A Pilgrimage On Wheels
Mary and Terry Stewart of Perth are recently converted Catholics, and as they are also cyclists and into fitness, the had a vision for a bit of cycling pilgrimage, a ride that included stops in all 16 churches of the Northern Deanery of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kington.
The diocese is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year and the total amount of cycling required to stop at all the churches was about 390 kilometres – over 200 miles – so the symmetry appealed to them
They recruited two avid cyclists from their Church, Jenny and Dave Salte, who helped form the organising committee, as there were a lot of logistics involved
They began their trip on August 9th, with Mary and Terry on a tandem bicycle and the rest of the group we on regular bicycles.
“The tandem made going up hill exceedingly difficult,” Mary said, “lagging behind the group on every hill. Fortunately, going downhill was how we caught up. We reached two maximum speeds, one at 55k/hr and one at 56k/hr going down, passing the team until the next hill.”
The cyclists stopped at each church for 30 minutes. They entered churches that were open and prayed outside when they were not.
“Our hope was to be able to enter each church (regardless if it has been closed for years) unifying in the 200th anniversary prayer, singing a praise song and studying the Book of Mark by reading a chapter at each church - the only book that has 16 chapters. Only 3 churches were not open. A reflection time was quietly observed after the reading,” said Mary Stewart of the way the trip proceeded.
Along the way, local parishioners at each of the churches left plenty of food and water to sustain them on their voyage.
The trip took four days, and the group was billeted in three towns along the route; Merrickville, Westport and Lanark, also thanks to parishioners at the churches.
They travelled on a mix of paved and gravel roads and some trails, which is “where all the mishaps occurred; flat tires falling into ditches, exploding cannisters.”
The weather was excellent for 3 of the 4 days, which is a pretty good average given how wet the month of August has been in the local region.
All told, the cyclists made it to churches in the following towns. On day 1: Perth, Dewitt’s Corners. Stanleyville, Lombardy, Smiths Falls, and Merrickville. On day two, they traveled from Merrickville to Toledo, then Athens, Elgin and Westport. On day 3 they traveled from Westport to Bedford, Sharbot Lake, McDonalds Corners and ended up in Lanark. Finally on day 4 they traveled to Fergusons’s Falls, Carleton, and finally back to St. John’s in Perth.
