The Island

This is the culmination of Northern Cross. On Holy Island Christians have rejoiced, prayed and celebrated for almost 1400 years. Here we share our experiences and join together in prayer and celebration of the Easter mystery.

Rendezvous at the causeway
After between 60 and 110 miles of walking, through sunshine and rain, our destination is finally in sight, only 5 miles remain to be walked. Here we meet up with the groups from the other Legs who have been sharing our experience and as we set out across the pilgrim sands we become for the first time wholly "Northern Cross".
   

Good Friday - Arrival
Our arrival is marked by a short service where all the groups are welcomed to the island and their crosses are laid at rest in the chapel. This is closely followed by lunch and a well earned rest.

Good Friday - The Passion
On Good Friday evening we share together a service of reflection on the Passion of Our Lord. Although this service is new each year it has often taken the form of a quiet reflective time with a reading of the passion and usually ends with an open ended time of prayer where people may remain for as long as they need.

Easter Saturday - The Service of Light
Each year we collect driftwood and build a bonfire on the beach to be our Paschal Fire. The service is shared with the local Anglicans and others and takes place in the local Anglican church (St. Mary the Virgin Holy Island). The service is in four parts; "The vigil", which is a series of narrative readings with the church in darkness; "The service of light" a procession to the beach to light the paschal candle from the fire; "The liturgy of baptism" where we renew our baptismal vows and "The first Easter service" which is a celebration cooperatively organised by both the Anglican and Roman Catholics where all are welcome.
   

He succeeded Bestowel at Melrose and was eventually sent to Lindisfarne to reform the community, whose discipline had sadly slackened. He seems to have been a practical and warm-hearted man whose many miracles often involve delightful animal stories. Cuthbert, however, was more and more attracted to a life of solitude. He began to withdraw from the monastery to a tiny islet just offshore. Later he moved to the greater isolation of Inner Farne off Bamburgh, where he built himself an hermitage from which he could see nothing save the sky. The remains of the hermitage and of his tiny garden can still be seen. Stories abound of his time there from the day he arrived and had to banish hordes of evil spirits infesting the site, to his habit of standing neck-deep in the North Sea for hours on end engaged in prayer and meditation. After these immersions it is said that the Sea Otters would come and dry him with their fur. Cuthbert is said to have requested a monk who saw this to keep silent on the matter-but word got out!. Any enthusiastic candidates for such meditations should consider the temperature of the water, and the scarcity of otters in these parts nowadays. Cuthbert's name became attached to the Eider ducks that are relatively common around the island ('Cuddy's Chickens') and to certain small fossils which occur on the island ('Cuddy's Beads'). For years, Cuthbert lived alone on Inner Farne, visited occasionally by his own community and others from far and wide who had been attracted by his growing reputation. Eventually his superiors and colleagues began to press him to return and in 684 he reluctantly accepted election as Bishop of Lindisfarne; he was invested in York on Easter Day by Primate Theodore, in the presence of King Egfrid. For 2 years, Cuthbert undertook his duties before returning to his hermitage on the tiny island as his life drew to its end. He died on 20th March 687, attended by a small group of his brethren, and his passing was signalled across the sea to Holy Island by the waving of torches. In the 10 years that followed, a carved oak chest (of which fragments remain in the Crypt of Durham Cathedral) was prepared to receive his relics, and the Lindisfarne Gospels were written and illuminated in his honour. As Cuthbert had (unenthusiastically) foreseen, pilgrims began to flock to the shrine and miracles were soon recorded.