8th Annual GK Chesterton Walking Pilgrimage Report

The last G.K. Chesterton Pilgrimage before Canon Udris hands in his report to Bishop Doyle of Northampton, on the feasibility of opening the cause for the Beatification of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, took place on Saturday 28^th July 2018.

The Pilgrimage started as always outside St George’s Anglican Church in Notting Hill, where Pilgrims

read the opening paragraph from Chesterton’s Autobiography and said the GKC prayer at 7.30am. We then walked along the Uxbridge Rd to Ealing, where we would normally stop and pray outside the abortion centre there. Because of the draconian PSPO (Buffer Zone) brought in by Ealing Council in April, which criminalises pro-life prayers, we can no longer do this, so we stopped briefly at Ealing Town Hall instead, where we were greeted by an elderly Polish woman who had come to wish us well. We then walked on to Hanwell, where we joined the canal. After walking for 5 hours, we stopped in the Malt Shovel Pub, for a quick drink and a packet of crisps, before leaving the canal to walk through the countryside and past Pinewood Studios to the Bridgettine Convent in Iver. Fr O’ Donohue was waiting there to say Mass in thanksgiving for Chesterton’s conversion. 

Mass ended with us singing Chesterton’s Hymn, “O God of Earth and Altar”. There were about 40 people in attendance for the Mass, which considering the lack of public transport, was very good. 23 of these were walking Pilgrims. After a brief lunch, we set off walking again, through Fulmer, where we stopped at the Black Horse pub and then on to Beaconsfield where GKC is buried. For the last few miles Malcolm, who has now walked the full Pilgrimage four times, and has thus clocked up over 100 miles, was leading the way. As we approached Beaconsfield, he stopped at the corner of Candlemas Lane to ensure that nobody missed the last turning into Shepherd’s Lane, where the cemetery is located (a turning that we did miss on the first walking pilgrimage!) After a few brief words at the graveside, those followers of the cult of G.K. Chesterton who were gathered, said the GKC prayer, before staggering into The White Hart Pub, which was Chesterton’s local public house.

As usual large numbers of people submitted hundreds of prayer intentions for the Pilgrims to pray for along their route.

One participant had attended previously and had walked the first half of the Pilgrimage 2 years ago with her husband. She returned with her son this year and completed the Pilgrimage in thanksgiving to Chesterton for his role in converting her husband.

The huge diversity of those taking part on this 8^th Annual G.K. Chesterton Pilgrimage was again in evidence. There were people aged from 7 to 70, a number of different races, more than a dozen nationalities, with people travelling to the Pilgrimage from Reading, Maidenhead, Berkhamsted, Northampton, Hertford, Bedford as well as from all over London.

Special thanks to Ken for driving the support minibus this year and arriving at the cemetery first, where he placed a note upon the gate (See photo) as a joke! It read “Notice to all Walkers, Sorry, closed today. Please come back another day.”

The Chesterton Library contacted us to inform us that Chesterton Manor, a new property development in Beaconsfield was having it’s Open Day on the same day as the Pilgrimage and that the property had been named in Chesterton’s honour.

Stuart walked the Pilgrimage in part to raise funds for The Good Counsel Network you can donate here; https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gkchestertonpilgrimage18 

This report has been posted on the 96th Anniversary of GK Chesterton becoming a member of the Catholic Church.

95th Anniversary of England’s Largest Earthquake

Ninety-five years ago today, the World was rocked to it’s very foundations by a huge earthquake. The epicentre was The Railway Hotel Beaconsfield, which is no longer standing. The hotel has been replaced by a supermarket, carpark and a Catholic Church.

The aftershocks of the earthquake were felt all over the World. Some people in Argentina even wrote a prayer as a result and the Archbishop of Buenos Aires was even moved to edit the pray. That Archbishop has since gone on and changed his name to Pope Francis.

So 95 years ago Gilbert Keith Chesterton became a Catholic in The Railway Hotel Beaconsfield and shook the World to it’s roots. He has led hundreds or maybe thousands of others into the Catholic Church. He holiness has led hundreds to his graveside to pray. For seven years now there has even been an Annual Pilgrimage in his honour.

Say the GK Chesterton Prayer in the language of your choice; http://www.catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk/Printable-Prayercards.html Follow @CatholicGKCSoc on Twitter.

Like The Catholic GK Chesterton Society Facebook page. Read Chesterton, and not just his very good Father Brown mysteries. Many of his books and essays can be read for free online, including his biographies of St Francis, St Thomas Aquinas and Charles Dickens.

And do watch, ‘G K Chesterton; Apostle of Common Sense’ on EWTN (Sky 589 or online www.ewtn.co.uk) Mondays 2pm or Wednesdays 7am or Thursdays 10pm each week. (30 minutes long)

7th Annual GK Chesterton Pilgrimage 29th July

Saturday 29^th July 2.30pm Old Rite Mass, at The Bridgettine Convent, Fulmer Common Road, Iver, SL0 0NR, in thanksgiving for Chesterton's Conversion, which took place 95 years ago. You are welcome to attend the Mass even if you are not doing the walk. (a lift from Uxbridge to the Convent may be possible, contact us)

Bring and eat a packed lunch.

For those who wish to, you can then join the pilgrimage walk to Beaconsfield (7.5 miles approx) where Chesterton lived, converted, died and is buried. We will say the prayer for the Beatification of GKC at his graveside. The prayer can be found, in a number of languages at: www.catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk

Or join us at 9.15am. outside the abortion centre at 8 Mattock Lane, Ealing, W5 5BJ where we stop for a few minutes prayer before walking on to Iver along the canal.

If you’d really like to walk the full 27 miles, meet us at 7.30am outside St George's C of E Church, Aubrey Walk, London, W8 7JG, where GK Chesterton was Baptised as a baby.

For more details or to join the pilgrimage email catholicgkcsociety@yahoo.co.uk or follow @CatholicGKCSoc on Twitter. See the website for reports from previous year's Pilgrimages. You can join in from home by saying the prayer on the day; https://www.facebook.com/events/1896572717297708/

www.CatholicGKChestertonsociety.co.uk

6th Annual GK Chesterton Pilgrimage Report And Photos

On Saturday 30^th July 2016 my brother-in-law Stephen agreed to give me a lift to the starting point of the Annual GK Chesterton Walking Pilgrimage. This allowed me to stay in bed slightly longer than normal, for which I am grateful. Hooray! While waiting outside St George’s C of E Church in Aubrey

Walk, to see if anybody else would arrive for the 8am start, Malcolm wandered around the corner, went into the Church grounds and promptly announced on social media that I wasn’t there! At 8am we read the paragraph from Chesterton’s autobiography, said the prayer and started marching off in the direction of Ealing. Hooray! We bemoaned the fact that many people had said they would come if the pilgrimage was ever on a Saturday as two is the smallest number that we have had start the Pilgrimage since the first year we walked. Upon arriving outside the abortion “clinic” at 87 Mattock Lane in Ealing 5 minutes ahead of schedule, we prayed for the closure of the “clinic” with the hardy souls who go there each Saturday to pray and offer support to the women tempted to abort. We were joined by three more pilgrims at this point, the five of us headed off, joining the canal just before Hanwell Hospital by The Fox public house. We now had to pick up speed as we needed to arrive in Uxbridge for the 1.30 Mass.

The Sung Old Rite Mass started shortly after our arrival and thanks to Fr Schofield for allowing us to use his parish.  To Fr Michael Cullinan for being the Celebrant, Gordon for being MC and Peter, Steven, Nathanael and Jerome for serving and a special thanks to Matthew Schellhorn who provided the excellent musical accompaniment to the Mass. And thanks to the Latin Mass Society for helping to cover the expenses of the Mass. Hooray! There were more than 50 people at Mass, which was offered in thanksgiving for the Conversion of GK Chesterton, whose reception into the Catholic Church had taken place 94 years ago to the day. After a brief lunch we were off again to walk the last 12 miles through the countryside to the grave of GK Chesterton in Beaconsfield. There were now more than 30 of us for the last leg of our journey. Hooray! A couple of American film-makers joined us for the afternoon, filming proceedings to be part of a documentary that they are making about GKC. We said the Rosary on the way, sang a few bits, said the Angelus twice and even stopped in one pub.  Upon arriving at Chesterton’s grave we said the Prayer for the Beatification of GK Chesterton in English, Welsh, Gaelic, French, Maltese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Latvian, Hungarian, Portuguese and Latin, Hooray! 

Half the Pilgrims were dropped back to Uxbridge station in a minibus while the rest of us patiently waited in Chesterton’s local pub, The White Hart, for the minibus to return and take us back to London. Thanks to Ken who patiently followed us in the minibus during the day, to provide lifts to anyone who needed a break or was having trouble keeping up. Our youngest walking Pilgrim was 5 years old and we have no idea how old our oldest Pilgrims were as we were too polite to ask them but we are fairly sure they were septuagenarians.

Please say the Chesterton Prayer and print copies off. Please email Canon Udris (Chesterton (at) oscott.org) and tell him that you say the prayer even if you haven’t received any favours yet as at this time, Bishop Peter Doyle just requires evidence that there is a cult of prayer and devotion to GK Chesterton so that his cause for Beatification can be opened. Please like and follow the Catholic GK Chesterton Society on Facebook and Twitter (@CatholicGKCSoc), Read GK Chesterton’s books and essays, many of which can be read here for free  and watch ‘The Apostle of Common Sense’ on EWTN (Sky 589 or online) Tuesdays 5pm or Wednesdays 7am or Thursdays 10pm each week. (30 minutes long) and do give Chesterton books to friends and family for birthdays, Christmas and etc, ensuring that you put a GK Chesterton prayercard in the book, which they can use as a bookmark.

Chesterton once said, “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” If each time we open a book we find a Chesterton prayercard marking our page, we could say the prayer before we read.
And £4,735.68 was raised for the wonderful Catholic Pro-Life work of The Good Counsel Network and you can still donate here.