A Simple Soul in Walsingham
"I don't mind you going, but don't you dare come back with any fancy ideas." So said my Vicar when I, as a young member of his congregation, told him that I was planning to join the parish pilgrimage to the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham. The pilgrimage itself was, I suppose. something of an act of rebellion. Although the parish had a strong Anglo-Catholic tradition, it's fair to say that at this particular point in its history (the early 1980s) it was rather more 'High Church' than 'Catholic' (though it has since moved back 'up the candle'), and our Vicar - a very dour Yorkshireman - was clearly not an enthusiastic devotee of Our Lady, still less 'England's Nazareth'. It was a couple of members of the congregation who bravely organised and led the Pilgrimage, despite the incumbent's obvious disapproval, and I remain eternally grateful to them. That first weekend visit to Walsingham introduced me to the Catholic faith ...