The route is the fifth in the diocese’s Devon Pilgrim project, designed to encourage walkers both to experience the spirituality of Devon’s ancient churches and holy places and to enjoy the beauty and variety of its landscapes.
The pilgrimage is designated as moderate to difficult, with hilly sections and steep inclines. Some parts of the journey are “quite a tough walk for a little while, but as long as you’re reasonably fit, none of that should prove impossible to anybody”, Mrs Skinner acknowledges.
“I hope there’s a sense of achievement, not least the glorious landscape you can view from those top points of the island.”
The Bishop of Exeter, Dr Mike Harrison, and the Bishop of Crediton, the Rt Revd Moira Astin, were among the first pilgrims on part of the route. Dr Harrison remembers, as a child on holiday at Woolacombe, gazing across at the island in excitement. “It’s been really nourishing just to take time on my own in prayer, but also engaging with others on the route as we take in the beauty of the place,” he said.
“We know how potentially exciting and enlarging going on a journey is. There’s something of that about pilgrimage, but it has the dimension of actually bringing a potential enlargement to your own spiritual life.”