Journey in Our Day

Over the past century, for many people, travel has become quicker, safer and cheaper, opening up a host of new possibilities - holidays, family reunions, gap years, cultural exchanges, study. Yet, in an age of climate change and pandemics, questions arise about unrestrained travel. 

In 2019, 39 million planes took off around the world, 50% more than ten years earlier. In the same year, people in Britain drove 300 billion miles by car, double the figure of forty years earlier. The growth of eco-tourism is one way that people are responding. The revival of interest in pilgrimage is another.

Columba would certainly recognise and applaud this. Pilgrimage has never gone away in many faiths but the Reformation in Europe led many Christians to reject it and only recently has it seen a revival. Although many pilgrims now rely partly on modern transport, at the heart of pilgrimage is the idea of "slow travel". A pilgrim travels under their own steam, being open to what happens each day, giving time for encounters with people along the way, feeling the sacred earth beneath their feet, and offering time for personal reflection and growth. As John Muir, the great environmental pioneer, said: “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”

However, there are many whose journeys are forced on them. According to the UNHCR, an estimated 85 million people in our world have been forced to flee their homes. Factors include political oppression, people trafficking, climate change, war, racial and religious intolerance, violence against people who are LGBT+, famine and desperate poverty. The vast majority travel no further than a neighbouring country, which is often ill-equipped to cope. Only a relatively small percentage move on towards Europe. Far too often, those who do are seen as a problem or, worse, as criminals, rather than as people with the same hopes and fears as us. If Columba were alive today he would surely denounce the tribalism that denies people their dignity once they leave the security of their home.

Here are some thoughts on what Journey means to us at St Columba's.

Exploring Further

You will have your own ideas - here are some of our recommendations

EXTERNAL LINKS

Visit Scotland is one site among others that offers a helpful introduction to "slow travel" and eco-tourism. 

The Scottish Pilgrim Routes Forum is a great place to start for information and links to walking routes across Scotland. 

Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees is a partnership project which seeks to co-ordinate and promote action by faith communities in Scotland to support asylum seekers and refugees

FILM & TV

The Way - (2010) A bereaved father makes the pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago to Compostella, starring Martin Sheen.

Wild - (2014) The true story of a woman, whose life is falling apart, walking 1100 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail in America, starring Reese Witherspoon.

Pilgrimage - (2022) Episode 4 of a BBC TV series in which seven personalities from different faiths make the journey to Iona, on the way learning about Columba, themselves, each other and their faiths.

BOOKS

Travels with a Stick by Richard Frazer (2019) Richard discovers how a journey - wherever it is made - undertaken with an open and hospitable heart can provide spiritual renewal and transformation.

No Destination by Satish Kumar (2014) An autobiography by a one-time Jain monk who undertook an 8000 miles pilgrimage to the world's nuclear capitals, carrying only packets of "peace tea".

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (2019) The story of Raynor and her husband finding the healing power of nature on a long distance coastal walk.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (2012) A deeply moving story of a man who walks the length of England to save the life of a woman.