Movement story: the Pilgrimage Against Poverty

One step at a time We journey onwards with God. This is pilgrimage.

Nick Waterfield

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, as the world was counting down to the year 2000, hundreds of people took part in an extraordinary 670-mile journey.

The Pilgrimage Against Poverty, organised by Church Action on Poverty, shone a light on poverty in the UK and pressed for change, mobilising and energising supporters all over the country as never before.

The pilgrims began on the Scottish island of Iona in August 1999, and ended nine weeks later in London. Seven people walked the entire route. Dozens more completed long stretches. And hundreds joined in for a few hours at a time, walking through their own village, town or region. Along the way, the pilgrims prayed, visited local groups and projects, listened and learned, and discussed how poverty could be ended.

Two people who remember it fondly are Val Simcock and Pat Devlin. Val was alerted to the opportunity by her daughter Emma, who was volunteering with Church Action on Poverty at the time. Val had been looking for a unique way to celebrate the turning of the millennium, and jumped at the chance.

“I had no experience of anything like that before, and it was a magical time,” she recalls. “We became a close-knit group, and I recall we always seemed to be walking in sunshine. It was a time of prayer and penance as well as pilgrimage. We started every day with prayer and ended every day with a time of reflection.”

Val had hoped to walk the whole way, but was delayed by family illness so instead joined at Glasgow. Ten years on from the pilgrimage, she wrote about it in Church Action on Poverty’s newsletter:

“Our accommodation was very varied – sometimes we slept on church hall floors and at others we would be taken in pairs to sleep in the houses of local people. I am always reminded of this experience when I hear the

Gospel story of Jesus sending out the disciples to spread his message – they too were totally dependent on the generosity of strangers for their bed and board. For me it was quite frightening but also liberating to have to put my total trust in God for all that I needed and the path I was to walk each day.”

Pat walked two long stretches of the route: Berwick-upon-Tweed to York, and Birmingham to London.

For Pat, the stretch near her home in the North East was particularly significant, especially when the pilgrims reached Jarrow, the starting point for the famous Jarrow Crusade in 1936, when 200 people marched to London protesting against local poverty.

“When we arrived in Newcastle we arranged to walk from Newcastle to Jarrow and that became much bigger than anticipated,” says Pat. “For a lot of people in the North East, it was quite emotional.

“Then, when we arrived in London, there were to be three representatives to go to speak to Gordon Brown, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time. I spoke mostly from the Church Action on Poverty perspective and there were two who had walked all the way, including Brian Wallis from the North East. Brian was unemployed and he had children who were not living with him. He had huge potential but had had an addiction problem. We all met Brian’s MP, and Brian was very aware of how extraordinary the whole thing was. It was very emotional for him when we walked into London, and he was very emotional that it was ending.”

Looking back, Pat says: “It was the strongest experience of church I have ever had and I do not think I was alone in that. There was a real strong solidarity and camaraderie. It made me realise what it is to be part of the body of Christ – if one suffers, we all suffer.”

Gavin Aitchison

During the Pilgrimage Against Poverty, the pilgrims carried with them Tempted to Slide Back into Mud, a resource compiled by Church Action on Poverty containing a selection of prayers and poems and a liturgy. The churches which hosted the pilgrims on their journey used the liturgy to welcome the pilgrims when they arrived. Some of these materials are reproduced on the following pages. You could adapt them to use in different contexts.