Armchair Pilgrim: Small Can Be Beautiful

After a Saturday of rest and and a Sunday filled with worship — morning Eucharist at St. Deiniol’s in Hawarden and Choral Evensong at Chester Cathedral — Monday morning we were back on the bus to the Llyn peninsula and St. Beuno’s Church in Clynnog Fawr. 

Cradled by the sea on one side and rolling hills on the other, the 15th-century church stands on the site of the monastic settlement founded by the favorite saint of north Wales in the 700s. Once the starting point for pilgrims heading south to Bardsey Island or north to Bangor Cathedral, the church is now visited by pilgrims walking the North Wales Pilgrims Way. 

Our group of pilgrims was welcomed by the Rev. Rosie Dymond, a ministry leader for the diocese of Bangor who works with community development. She shared some of the history of the church as well as speaking  to how her diocese is creating opportunities for the community to come together in small groups to offer one another support.

“Small can be beautiful,” is their motto. 

After lunch in Caernarfon in the shade of its impressive castle, we made our way back towards Hawarden, stopping at Saint Winefride’s well in Holywell. The well is the oldest continuous pilgrimage site in the United Kingdom as the 17th-century graffiti carved into its walls attests. Gathered around the pool which housed the original spring, pilgrims prayed for healing not only for themselves and their loved ones, but also for all of creation, reading the poem “Lament” by the Welsh poet Gillian Clarke.