Walking the Walk: join Bishop John on his 2024 Holy Week pilgrimage
Dates & Seasons
“…on this year’s Holy Week pilgrimage I expect to be walking with some people who have been directly or indirectly affected by conflicts, including inter-faith leaders and Christian leaders from Myanmar, South Sudan and Ukraine,” says Bishop John Roundhill
I am sitting in a local CBD cafe with former refugee Bishop Daniel Abot — we are face to face across the table waiting for our food to arrive. My phone is on the table. The conversation turns to what the refugee experience is like at the start of it all, following a related question from me.
Bishop Daniel says that it can start suddenly: “It can be just like this, sitting in front of your brother across a table, and then you have to get up, go, not go home, but just go!”
I almost instinctively reached for my phone. “No,” he gently added, “You would have to leave your phone right here.”
It is almost beyond my imagination to think what that would be like for me — to completely lose connection and even the possibility of connection with your own family for years.
That is how it can look like — the moment you slip from being a free citizen to a refugee seeking safety.
It is a shocking fact that the number of forcibly displaced people in the world has been rising relentlessly since 2011. The figures can be seen in graphical form on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) website.
Since 2011 the curve is up. The chart shows that over 108 million people were categorised as forcibly displaced in 2022 “as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order”. Given the graph’s steep upward trend and world events since 2022, if the 2023 figures were published, they would be similar — likely higher.
That we live in a world where we could be much better at living with one another is one of the saddest truths there is. Jesus came that we “may all be one” (John 17.21): “His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace” (Isaiah 9.7). He heralds “the peaceful kingdom” (Isaiah 11) and said “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5.9).
At present we are, as a human race, falling short.
One of the iconic images of these times, where so many are forcibly on the move, is that of refugees walking along a road.
This image is from the UNHCR’s website and pictures a Venezuelan family walking along the highway that runs parallel to the border with Chile on 3 December, 2021, in Peru’s southern region of Tacn
I find such images so deeply sad, for these images look only a little different to holiday makers walking along a road to their hotel.
The following is an AI image I generated of family holiday makers walking along a similar bitumen road.
AI-generated image of a family on holiday
This year I will be walking again during Holy Week. I will be starting on the Saturday before Palm Sunday (Saturday 23 March) and walking daily until Easter Eve (Saturday 30 March). This will be a walk of about 170km and I expect to visit 30 Southern Region Anglican churches. The full itinerary and route can be viewed on my “Walking the Walk 2024” blog.
These walks are open to everyone — Anglicans and wider community members are warmly welcome to walk with me. Each year the walks seem to take their own shape. Some years we have walked with masks, another year’s pilgrimage was halted part of the way with a lockdown. So far we have mostly been fortunate with the weather each year.
Mindful of the tragic UNHCR figure mentioned above, on this year’s Holy Week pilgrimage I expect to be walking with some people who have been directly or indirectly affected by conflicts, including inter-faith leaders and Christian leaders from Myanmar, South Sudan and Ukraine.
As we walk and talk, I am sure we will be mindful of all those who are forcibly displaced — of the need to pray and work for peace, and for the great gift of peaceably living together. My personal prayer is that over this week as I walk and talk, I might model a more peaceful way of living.
As I walk 170km in a week, I am personally aware that I am doing so on an average-sized planet (just under 13,000km in diameter) that sits in the vastness of space. And this is the only place in this vast universe where we know life, any life, exists.
God so loves this comparably small world; why can’t we too?
Editor’s note: You are warmly invited to join Bishop John Roundhill on his fourth parish-to-parish Holy Week pilgrimage between Saturday 23 March and Saturday 30 March 2024, and to bring friends and family members with you. Bishop John is covering over 170km in seven days across Brisbane, Redland Bay, Logan and the Gold Coast. Pilgrims may walk for as briefly or as long as they wish. Check out Bishop John’s itinerary so you know where and when to meet up with him and bring a friend or family members along with you.
Jump to next article
