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A "Borderland" can never be safe or self-contained, for it is a place where peoples, traditions and cultures meet and challenge each other. They also meet to learn from one another. In this Pilgrimage on the Welsh Borders, we shall draw from both the Celtic tradition, native to Wales, and the Benedictine tradition brought to England from Rome by St. Augustine. The exercise of "listening" - not only through words but also visually through landscape and buildings - will give the opportunity of exploration at many levels: a personal interior journey and a shared corporate experience. The emphasis will be contemplative, with space for silence and prayer; for secret hidden holy places as well as famous sites; for visits to gardens; for the discovery of Thomas Traherne and Henry Vaughan, the 17th century mystical poets who wrote of this area. With the Benedictine Abbey of Belmont near Hereford as our centrepoint, the outward journey of the Pilgrimage will take us to where the two cultures have met and moved for over a thousand years in these border lands. - Esther de Waal |
Belmont Abbey |
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In the Welsh Borders we'll be staying at Hedley Lodge at Belmont, a Benedictine Abbey. From this home base, we will be visiting ancient pilgrim sites, churches and holy wells. We'll make several trips into the beautiful Brecon Beacons Park and up into the Black Mountains. Sites we'll visit are Tintern Abbey (which is just as mystical as Wordsworth's poem says it is), Dore Abbey, Partrishow Church and Holy Well (to which we'll hike up a breathtakingly beautiful mountain), Hereford Cathedral, Llanthony Priory, Tymawr Convent (a lovely, hospitable community of contemplative Anglican nuns), Kilpeck Church (which sports numerous amazing stone carvings along with one of the most perfect Sheela-na-gigs in the British Isles), and others. On our pilgrimage to Western Wales, we'll visit St. David's Cathedral and city; St. Non's Church and Holy Well; St Brynach's Church, High Cross, and pilgrim path at Nevern; Pentre Ifan, a bronze-Age megalithic site dating from 4000 BC; Mynydd Carningli (The Mount of Angels); and others. Our lodging will be at St. David's. The cost includes nearly all meals, greatly reducing extra expenses. |
Navern High Cross |
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Registration Form |
Costs and Conditions |
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