Short web video of Highlights of the Pilgrimage: (7 minutes)
The CAFOD Pilgrimage 2009 to Holy Island took place on June 13th. Many people from Hexham and Newcastle Diocese took part, along with others from Middlesbrough Diocese and elsewhere. Gathering at the start of the Causeway, pilgrims walked across the "Pilgrim's Causeway" - a marked path accessible at low tide - to the island, following in the footsteps of many other pilgrims since ancient times.
Reflecting concern for the environment and conservation, CAFOD were delighted to welcome guest speaker Davi Kopenawa Yanomami from the Yanomami community in Brazil, a spokesman on indigenous issues and Amazon Rainforest conservation.
The Yanomami people lost 20 per cent of their population in just five years in the 1980s and 90s as a result of mining in the territory. The mining brought with it river pollution, violence and illnesses.
In 1989 Davi won a global UN 500 award in recognition of his struggle to preserve the rainforest, and has also received the "Right Livelihood" or "Alternative Nobel prize" for raising public awareness of the importance of the wisdom of traditional peoples for the future of humanity.
From the Liturgies said as the Pilgims walked the Tidal Causeway:
Creation has its own relationship with God, in some measure independently of humankind and beyond human understanding; it glorifies and worships God in continuous praise.
The natural world is made up of many different and delicate and intricately connected cycles that have nurtured and sustained life for millions of years, giving fertile soil, clean water and a pure atmosphere. Now these life-sustaining mechanisms are breaking down through pollution and abuse.
(Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales "The Call of Creation" 2002)
Prayer
Creator God,
in your hands you hold the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains, for all creation belongs to you.
Grant us grace to cherish your world and wisdom to nurture its resources.
Save us from the desire to control what is not ours and the impulse to possess what is there to share.
We pray for Davi and the Yanomami people.
May they live in a land free from violence, and continue to walk in the steps of their ancestors, in good health, and where the game and the fish continue to live.
We pray that the forest remain quiet, the sky remain clear and the evening darkness fall where the stars can be seen.
A land where it is possible still to dream.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.
For those not walking across the causeway, a liturgy was celebrated in St Aidan's Church.
During the walk across the causeway the threatened rain stayed away; the storm waited until the last pilgrim was across! For the rest of the day there was the occasional shower but this did not dampen anyone's enthusiasm, and it was fine enough for Mass outside later in the day.
At lunchtime the Pilgrims were invited to use St Mary's Vicarage Gardens for picnics and see some tremendous views of the island.
Everyone gathered together in the afternoon for a Celebration of Mass by St Aidan's Statue near the ancient Priory remains.
A splendid and thought-provoking day was enjoyed by all.