Â鶹Éç

Good Morning,
Embedded in the wall of one of our churches in Whitchurch Canonicorm is the shrine of Dorset's patron saint, St Wite. It has been a site of pilgrimage for over a thousand years and still is today. As a church we offer a one day guided pilgrimage experience, St Wite’s Way, that tells her story and gives pilgrims the opportunity to reconnect with the deeper things of life as we walk the glorious Dorset countryside.

Very little is known of St Wite, but I have found, the more we speak of her, the more we discover. Like through John, who hailed me from across our local pub, The Five Bells, to tell me that some time ago he had found a ‘pilgrim token’ on his land and he invited me to come and see it.

As I sat in his kitchen with a steaming mug of tea, John’s wife gave me the token to hold. It was nothing like how I’d imagined. It was bigger, about the size of a flattened foil milk bottle top and heavy. You could feel its weight and apart from damage on one side probably caused by some farming equipment, it looked like it was made yesterday.

But it was 800 years old, authenticated by the British Museum. Easily enough, because the Pope’s name at the time, Innocent VI was written on the back…

As I held it, my heart connected with the pilgrim who’d lost such a treasure visiting St Wite all those centuries ago. History came alive, right there, in John’s kitchen.

So today I pray we will know the joy of good things from the past, inspiring the present. Amen.