Student Cross: A pilgrimage with a difference

London Leg 2008

How did you spend Holy Week?  Were you doing the usual routines at work, at school or university?  Did you just about make it to the services at church, perhaps even to Confession?  Have you ever thought it could be any different?

This year, the annual Student Cross pilgrimage celebrates its diamond jubilee, remembering the group of young men who in 1948 first took up a cross and walked from London to Walsingham for an Easter pilgrimage.  In Holy Week 2008, over 250 people of all ages set out on their journeys from various parts of England in 10 groups (known as “Legs”).  They walked around 120 miles during the course of the week carrying a cross and gathered together in Walsingham on Good Friday for an Easter celebration like no other. 

It is very difficult to express the effect of Student Cross on the lives of those who take up the challenge.  It is a week of joy and no few blisters, of friendships forged for life and liturgy as you have never experienced it before.  Each and every pilgrim makes a vital contribution to the Leg and people flourish within an atmosphere of acceptance, celebration and hope of the Resurrection.

Traditionally, the pilgrimage has been aimed at students and the make-up of the pilgrim population is certainly focused around the 18-35 age range.  This is generally reflected in an energetic liturgy and social life!  Particular Legs also cater for children, families and older people, which creates a wonderful atmosphere on getting to Walsingham.

For me it was the best Easter yet.  As a secretary to the “London Leg”, which carries a 9ft, solid oak cross 126.4 miles from Epping to Walsingham, it was a profound realisation of Christ’s love in the world, manifest in the other 27 people on the leg and all those we met along the way.  From the parishoners newly recruited in the playground of the local Catholic school who gave me bed on Palm Sunday evening, to those who baked cakes for our morning, lunchtime and afternoon tea stops (well, we are known as the “luxury leg”!) and even those who shouted insults (or encouragement) from their cars, Student Cross has an impact on everyone associated with it and I pray that it continues to flourish in the years to come.

So, if you spent Holy Week anticipating Easter and thinking that Lent had passed by a bit quickly, perhaps you will consider something different next year.  Visit www.studentcross.org.uk or contact me for more information.