[The Winchester Way] The Diocese of Winchester is planning a series of pilgrimages to Canterbury to celebrate the millennium. A specially commissioned pilgrim's staff, made by local craftsman Charles Piggott, will be blessed in a service in Winchester Cathedral on 29th December. It will then pass through more than 50 parishes on the Pilgrim's Way before arriving in Canterbury nearly a year later. The initiative comes from the Diocese of Guildford and has been organised in conjunction with Winchester Diocese.
"It will be exciting," says co-organiser Revd Robert Teare. "The staff will be incorporated in different ways into parishes' millennium celebrations. We are all on a pilgrimage and we all have to grow and move forward."
However the first pilgrimage through Winchester will see Christians walking through the Diocese on 22nd December. This is part of a project organised by St George's, Campden Hill, in London, with pilgrims walking to Canterbury from eight points around the UK. " We feel there should be a spiritual dimension to marking the Millennium," said Tony Stacey, one of the organisers, "and so we are appealing to people who believe in spiritual realities to join in."