News release
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION (18 March 2010)

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Northern Cross – celebrating Easter by pilgrimage - modern pilgrims feed spiritual hunger

The annual Christian cross–carrying Pilgrimage to Holy Island / Lindisfarne, takes place once again during the week before Easter when more than 50 pilgrims will walk around 100 miles through Northumberland and the Scottish Borders during Holy Week.

Northern Cross starts on Friday 26 March and finishes on the Island of Lindisfarne, Northumberland, on Easter Sunday, 4 April. The pilgrimage began in 1976 and has grown steadily every year.

Therese Bennett, Overall Coordinator of Northern Cross for 2010, said: “Northern Cross is a unique experience, a week of fellowship which is tremendously enriching as we share in a common journey of pilgrimage together.”

“We come from many different denominations, leaving the normality of everyday life, to enjoy some occasionally strenuous walking, new fellowships, and joyful liturgy. Linked by our enthusiasm for walking through beautiful countryside, we constantly grow in many ways as we meet new people along the way, parishioners, passers-by, publicans, and all, sharing prayer, worship and song, and having a really good time.”

This year's pilgrimage is made up of three groups or ‘Legs’ who will set off for Holy Island - Lindisfarne in Northumberland to join together and celebrate the Easter weekend. They will walk 10 – 19 miles per day and each group carries a large wooden cross as a sign of Christian witness. They stay in church and village halls along the route, and join in with the people of local churches for worship.

Legs will be starting from Bellingham (Northumberland), Lanark (Strathclyde), and Carlisle (Cumbria). The pilgrims of NorthernCross come from many different denominations, as do the hosts, but are linked by their enthusiasm for walking through beautiful countryside (in all weathers), meeting new people in pubs as well as churches, sharing prayer, worship and song, and having a really good time. Chaucer’s pilgrims were a mixed bunch – so is Northern Cross – male and female; young and old, from 7 to 70 and above, walk with us. Most of the route is on small quiet roads, tracks or footpaths and avoids any main roads. Many have walked Northern Cross before and return time and time again.

Therese Bennett said: “People think of pilgrimage as a mediaeval idea, yet the idea of Christian pilgrimage is alive and well today, as can be witnessed by the 6 million people who go to Lourdes each year, or the countless thousands who in the last 30 years have resurrected the month long walk along the Camino di Santiago, from the Pyrenees to North West Spain. Northern Cross is another example of this. On pilgrimage we find ourselves divested of possessions, just requiring whatever can be carried in a small bag. Cut down to bare essentials, we see ourselves stripped of all trappings of civilisation. We look for meaning in life as we travel through it, and a pilgrimage is a chance to mirror life, and at the same time to step back from life and look to see what the important things are.”

She added: “Northern Cross, and any walking pilgrimage, is a chance to get away from the world, to figuratively carry your house on your back, to have time to commune with nature. The destination itself is not so important alone – it is a goal – but the important thing is to form a small Christian group of people, travelling together on the road, using each others skills, helping each others weaknesses, working as a team to achieve an aim. It is an important part of experiencing the Easter celebration.”
    

High resolution photos for use by media

Click here for high-resolution photos available for use by Media organisations, subject to being credited to Northern Cross.

Photo opportunities during the 2010 pilgrimage

• Opportunities to photograph walkers on each leg will be available from Saturday 27 March to Friday 2 April.
  
  
• Crossing to Holy Island on the tidal causeway, Beal Sands, south of Berwick on Tweed, gather at 10.45am, crossing will start 11.00am Good Friday morning, 2 April.
    
  
• Easter liturgy, St Mary’s Church, Holy Island 8.00 pm. Easter Saturday 3 April (media photography in the church must be confirmed with the local vicar/priest)
  
• Easter Eucharist service, St, Mary’s Church, Holy Island. 10.45am Sunday 4 April. (media photography in the church must be confirmed with the local vicar/priest)
    
• Procession of decorated crosses through the streets of Holy Island, Easter Sunday, (after 10.45am Easter Eucharist service). 12.45am from outside St.Mary's church/by St.Aidans statue to end by 1.45pm. Sunday 4 April.     

For further information

For more information please contact us by email on
northerncross [at] freenetname.co.uk (up until 26 April)

or between 26 March - 4 April call Therese Bennett on 07946 168607 

Publicity material

Download our Leaflet (PDF, 341kb) and Poster (A4, PDF, 961kb).