By Lee D. Miller © Lee D. Miller has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 © Lee D. Miller has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Please listen to “Where is the Love?” By The Black Eyed Peas http://youtu.be/WpYeekQkAdc Website: apilgrimageforbrianhaw.webs.com Email: [email protected] Facebook: A Pilgrimage for Brian Haw 2 A Word about Pilgrimages from Canon Gordon Tarry A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim. A pilgrimage is also an inner journey. As a pilgrim travels, reflection can take place on life and any particular reasons the pilgrimage has been undertaken. For many this space to think and reflect brings fresh purpose and meaning for their lives. Barking Abbey, founded in 666, and its ruins, have been a place of pilgrimage for many years, and this continues today. 3 Forword I’ve only met Brian Haw on two occasions in my life. Both meetings were very brief and I only exchanged but a handful of words with him. But he was still someone who had a great impact on me, for who he was and what he did. Firstly, I respected him greatly for the resilience and commitment he showed in standing for justice and for truth, no matter what the consequence may have been to himself, and secondly, for the courage he demonstrated when doing so. I feel that if every man, and every woman, showed the same strength and courage that Brian Haw demonstrated - to do the right thing and be true to their hearts, on a daily basis, no matter what – then the world would immediately be a different place: a place of peace and not war, a place of truth and not falsehood. I long for that world to emerge, as I’m sure do the predominant number of us, and I know that by simply living the way I have stated above I can help to make that desire a reality. “You must be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi What else can you do? And that was my question, to myself, on 18th June 2011, the day I was made aware of Brian’s passing by the kind and courageous man who is David Icke (via his website). David opened a support fund (for Brian’s treatment in Germany) at the end of the previous year and I was pleased to contribute £9.28 to it – the last amount of “money” I had left in my bank account and all the money I had left in the world at that moment. I didn’t really care about the money, but the act felt like quite a symbolic thing to do at the time, and I’m glad that I did it... but what could I do now? That evening I didn’t know, to be fair, but I had a feeling that a man like Brian Haw should be remembered, and that, I wanted to remember him. I’d recently returned to England, after being overseas, and was back at my Mum’s in Barking. I had no immediate plans for the future and, having a love of long distance walking (after walking the entire length of Hadrian’s Wall and Offa’s Dyke the year before), thought that maybe I should go on a long walk and the answer of what I should do next would come to me. I feel there is something intrinsically special about walking, and especially about long distance walking through nature. It’s the best way to travel, I think, because of the different experiences you have and the people you encounter. You start to see the world with a different perspective and life somehow begins to take on a new meaning… you feel more at one with yourself and with the world around you. And there is something very liberating when you start to talk about distances in terms of “day’s walk”. It’s as if you reclaim something… some kind of freedom that you had lost somehow. Everywhere is suddenly within your reach. I was staying at a place on the North York Moors once and I fancied visiting Scarborough (Why? Just to have a look!). So I decided to walk there from where I was. It took me three days (with two nights camping wild). It was a beautiful walk, across the moors and then along the coast, and when I got to Scarborough I walked through the town centre itself and came across an outdoor pursuit shop. In the window was a T-shirt with a fantastic message emblazoned on it. It read: 4 “No where’s too far to walk to……as long as you have the time!” It made me smile because it was such a truth! But the greatest gifts that I find when walking are not just the beauty you can see or the experiences you may have… but the time you give to yourself, to be with yourself, and with your own thoughts. For it is in those moments that you may find your own truth and the reason for your being. But where should I walk? The River Lea? The River Thames? Then I thought back to my walk along Offa’s Dyke and a wonderful friend I made during. My friend, Miriam, lived in Canterbury. Hang on, I thought… Canterbury! Why not walk to Canterbury on a pilgrimage. That’s what I can do. That’s how I can remember Brian! So that’s it. That’s how this pilgrimage came about. But there is more that made it seem so much more appropriate and special. So much more “meant to be” in fact. In the immediate days following that evening I started to plan my route. I was originally looking to begin my pilgrimage in Greenwich. I’ve always felt that Greenwich (and especially the hill in Greenwich Park) was a very special place, and it is my favourite place in London. But when I consulted the Ordinance Survey maps, something didn’t feel quite right about starting from there. Something didn’t feel completely appropriate. It was something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. So I studied the map of London before me, and then it hit me. Right in the top centre of the map was Barking! What was I thinking of?! I should start my pilgrimage from there… the place where I grew up! But not just at any place in Barking. The place that I, and many locally, regard as the most beautiful part… the ruins of Barking Abbey. Barking Abbey was the first Benedictine Abbey built in England in 666 AD, by St. Erkenwald, and was once one of the richest and most powerful Abbeys in the land. It was home to William the Conqueror, after the Battle of Hastings, in 1066/67 (and while the Tower of London was being built), but was destroyed by Henry VIII during the dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. St. Margaret’s Church survived and played host to the marriage of Captain James Cook to a Barking Lady named Elizabeth Batts on the Winter Solstice of 1762. With my starting place decided, I began to plan the rest of my route. I wanted to avoid, as much as possible, busy roads and urbanisation, so I searched all the main footpaths to see how they linked up. I knew that I would have to walk along the Barking Road to reach the Isle of Dogs, in order to cross the Thames by the foot tunnel at Greenwich, and I was delighted to find that I could walk along the River Thames all the way to the River Darrent, which would in turn lead me to the ancient Pilgrims Way, connecting me to Canterbury. This was set then, so all I had to decide was the time to leave. Because of the time of year, I thought it would be quite symbolic to leave on the day of the Summer Solstice, but when that day arrived it just didn’t feel right and I wasn’t feeling settled. So I waited, and in the meantime I decided to find out a bit more about Barking Abbey and about pilgrimages themselves. I visited St. Margaret’s Church and attempted to contact the presiding Canon, but he wasn’t there at the time. 5 Later, I phoned him and left a message, and on Friday 24th June, Canon Gordon Tarry returned my call and we proceeded to have a very pleasant conversation about the nature of pilgrimages and about the history of Barking Abbey itself. I discovered that I had been on the right track regarding my understanding of pilgrimages and the way in which I was approaching my own. The conversation really helped me. I finally felt settled and my thoughts felt focused. I was ready to go. That evening I scanned the internet, to find out a bit more about Brian, and I came across an article written in the Evening Standard about him. It reported his death, and spoke about his life, and it said that Brian was an Evangelistic Christian. To be honest, I’d always heard that term used to describe certain kinds of Christians but I had never really understood exactly what it meant or felt an impulse to find out, so I took the opportunity to look it up and enlighten myself.