Jack's Pilgrimage

By Heather Karabelas

BOUND FOR SANTIAGO— Jack Greenhalgh getting ready for his journey to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Jack Greenhalgh is Dean Emeritus of the Cathedral of St. Michael and All Angels in Kelowna. Retired from parish ministry for a few years now, he will soon be setting out to fulfill a life long ambition, that of embarking on a journey in the ancient tradition and spirit of pilgrimage. Pilgrimages, as a form of personal discipline, prayer and spiritual awakening have been part of Christian practice for over 1000 years. Places like Jerusalem, Rome, Canterbury, and Moscow have been focal points for millions of pilgrims who, through the centuries, have undergone great hardships to journey, usually on foot, to visit a shrine of a saint, in order to give thanks for some special blessing, to make intercession for some special cause, or to deepen one’s awareness of God in every aspect of life.

On April 20 Jack will set out with one companion on a 798.5 kilometre walk to the most famous of pilgrimage sites in the world, Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Thousands of people make this journey every year and have done so without ceasing since the year 950 AD when it was believed the remains of St. James the Apostle, brother of our Lord, were discovered buried there. Beginning in the village of St. Jean Pied de Porte in the Basque region of south western France, he and his fellow pilgrim will cross the Pyrenees to the town of Roncesvalles where they will turn west and head towards Santiago in northern Spain. This is the most ancient of several routes and it is called the Camino Frances, or the "Way of St. James." It follows the thousand-year-old marked route (camino) through medieval towns and villages, to ancient churches, monasteries and hermitages. They hope to cover an estimated average of 25 kilometres everyday for 32 days and at the end, will celebrate with many others in the great cathedral of Santiago, the many blessings of completing an historic pilgrimage. They will be packing their gear on their backs and, like all pilgrims before them, they will stay in the ancient pilgrim's hostels called, "Alburque."

With blessing of our Bishop, John Privett, Dean Greenhalgh intends to offer this trek and spiritual journey for the benefit of the people of Kootenay and for our cathedral's greatly needed building development. It would be wonderful to be able to take everyone along, but you can perhaps make the pilgrimage in another way. As a means of raising funds it is hoped that many folks will wish to sponsor this journey with a pledged amount of money to the cathedral's building fund. Father Jack is hopeful of your support. You may pledge a specific amount for the trek or an amount per kilometre based on the number of kilometres actually walked.

Your pledge can be emailed, phoned or snailmailed to the Rev. Heather Karabelas, #8, 670 Lequime Rd., Kelowna, BC V1W 1A4 (250) 764-2719 — Karabelas@telus.net. Cheques should be made payable to St. Michael and All Angels’ Cathedral.

Pilgrims through the centuries have used a special word of encouragement. It was a word that had special meaning in the Cursillo movement that was formative in our diocese years ago. It is the word, "Ultreya." It is a pilgrim word and it means: UPWARD AND FORWARD.