In December 2024, our first Carol singing concert was organised at St. Benedict's church in Paddlesworth. In a packed church full of people from the surrounding area we hoped to mark the beginning of a new chapter for St. Benedict’s church. Back in 1367 a priest named William, got sent from nearby Dode (which was all but wiped out due to the Black Death) to St. Benedict's to serve the people of Paddlesworth.  More than 600 years later Dode church reached out once again to help its sister to breathe new life into this precious ancient little church.

 

Since Doug (keeper of Dode), Jacobine & Bernard (volunteers at Dode) started with this initiative, many positive reactions were received. Volunteers have stepped forward to help cleaning the church, polish the choir pews and altar. 

This is an initiative for and by the community. New ideas and helping hands are always welcome!

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With many modern-day pilgrims still walking past this church today, we would like to see this church once again at the heart of the local community. Even though modern-day pilgrimage has changed somehow, it is a nice thought to have our future activities centred around the wider meaning of pilgrimage, which after all is a metaphor for life itself.

 

Or, to use the words of L.M. Browning…

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“The purpose of a pilgrimage is about setting aside a long period of time in which the only focus is to be the matters of the soul. Many believe a pilgrimage is about going away but it isn’t; it is about coming home. Those who choose to go on pilgrimage have already ventured away from themselves; and now set out in a longing to journey back to who they are. Many a time we believe we must go away from all that is familiar if we are to focus on our inner well-being because we feel it is the only way to escape all that drains and distracts us, allowing us to turn inward and tend to what ails us. Yet we do not need to go to the edges of the earth to learn who we are, only the edges of ourself.”