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On to day 11 of the #GrandWalkOut and I took Bob to Newbold on Avon so he could walk through Rugby to Braunston on the Oxford Canal.

It was a showery day so I opted for a shorter local walk around Braunston village and the junction. I walked up the High Street to the Parish Church, All Saints, also known at the Cathedral of the Canals. It has an excellent toilet.
I walked across a field by the church and joined the canal at bridge 89. From there I walked down to Braunston Junction. The Oxford Canal meets the Grand Union Canal here, although the later has quite a few other branches. An impressive double iron bridge spans the junction. Round the corner bridge number 1 is officially the first bridge on the Grand Union Canal. It’s mostly downhill to London from here, and I think we’re about half way along the distance.
At bridge 2, the nearest to our glamp, I spent some time browsing in the art and craft shop enjoying looking at the things made by local artists, including two huge dragon’s heads made from recycled materials.
From there it was only a short walk through the well numbered sheep to the glamp. I could play sheep bingo on the way.
Living by the, Rule of St Benedict in a community has, until recently, been a local thing. In the last couple of years the ability to link with each other via the Internet has meant our dispersed community has felt more local. Even so, in our community promise, we aim to live by the Rule according to local opportunities for Holy Space, Holy Service and Holy Communion as our situations allow. A way of life in which dispersed people also embrace the local.

From my remembered bible: Your kindom come…

God grant a quiet night…

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, at Braunston, Star Wars Day, 2022.

Day 10 of the #GrandWalkOut was, like most of our walking days, about connections.
Bob dropped me off at Hawkesbury Junction where we finished yesterday. Most days start like that with a connection to the day before. We call this a tiggy. It also offered an opportunity to upload the blog from the day before, as there’s no connection at our current glamp. This may therefore happen for a few days.

Canals are all about connections. I walked onto Ansty while Bob started there at bridge 16. On the way to Ansty along the Oxford Canal I was reminded of two connections. The first was the M6 that I was walking near (there was a fence). The sign I could see said Junction 2 so this was the other end to my M6 experience in Cumbria in 2019. I was on the End to End then and used the back roads round the M6 corridor from Sedbergh to the border. It’s a very loud road.

The second connection was that Bob and I met in Oxford in 1989. We have not often been back.
At Ansty I picked up the car and drove onto Newbold on Avon, a small place with both a Co-op and a fish and chip shop. Bob found me in the Co-op. The small portion of lunch chips turned out to be quite big.
Bob remembered some routes in the Coventry area from when he’d lived there. We have now made many tracks criss-crossing the country.
The Rule of St Benedict is about connections, firstly because building community is about people becoming connected. Secondly there’s a huge world-wide Benedictine family living by the Rule of which our Lay Community is a part. And thirdly because of the internal connections in the Rule itself: connections to the bible are particularly common.

As I walk along it is the connection with my remembered bible that keeps me company. I recall a phrase and sometimes it turns into a song of sorts. I make a connection between my remembered bible and the landscape. I am thankful for these and many more connections.

From my remembered bible: Jesus, remember me.

I remember

From a friend of Scholastica and a member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Newbold on Avon, 3rd May 2022.

On Day 9 of the #GrandWalkOut we managed to complete the Coventry Canal.
We left our glamp and went to the Co-op for supplies in Atherstone. Bob started walking from there towards Nuneaton.
I went to Nuneaton and started waking at bridge 15 and walked to Bridge 11 at Marston junction. This is where the Ashby canal branches off. But Bob carried on from there down to Hawkesbury Junction, which is where the Coventry Canal meets the Oxford Canal, which we will take tomorrow.

It was an overcast and humid day and it reminded me of many days on the End to End in 2019 when the walk seemed quite ordinary but was extraordinary for all that. The canal is alive with waterfowl, edged by flowering plants and populated by all sorts of people. Each small track of woodland is currently alive with bluebells, a quintessential British Spring wild flower.
To be doing this walk we had planned to do in 2020 yet had to postpone due to the Covid19 Pandemic also makes it extraordinary. As we touch each town or village, I wonder how people have managed. We see shops that have closed, pubs too. Graffiti still adorns the bridges that I count off as I pass under them.
We finished at Hawkesbury Junction and then drove onto our new glamp which is south of Rugby at Braunston, over looking the Grand Union Canal. We will fill in the gap as we walk to here over the next few days.
But today I think only of this day. As with the End to End, on any long distance walk you can’t think too far ahead. You don’t want to miss anything.
In the Rule of St Benedict everyday is marked in the same way. The same hours are celebrated in the Office each day. The the psalms are repeated in a particular cycle. This is all part of the stability of the community every day. As I walk along the footpath is my work, the trees and hedgerows are the walls of my oratory and my remembered bible keeps me company in my daily celebration.

As I rest at days end, God grant a quiet night and a just one.

From my remembered bible : Every creature praises God.

Just for today.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, from Atherstone to Hawkesbury on the Coventry Canal. 2nd May 2022

On Day 8 of the #GrandWalkOut we are notching up the counties. Today we move from Staffordshire to Warwickshire and even a touch of Leicestershire at one point. Various place claim to be the heart of England but the countryside we are now walking through is like this for miles.

Walking is good for your heart and is a heartfelt thing. Not just physical it touches our mental and spiritual well being too. Bob started today at Hopwas and walked to Alvercote Marina. I started at Alvercote Marina and walked to Bridge 48 near Grendon. There are no seats along the Coventry Canal which is, I think, an oversight. But there were barges selling craft items which was nice.

We met up again at Atherstone, which boasts a market in the heart of the town that dates from Anglo-Saxon times. We picked up our clean washing from the laundry service.

How would you describe the heart of St Benedict’s Rule? Would it be the daily pattern of worship and work, or the stability of life lived in the same community or would it be Benedict’s instructions to welcome strangers ‘as Christ’. Different people might see the heart of the Rule in different terms. Life in community calls different people to co-operate in building community mindful of the challenges such a group might face, how they might see things differently.

The stalls in the market place sell different things. The town doesn’t need a market in which all the stalls are the same. The community thrives on the variety of market stalls. So too with creating community together. It works best when we do it wholeheartedly however different we may be.

Tonight we meet some LCSB members from the Midlands and shared a meal, which is an enjoyable part of community.

From the remembered bible : Look after your heart: everything flows from it.

From my heart to yours.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Day 8, Atherstone

Yesterday was a rest day. However I was using the new camera and came across many waterfowl do I thought I should post some.

Today was Day 7 and we’ve been walking a week. Bob started at Fradley Junction on the Coventry Canal and I went to Hopwas, hoping to see some bluebells. There were loads. The lovely church yard at St Chad’s was in full bloom.

I then walked along the Coventry Canal towards Bob and met him after a few miles. It was a lovely day for butterflies as well as more waterfowl. Does anyone know why there are small doors in some bridges on the Coventry Canal?

Sparrows weren’t worth much in Jesus’ day. So much human behaviour today suggests our contempt for other species, it seems little has changed. In God’s economy sparrows get top rating.

In Benedict’s Rule the community was urged not to look for rank or importance in age or office. It seems we struggle with such ideas even several hundred years later. Human beings are still busy with their status. Walking on a canal tow path there’s no rank. We do it slowly and eventually we hope we will arrive in London. Some way to go yet. Tonight we stay at a small glamping pod on a farm in Warwickshire: very comfy.

From my remembered bible: How much are sparrows worth?

May I value them all

From a Friend of Scholastica and a member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Day 7 of the #GrandWalkOut, Hopwas.

Dear 6 of the #GrandWalkOut and we seem to be getting the hang of it. I walked from Bridge 83 to Bridge 74 on the Trent and Mersey Canal. Bob started at bridge 74 and walked to Bridge 50 which is Fradley Junction. I then drove there to meet him.

Another lovely day and Trent and Mersey Canal is a long one. There are many fascinating signs of progress along the way from the salt spa to the farm shop. I keep counting bridges and look out for interesting flora and fauna. This will be our last Trent and Mersey day this trip as we turn onto the Coventry Canal next.

As I walk I think about the Rule of St Benedict, still followed by many around the world today. I wonder what Benedict and Scholastica, his sister, would think of as progress?

Is it progress for monastic communitites to get bigger and bigger or for billionaires who support hate speech to buy social media platforms? These days most of the monastic communitites I visit are not all that big and support themselves through small sustainable enterprises. I thought of a name for a social media platform called Natter, but maybe someone else already started that.

I ate ice cream made by local suppliers and chatted to a canal user about walking long distances, how it grounds you (his words) and helps you to get things back into perspective. I certainly find it helps, this strange mix of pilgrimage and tourism.

As I wander onto the next place I admire the activity going on around me and pray we may co-operate to ensure the planet remains sustainable for generation after generation.

From my remembered bible: Let your servant go on in peace.

Rebalance me.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Day 6, Fradley Junction.

It’s Day 5 of the #GrandWalkOut and we’re well into Staffordshire. Bob took the train from Stone back to Stoke and then walked to Stone. I did the shopping in Stone and then started walking at bridge 93.

It’s pretty obvious to me that I’m not as fit this Spring as I was in 2019 when I started the End to End. I had Covid19 a month ago, having managed to avoid it for quite a long time. Although I have now recovered, I’m still tired and limiting my walking to about 6 miles or so per day at the moment.

The Trent and Mersey Canal was one of the first built, with work starting in 1776. Back by Josiah Wedgewood amongst others, it served his pottery works in Stoke. It’s beautiful to walk along today with wild flowers along the edges and swans nesting in the reeds.

At Aston Lock I was half way along the length of the Trent and Mersey, with 46 miles either side of me. Whilst I have been to the Preston Brook end of the canal (in 2019), I’ve yet to make it to Shardlow (and won’t get there this time either).

In the end I managed 10 bridges to Sandon. Counting bridges is a handy activity on canals. Each has their own character.

The Covid19 Pandemic has put fitness under scrutiny across the globe. It comes in many forms. Much of the Rule of St Benedict is about fitness, not just what the members of the community needed to stay fit and healthy, which was one of Benedict’s concerns. But also fitness for different roles in the community. Each role is carefully described, from the one who opens the door (the Porterer), to the one who keeps the stores (Cellarer) and the various types of leaders. He was trying to ensure that only those fit for each office was given the job so that each community could thrive. It’s still an important aspect of fitness to consider today.

As I plod on a few more bridges, my fitness is probably improving. Flat Canal walking is not too demanding, and there’s always the motivational ice cream at the end of the day.

From my remembered bible: Let us run the race….

Walk on.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Day 5, Stone to Sandon.

Day 4 of the #GrandWalkOut has us moving on from our 1st temporary base in Congleton. I dropped Bob at Kidsgrove and I went on to Stoke. To some this route may seem odd, but it’s straight down the canal, which is rarely straight. To others it will seem like a potter, a dawdle, a mouch.

Once at Stoke I pottered back up the canal. I remember its distinctive mile posts from 2019, when I was further up.

I walked to the junction at Eturia where the Trent and Mersey Canal meets the Caledon Canal. This spot is an interesting industrial junction. There’s also plenty of waterfowl enjoying the Spring season.

Interesting sights include various shapes of old kilns, evidence of the potteries industries over several hundred years. Some works remain open for visitors. It’s still possible to ‘go down to the house of the potter’.

When Jeremiah made his visit he was using the potter’s activities to illustrate the way God shapes people. The Rule of St Benedict is also about shaping communities of people.

So what shapes us and how does it happen? Our whole life times are a shaping experience. It never stops. Whether that shaping is a positive action that leads to flourishing as individuals and communities or results in negative attitudes and actions towards ourselves and others depends on the way we choose.

Benedict said his Rule was not meant to be too difficult. As we try to live by it hundreds of years later we do have to contextualise it and ask how it can shape us positively in our world today.

This walk is not meant to be too difficult either. Each of us walks at our own pace and for a reasonable distance. We may walk, dawdle or potter. Four days done we have pottered through some of the potteries.

From my remembered bible: Go down to the house of the potter.

Shape me!

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Day 4 to Stoke.

Day 3 of our #GrandWalkOut and we’re still on our first canal: the Macclesfield Canal.

I started at Congleton and walked to Ackers Crossing. Bob started at Ackers Crossing and walked to Kidsgrove. His destination meant we had completed the Macclesfield Canal and were now heading down the Trent and Mersey Canal.

We also crossed the route of our daughter Hannah’s End to End (she walked it in 2012) just north of Kidsgrove at the Red Bull pub.

There were a number of other firsts today. My first heron on the canal. I always look for these beautiful sentinels. Most importantly though, our first ice cream of the walk: a Snugberys at Little Moreton Hall, which is an incredible building.

In the Rule, St Benedict urges the community to put prayer first, which is good advice. It comes in many forms and it’s good to try several. I was pleased to hear worship in Ukrainian and English from the Catholic Ukrainian Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile on Radio 4 this morning. It was the first time I’d heard their particular liturgy. But also because, before it became the Ukrainian Cathedral the building was the Kings Weigh Church. A church of the Congregational Union of England and Wales at the time, it was here in 1917 that Constance Coltman became the first woman to be ordained in England. When I last visited, Dr Orchard’s coat hook was still visible in the vestry (he was one of the ordaining ministers, and later became a Catholic).

I begin with prayer. Not a lengthy liturgy but a simple opening of heart, and I return to it many times during the day, from first step to last.

From my remembered bible: In the beginning…. (also part of the Ukrainian Easter liturgy)

Open my heart.

From Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Day 3 of the #GrandWalkOut from Congleton to Kidsgrove.

Day 2 of the #GrandWalkOut had Bob returning to Macclesfield to walk to Congleton via canal with his brother.

I opted for a more gentle circular walk around Congleton, starting by the River Dane. I don’t know much about the story of Congleton but I saw plenty of things that made me wonder at it, including an abandoned paddle boat cum bar, and a sad lost shoe.

In St Peter’s Church yard there were signs of the Easter story remembered last week. The crucifixion and the empty tomb were both represented.

Each of us has a story and the families, communities and places we are linked to also have stories. We are surrounded by these story layers.

The Rule of St Benedict can be read as a story, the story of the development of monasticism. In the Lay Community we are constantly asking how this story is relevant to us living in the world today. Benedict didn’t claim to be the first or even that his community was perfect. But he did try to encourage a way of communal life that was do-able, where people could thrive. This must surely be the story we want to be part of, both our successes and our failures.

The canals were a large part of the story of industrial Britain. Then they were largely abandoned for rail and road transport, to later be rediscovered and reused. Every community goes through such phases and rediscovering new purpose on old foundations is a worthwhile communal enterprise. The Easter story is about new life and is foremost in our minds in the 50 glorious days after Easter Sunday.

From the remembered bible: we build on rock.

Tell me the old, old story.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Day 2 of the #GrandWalkOut, Congleton.