About a year after it was originally planned, our new pilgrimage ‘Sacred Waters Way‘ was launched at last on April 17th 2021 at St. Mary’s Dartington. Although much of the UK was sadly still unable to gather inside due to the ongoing lockdown, by virtue of our launch being ‘an act of worship’ we were blessed to be able to bring together 30 people – appropriately socially distanced, sanitised, masked and with the necessary risk assessments done, church cleaned and track and trace details taken! The level of organisation and work that went into making all this possible was amply repaid by the total delight of actually being able to come together in person. I (Sam) rode through innumerable details on a wave of joy!
For 2021 and beyond our wild church is returning to our original, foundational pilgrimage along the River Dart, which I have now curated and developed into a two year route; journeying first ‘downstream’ from Dartington to the sea at Dartmouth and then, in future years, ‘upstream’ from Dartington towards a source of the Dart near Postbridge on Dartmoor. This route is being undertaken in stages, on each Sunday of the month from May 2021. Mostly we are meeting for our contemplative walks in the afternoon and one of our four core values (contemplative, creative, collaborative and curious) namely that of collaboration continues, as each walk will be guided in collaboration with both familiar and new friends from within a wonderful crew of creative people. Our Sacred Waters Way is also now extra special, in that we are more overtly partnering with local churches as start and end points along the Way, and in a more overarching spirit along the whole length of the pilgrimage, we are also partnering with the Bioregional Learning Centre (more about this & BLC below) and with a new initiative promoting pilgrimage, Devon Pilgrim, co-ordinated by Exeter Diocese’s Growing the Rural Church project.
Strangely enough, where in the past we would be welcoming 100 people + to a River Dart Wild Church launch and promoting wildly, there was actually a real beauty to a more intimate gathering and a more restrained approach to advertising. About half those there were actually the collaborators crew and that in itself was a blessing – to be able to come together, when generally each person mostly just gets on with leading their own pilgrimage afternoon as the year unfolds. Although not all collaborators were able to be there, we were blessed to have most with us. My younger son Tam (‘stuck’ at home after graduating as a digital artist and games designer from Falmouth University) and I were first on the scene with lashings of wild greenery and spring flowers from the garden. Next came dear friends, Richard and ‘Badger’ Brian to help with making the church beautiful, especially by setting up a wonderful display of their plants, produce and crafts including baskets, natural dye crafts, jams and preserves – all grown, gathered and created right here in Dartington. They did a brisk trade as the afternoon unfolded and offered a natural and colourful focal point outside.
Further decorations, to create a wild altar for St Mary herself in the Lady Chapel, arrived with long term collaborator Myrtle Cooper who will be leading our first ‘wild forage’ pilgrimage in May and who was also offering a ‘graveyard forage’ later in our programme for today. Similarly with new collaborator Emma Capper, who will lead our third pilgrimage in July and today offered a nature connection session under the beautiful mature trees in the churchyard (including an ancient lime tree, which is a rare survivor of long lost ancient woodland on this site). Both these activities were much appreciated by successive small groups of six during the afternoon.
Fr Jim, our ‘new’ Totnes Team Rector was also on the scene early, setting up the tech for our first (and somewhat problematic) attempt to livestream a launch event, and shortly followed by Chris Keppie, Diocesan Church, Society and Environment Officer who has been a wonderful ally in recent years. He joined Tam in the unenviable task of standing at the gate and shepherding cars to the car park, including having to turn people away who hadn’t booked a place. These were moments when the realities of covid restrictions and the ‘everyone is welcome’ focus of our wild church/monastics community came into stark contrast! In ‘high-vis’ mode, Chris also made sure pilgrims travelled safely across the road for the graveyard forage.
Totnes Team Vicar and longterm supporter and collaborator, Deborah Parsons, joined me on the door to welcome everyone and to hold a contemplative time later as we joined people globally to remember HRH Prince Philip on this day of his funeral and to hold the Queen and her family in our thoughts. As folks arrived they were greeted by beautiful harp music from long term collaborator, Glynis Morgan, click here for a taste of this and what happened next (including some microphone struggles!) After an opening welcome, our ‘service’ began with our scripture reading in the form of a short reflection on an icon of the Women at the Tomb. What really struck me about this icon in this particular year, was the way it acknowledges both the importance of grief and of looking forward to new beginnings. This was followed by a time of silence and listening to this beautiful Eastertide music.
Next came three short talks, including an introduction to the pilgrimage from yours truly. Then more about the sad state of British rivers and the purpose of River Dart Community Charter to engage and encourage community activism in relation to this from Isabel Carlisle of BLC. It’s well worth listening to Isabel’s fascinating short talk, which invites us into a relationship of care with water. You can find this at about 22 minutes and 40 seconds into the recorded livestream here. Sarah Cracknell, project lead of Growing the Rural Church, then spoke about the exciting new Devon Pilgrim project.
We came back inside for ‘River Tales’ from talented storyteller and author Lisa Schneidau from Devon Wildlife Trust. Lisa spirited us away to the otherworld and the sacred waters of Ireland, with tales of Fionn and the Salmon of Wisdom, and Niall and the Hag of the Well. DWT are also the recipients of half the funds raised today (the other half are going to help fix the church clock) as we have been collecting for their Special Species Appeal since Christmas. Time constraints meant that we had to move the poetry reading from Roselle Angwin towards the end of our time together, when after all our activities it made a most beautiful conclusion under the sun, sky and trees. Here’s a taste:
tell them how simple it is
this is what freedom sounds like
spread your arms wide
feel the spring sun
let your heart run to the ocean
home now, brought home
where it’s never too late
for all our lost dreams
all our lost causes
all our lost gods
for all the children
tell them it’s never too late
tell them how simple it is
tell them how vast
tell them it’s never too late