Camino

Camino Companions

Camino Companions is an adventurous invitation for everyone – in-person and online - to join in a spiritual pilgrimage to explore faith, discern a rhythm of life and put your faith into action.

Our 93 pilgrims were commissioned on St Cecilia's Day on Sunday 22nd November 2020 and will journey together until St James's Day on 25th July 2021. Whether or not you signed up for the pilgrimage, you're very welcome to make use of the materials below.

Your Camino guides are Lia Shimada (facilitator and mediator), Mariama our curate and John our Associate Rector

What’s the invitation?

On the first Tuesday of each month, to attend the weekly Tuesday evening Silence and Eucharist at 6:00pm and meet afterwards with the whole Camino Companions group for input and discussion on a variety of topics, reflecting on the reality of life in the light of God’s presence.
To join a Camino ‘group of six’. These meet however often, wherever and however (online or in person) the group decides. There is a short set liturgy for each group and topics to discuss.
Develop your own rhythm of life in conversation with your group. Each person makes their own pattern, to live as creatively and holistically as possible, including Eucharist, Silence, Conversation and Action to be interpreted in whatever way feels right for you.

3. FEBRUARY 2021 - GOD WITH US IN SUFFERING

Download the third monthly menu as a pdf file by clicking on this banner:

Watch videos of a reading of Untitled by James Baldwin (brace yourself for a few seconds of frenetic intro titles!), O God our help in ages past (based on Psalm 90) sung at Westminster Abbey, and our own Alison Beck singing Come Healing by Leonard Cohen (2020)

Additional material on this month's topic

Click here to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and watch a narrated slideshow in which Andrea Bayer, the curator of European paintings, traces her process of mourning after her parents' recent deaths.

Raphael Soyer, The Artist's Parents (1932)

More words and song

David Suchet reading Psalm 5 (the psalm Lia used in her 'praying with the psalms' exercise)
Mahalia Jackson, God Will Take Care Of You (c1960)
Holmes Brothers, Amazing Grace (1992)

Further reading for a deep dive

Frances Young, Arthur’s Call: A Journey of Faith the Face of Severe Learning Disability (2014). Frances Young is a Methodist minister, a theologian and the mother of Arthur who lives with a severe learning disability. In 2014, she published this reflective memoir full of hope and help for all who struggle with faith in the face of unremitting suffering.
Christopher Chapman, Seeing in the Dark: Pastoral perspectives on suffering from the Christian spiritual tradition (2013) Christopher Chapman is the Spiritual Formation Adviser in the Diocese of Southwark. Here he reflects upon what Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, the medieval poet Hadewijch, Simone Weil and others have to say to us about faith and suffering.
Simon Cuff, Only God Will Save Us: The Nature of God and the Christian Life (2020) The question of God and suffering, and the way in which God is with us in suffering, has been a fruitful area of modern theology since Jürgen Moltmann published The Crucified God in 1972. Last year, Simon Cuff wrote a very accessible introduction to this complex area of systematic theology, in which he reaffirms 'the God of classical theism' in light of Moltmann's work.

‘Mélancolie’ by Albert Gyorgy (Lake Geneva, Switzerland)

2. JANUARY 2021 - GOD'S DREAM FOR ME

Download the second monthly menu as a pdf file by clicking on this banner:

Watch videos of a reading of Psalm 139 and of Malcolm Guite reading his poem 'Singing Bowl' here:

Additional material on this month's topic

Expressing the individual in science and art
For an up-to-date exploration of the modern science of human development and its impact upon morality, public policy, religion, education and law, read David Linden's Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality (2020)

Click here to access a National Gallery of Art activity pack on Expressing the Individual including 22 images exploring how personal identity is shaped, formed, and expressed.
How much of your personal life do you reveal to others? How do you choose to share it?
Diane Arbus, A Young Man in Curlers at Home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C. (1966)

Some music

Margaret Rizza, Let Your Beauty Shine in Me Lord (2014)
Aretha Franklin, My Way (c1967)
Morris Chapman, Be Bold, Be Strong (2010)

Further reading for a deep dive - 3 spiritual autobiographies

Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life 1941-43 In her letters and diaries, Etty Hillesum describes her religious awakening and the persecutions of Jewish people in Amsterdam during the German occupation. In the concentration camp of Westerbork, she had unusual experiences of spiritual awakenings and insight: "Those two months behind barbed wire have been the two richest and most intense months of my life, in which my highest values were so deeply confirmed. I have learnt to love Westerbork". In 1943 she was deported and killed in Auschwitz concentration camp.
Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) Merton grew up in a non-religious family and reflects on the quest for faith in God that led to his Christian conversion at age 23. He resigned his position as an English teacher and entered a Trappist monastery: "Brother Matthew locked the gate behind me, and I was enclosed in the four walls of my new freedom." Encouraged by his novice master to write down his spiritual journey, the book has sold millions of copies and been translated into 15 languages.
Sara Miles, Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion (2007) A witty and accessible modern spiritual testimony by Sara Miles who set up The Food Pantry in 2000, which offers free, fresh groceries to 400 families every Friday at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. “Thank God for Jesus. Because, you know, he was here like us, so he knows how hard it is to be a person. He must have a sense of humor about us.”

1. DECEMBER 2020 - THE JOURNEY BEGINS: GOD'S DREAM FOR THE WORLD

Download the first monthly menu as a pdf file by clicking on this banner:

Watch videos of this month's two key pieces of text for prayer and reflection on our YouTube channel here:

Additional material on this month's topic

Some art and images

Click here for a collection of images of Jesus and Mary from all around world (external link on Pinterest)
See The Guardian's 10 best representations of God from Alanis Morissette to Groucho Marx here.

Some music

Alex Chellun, As I Wake Up in the Morning (2013)
Natasha Atlas and Jocelyn Pook, Adam’s Lullaby (2003) with a slideshow of paintings in the Hudson River School style
Richard Smallwood with Vision, Psalm 8 (1984)

Further reading for a deep dive

Ruth Valerio, Saying Yes to Life (SPCK, 2019) – The Archbishop’s Lent Book last year. As people made in the image of God, we are entrusted to look after what he has created: to share in God’s joy and ingenuity in making a difference for good. Ruth imaginatively draws on the Creation story in Genesis 1 as she relates themes of light, water, land, the seasons, other creatures, humankind, Sabbath rest and resurrection hope to matters of environmental, ethical and social concern.
In theology, this topic of the faith-vision of the world and of humanity is known as theological anthropology. An excellent readable short introduction (112 pages) is The Christian Vision of Humanity: Basic Christian Anthropology by John R Sachs (1991)
For a longer and more scholarly read, try Creation: A Biblical Vision for the Environment by Margaret Barker (T&T Clark, 2009)