Welcome to all visitors - Tourists, Seekers and Pilgrims
Today's Featured Place
St. Winwaloe, Gunwalloe, Cornwall
The Church of the Storms! A 12th century church in a wild place of peace and beauty. It nestles out of the wind, beneath a rocky outcrop, beside a sandy beach where Atlantic rollers pound against the …
Latest News
Welcome to St Corentyn's
Wednesday 2nd May 2012, 9:15 PM
We are pleased to welcome St Corentyn's Church, Cury, Cornwall as the newest Place to join the network. For full details see the "places to visit" section of the website. It is close by another Small Pilgrim Place, St. Winwaloe, Gunwalloe, so you might like to visit them both.
A place where your mind can be idle, and forget its concerns, descend into silence, and worship in secret. — Thomas Merton
Small Pilgrim Places are:
- Spaces for pondering, breathing, meditating, praying, and ‘being’;
- Small places, not those already on the map, well-known, or that draw crowds;
- Simple, quiet and unpretentious, with the presence of the Divine;
- Can potentially be in places of worship, gardens, ruins, open air space, holy wells, etc.;
- Welcoming and inclusive.
The Small Pilgrim Places Network:
- Consists of people who look after Small Pilgrim Places, and network supporters across the UK and beyond;
- Is mutually supportive and encourages the development of Small Pilgrim Places;
- Publicises the location and availability of Small Pilgrim Places.
More about Small Pilgrim Places
Each place fulfils its purpose of making space, keeping silence, encouraging solitude, and providing simple focus points in its own way.
They have a respected identity of their own, unique and singular - with their own history, character and atmosphere, communicating something of the ‘eternal now’, while also bringing the past into the present day and pointing towards the future
Some might describe them as holy or sacred. Celts sometimes described them as ‘thin’ places, others as liminal – ‘in-between’ ‘thresholds’ on the edge of mystery
They should have the potential to gently nudge tourists with glazed looks into becoming pilgrims with gently focused eyes
Who are they for?
- All people of goodwill, from all faiths and none, as they pause on their journey;
- The seekers and searchers and those asking questions about God;
- The bruised, the puzzled, the vulnerable, and those lacking in self-esteem;
- Those who feel in exile from their spiritual communities.
