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Picture by Oliver Bonjoch, Creative Commons 3.0
Picture by Oliver Bonjoch, Creative Commons 3.0

An Hour Long Pilgrimage in Edinburgh

Monday August 15 2016

Pilgrimage is fast becoming a popular way of exploring faith– but not everyone can take a week or two off to pursue the many miles of a formal walk.

Now, thanks to an initiative by Edinburgh City Centre churches, you don’t have to.

In fact anyone can become a pilgrim – and it’ll take you about an hour.

The Rev Ian Gilmour, minister at Edinburgh: St Andrew’s and St George’s West, says: “Pilgrimage is a unique way of finding out about yourself and your relationship to your faith and the desire for pilgrimage is increasing all over Europe.

“Those of us involved with the city centre churches, my own St Andrew’s and St George’s West, St Cuthbert’s and St John’s Episcopal Church, are surrounded by incredible history.

“We thought about doing a mini pilgrimage route encompassing these monuments and one of our Trustees, Frances Cooper, did extensive research and walking the proposed route, and noting all the things to be seen.

“Initially we were going to include things inside the churches but in the end we decided to confine the pilgrimage to points of interest accessible from outside the church buildings instead.

“We produced a small free ‘Pilgrim For An Hour’ booklet that you can pick up from any of the three churches, and we managed to create a free downloadable app. It’s been available for iPhones since the Heart and Soul event in May and will shortly be launched for Android phones.

“You can start the ‘Pilgrim For An Hour’ route at any of the 15 stops on it – there’s not a real start and stop point - and do as much or as little of it as you choose.

“At each stop there will be something to see.

“The booklet (and the app) will give you some historical context for what you’re looking at, a point for personal reflection and a Bible verse taken from Ecclesiastes.

“We include monuments to well-known characters like David Livingstone and James Young Simpson, but also lesser known people, like Catherine Sinclair, a 19th century author and philanthropist who used the money she got for writing children’s stories to care for the poor of the city, setting up a school for them, creating clean water drinking fountains and providing food kitchens for them to have somewhere to eat.

“Other stops on the route are scenes of natural beauty, like the view over the Forth.

“It might only be an hour out of your day, but we’re hoping this short pilgrimage takes you on a real mental and emotional journey,” says Ian.

“The app will guide you round the route using directional aids, so it’s quite sophisticated.”

Spurred on by the success of the mini pilgrimage, the team would now like to use their experience to help other parishes within Scotland to create their own ‘Pilgrim for an Hour’ route based on places of historical and spiritual interest in their area.

The Church of Scotland’s Mission and Discipleship Council in Edinburgh would be happy to talk to people thinking of putting their own mini pilgrimage together and advise if they can and can be contacted by telephone on 0131-225 5722 or by email at mandd@churchofscotland.org.uk