Day 39 - Pentecost

Sunday - a rest from walking and, even better, Jennifer came down to meet me.

Without miles ahead of me, I settled for cereal and poached egg on toast, then watched Andrew Marr interview Gordon Brown. Sunday morning television is a complete unknown to me.

Jennifer arrived just in time for us to get across to the Abbey for the eleven o'clock service. It was a sung eucharist for Pentecost, and though that's not my normal preference, very uplifting and charged with the presence of God.

It was first time that Jennifer and I have seen each other in two weeks, the last being with our friends in Bournemouth. And now I'm just two weeks from home, a little over a hundred miles to walk.

Though my walk has been a solo adventure, and though I've missed Jennifer, Jon and Phil, I've never felt lonely - the awareness of the presence of God by his Holy Spirit has been varied but unfailing.

We found a cafe serving roast pork for lunch, went for a stroll, had a coffee, an ice cream and a drink. We talked and talked and held hands through Tewkesbury. Fantastic to be together again.

My walking verse was Mark 12.38 "Jesus said, 'Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces...'"

Someone asked me before I set off if I was going to wear a clerical shirt and collar as I walked. "It could be useful," he said, "people will treat you better".

Sadly, he was probably right. But it was not a suggestion that I was going to adopt.

I noticed, after I was ordained, the difference that wearing a collar makes when I'm walking the streets. Some people smiled and acknowledged me, most were careful to avoid making eye contact. A few, I think, even cross the road. Four days after wearing a clerical collar I was on a Walsall pavement when a young man with a wild look in his eye walked up and punched me on the jaw.

I wear a collar most days in my normal ministry, and I think it's good to walk the streets of the parish in a visible way. But I'm enjoying being incognito during the walk, when people are courteous or pleasant it's reassuring that neither robes nor collar have provoked their respect.