St Werburgh's Catholic Parish, Chester
2025 has marked the 150th anniversary of the building of our church on Grosvenor Park Road. The year has been filled with many activities and celebration events.
Early in the year, our Director of Music, Tom Rozario, suggested a Parish Pilgrimage Walk to the shrine of St Winefride at Holywell. And so we set about making it happen. The planning and preparation brought together a team who went on a journey of route finding, risk assessments, communications, signing up of participants, preparatory walks and selection of appropriate worship. This phase formed new friendships and gave us a new opportunity to offer our talents to the Parish.
The Pilgrimage itself took place on the weekend of the Feast of SS Peter & Paul, 28th & 29th June. The weather was wonderfully kind to us.
On the Saturday we walked approximately 13 miles from St Werburgh’s via the canal towpath, the Millennium Greenway and the Wales Coastal Path to Flint, before taking the train back to Chester. During stops we prayed the Northumbria Community Office and used other prayers and reflections appropriate to the location and journey.
A highlight was being welcomed for our first major stop at the Church in Wales parish of St Bartholomew’s at Sealand, who specially opened their café to serve us food and coffee. We prayed together before departing with a sense of a new link forged between two worshipping Christian communities.
On the Sunday morning after Fr Paul celebrated a special 8am Pilgrims’ Mass for us at St Werburgh’s, we took the train back to Flint to restart the walk. We covered approximately 7 miles along the Coastal Path to the ruins of Basingwerke Abbey, and then the final mile to the shrine.
There we were warmly welcomed, arriving just in time for devotional prayers followed by bathing. For those who have not experienced it, the waters are bracing (or perhaps icy would be a fairer description). Bus and train got us back to Chester late afternoon.
In total 33 people participated in the Pilgrimage, most on both days, some on just one, with two wonderful Pilgrims who were unable to walk with us all the way providing emergency support by being available by car and finding us to join most worship stops. . There was a great balance to the group, which included an age span from school age to the over seventies, single walkers, couples and small family groups.
Both days we included an extended stretch of walking in silence. Whilst the conversations on the walk were rich and allowed many of us to get to know fellow Pilgrims much better, the silence offered space to reflect and pray in a way that rarely seems available.
The Pilgrimage formed many new relationships within the Parish community and beyond (and a few blisters). It gave many of us the opportunity to escape from the daily busyness and open ourselves to God’s voice in a range of environments.
We would really encourage other Parishes to consider something similar and would be delighted to share our experience, and even the route and worship materials.
Route information
Risk assessment
Worship and reflection booklet
Plan email including kit list and travel details