A few days ago I went for a walk. A long walk, for me, of about 13 miles in the hills around Macclesfield. It was my first walk in preparation for walking The Two Saints Way, from Chester to Lichfield, later this year as I approach three years since being ordained into the Church of England. The Two Saints of the Two Saints way are Werburgh and Chad.
Werburgh was a local girl. Born in Stone, in Staffordshire, an Anglo-Saxon princess, she is associated with a monastery in Macclesfield. St Michael’s and All Angels http://www.stmichaels-macclesfield.org.uk/, the town centre church, has a picture of her in its ancient Savage Chapel.
Werburgh is also patron saint of Chester. I’ve told her most famous story elsewhere in this blog The Story of St Werburgh, or One of my geese is missing. She is a saint I have known about for many years. I look forward to getting to know her better as I walk in her company….and the company of all the saints!
St Chad, associated with Lichfield Cathedral, I currently know nothing about and look forward to making his acquaintance, perhaps becoming friends even, as I prepare for and undertake my pilgrimage.
As I walked near Lamaload Reservoir, listening to oyster catchers, curlew and buzzards calling overhead it struck me that while the world has certainly changed since Anglo-Saxon times, when Werburgh walked these hills, the cry of the buzzards is the same; the shape of the hills is the same. And the human need to find the space and the time to be quiet, to think and to pray – whatever prayer means for us – is the same too. And so is our need of friends, companions on the journey.
That’s what the ‘saints’ are, I think. Friends, neighbours even, already in eternity but still cheering us on as we journey through life. There to chat with. Reminding us that God is all around us, beyond us, within us and at work in the lives of ordinary people, like us.
I enjoyed my walk with Werburgh, though my feet were sore by the end. I look forward to more.
Jennifer Fox Eades: Alexander Technique Teacher 