Patrick Comerford
I am planning to be in Walsingham in Norfolk for much of this week, and I have been invited to be one of the speakers at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage to Walsingham, which begins tomorrow (Tuesday 10 March 2026) and continues until Friday (13 March)
The pilgrimage is organised by the Ecumenical Marian Pilgrimage Trust, with the support of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius and the Society of Saint John Chrysostom, which are marking their 100th anniversaries.
This will be my first time to visit Walsingham and I am staying at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, where most of the events on this pilgrimage are taking place.
The first part of the programme tomorrow afternoon is a visit to the Holy House in the Shrine Church, where we will be welcomed by Father Benjamin Eadon, Administrator of the Shrine and the Revd Dr Mark Rowland, Secretary of the Faith and Order Committee of the Methodist Church, who will speak on ‘Full of Grace: Mary and Wesleyan Assurance’.
Later in the afternoon, we visit the Methodist Church in Walsingham, where we are being welcomed by Aileen Cox, a lay minister of the Methodist Church. Holy Communion is celebrated there by the Revd Dr Richard Clutterbuck, former principal of Edgehill Theological College, Belfast, and the Revd Dr Mark Rowland is the preacher.
Back in the Anglican Shrine, the speaker after supper is Father Philip Corbett, Vicar of Saint Silas, Kentish Town: ‘Images of Our Lady by Allan Crite’. Compline in the Shrine Church is led by Monsignor Keith Newton, with a devotional reflection from Bishop Lindsay Urwin.
Monsignor Keith Newton, former Anglican Bishop of Richborough, was the first ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (2011-2024). Bishop Lindsay Urwin is a former area Bishop of Horsham in the Diocese of Chichester. He was the administrator of the Anglican shrine in Walsingham (2009-2015), and in retirement is an honorary assistant bishop of the Diocese of Southwark. His sister, Bishop Kate Prowd, is a bishop in the Diocese of Melbourne, and they are probably the only brother-sister bishops in the Anglican Communion.
Wednesday (11 March) begins with the Anglican Eucharist in the Shrine Church, and then a visit to the Catholic Church of the Annunciation in the Friday Market, with a Scripture Meditation by Father Graeme Rowlands, Acting Anglican Parish Priest of Walsingham, and Sung Mass, when the principal celebrant is Bishop Peter Collins of East Anglia and the preacher is Monsignor Keith Newton.
Bishop Collins is co-chair of Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in England and Wales, and is speaking on ‘International Anglican-RC Commission on Unity and Mission: A Hopeful Way of Common Witness and Service in the World.’ Before we return to the Anglican Shrine, Canon Norman Wallwork of the Methodist Church speaks on ‘The Marian Prayers of Eric Milner-White.’
The speakers later in the afternoon are Dr Margaret Barker, ‘The Women at the Resurrection Appearances of Christ’, and Dr Razvan Porumb, Director of Research at the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, ‘The Spiritual Ecumenism of Father Nicolae Steinhardt’.
After supper, the Revd Canon Dr Paul Williams, Rector of Sandringham, speaks on ‘Mary in the Book of Hours on the Eve of the Reformation’. Later, the weekly procession takes place in the shrine grounds, ending with Benediction.
Thursday (12 March) begins with the Anglican Eucharist in the Shrine Church or the Catholic Mass according to the Ordinariate Use at the Convent of the Little Sisters of Jesus.
The morning includes a scripture meditation by the Revd Samuel Harris in the Shrine Church and a talk by Father Michael Lambros, Parish Priest of Saint Mary and Saint George Coptic Orthodox Church, East London, ‘The Council of Nicaea and our Salvation in Christ’. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts will be served by Father Stephen Platt of the Russian Orthodox Church (Diocese of Sourozh), General Secretary of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius. Sprinkling at the Holy Well in the Shrine Church takes place later that afternoon.
I am speaking in the Orangery before supper that evening on ‘A Priest along the Way of a Pilgrim’.
After supper, the Akathist Hymn before the Icon of the Theotokos Hodogetria from the Orthodox Chapel of the Life-Giving Spring of the Mother of God is being served in the Shrine Church by Father Stephen Platt. Then Monsignor Keith Newton is ‘in conversation’ in the Orangery with Father Mark Woodru ff of the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London and chair of the Society of Saint John Chrysostom.
The pilgrimage ends on Friday (13 March). The final day begins with Catholic Mass in the Convent of the Little Sisters of Jesus. After breakfast, Father Mark Woodruff is speaking on ‘Praying Northumberland’s Forgotten Camino with Saint Andrew’, and Dr Daniel Pratt Morris-Chapman, Senior Tutor at Wesley House, Cambridge, ‘Newman and Mary’.
Later in the morning, Bishop Lindsay Urwin is the celebrant and preacher at the Solemn Eucharist in Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church. We return to the Anglican Shrine for lunch and the closing worship in the Shrine Church, with the Ecumenical Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary led by Canon Norman Wallwork and with a closing n address by the Revd Dr Richard Clutterbuck.
The Ecumenical Marian Pilgrimage Trust was founded in 2004 after an ecumenical pilgrimage to Walsingham the year before. It focuses on this biennial pilgrimage to Walsingham, combining devotional and liturgical elements according to the various Christian traditions, with addresses and studies to increase understanding and learning. The addresses from its conferences have been published in six volumes.
The trust grew out of the work of the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it complements the work of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius, and has happy relations with the Society of Saint John Chrysostom, the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association, and the Catholic League, which work for dialogue, ecumenism and unity.
