A day of thankful remembrance of Amu and I coming together and united in the presence of God to serve God in many parts of the world and now in Aberdeen.  More on this later … 

It was a joyful and yet sombre day in Tarland with the family of our dear friend Jean Souter.  Jean was speaking beyond this life to us, using the words of the Lord, ‘I am the resurrection and the life, those who believe in me will never die.  Do you believe this?’  Over a hundred people who gathered at the Parish Church in Tarland were left with the question, ‘Do you believe this?  Do you believe in life now and hereafter?’

It was a joy to be home with the people of God.  There was a deep sense of peace I felt with St Andrew’s.  The state of distress people felt since the proposal to ‘close’ St Andrew’s for worship was beginning to lift.  It was a joy to be able to pray with the people of God.
Two of our friends are now with the Lord and we remembered them with joy mindful of their presence with the Lord.
It was more joy in the evening as St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir sang Choral Evensong at Margaret’s, Gallowgate with Benediction.  

It is a glorious day in Cheswick as the sun rise in the east fills the land with warms and revealing the goodness of God surrounded by the sand dunes of the Northumbrian coast.  We found this spot of immense beauty on leaving the Holy Island, 3 miles north of the causeway into Lindisfarne.
The laws of ‘Trespassing’ in England are different to the ‘Freedom to Roam’ in Scotland.  The peace and security of the Landlords and the right to roam by people are a fine balance, I am told.  In Aberdeen, at the Rectory, people often stop to look at the garden of some beauty and if I happen to see people looking with delight, I thank God for that moment of true exchange of peace.  However, this may not always be the case as some people feel nervous about strangers looking into their garden.  And here we have a paradox.
One of the joys of seeing people in the Cathedral is being mindful of the time and effort each one of us has invested in preparing ourselves to come for worship.  On average, I would imagine each of us would have spent at least an hour preparing for something we believe in.  We believe in gathering for worship and therefore we prepare and come.  This preparation in itself is an act of worship.  Now, imagine being offended if someone looks at you with admiration!  We deck ourselves up to be beheld with admiration and get offended if ignored or stared at!  I thought you might enjoy thinking about it!
Now returning to the business of ‘Trespassing’ is it wrong to walk through someone’s land enjoying the nature given to us to care and to share?  Why are we defensive when someone trespasses what we believe to be ours?  I am digressing here.  I hope you enjoyed this ride of digressing on trespassing!

Today, we were invited to lunch with an Anglican Quaker on the Holy Island and the Friends in the area for a meeting.  It was good to be part of a Friends gathering after a long time, the silence, the simplicity, the space and the spoken thoughts are a source of contemplation and encouragement.  Open contemplation on the subject of Pacifism, Peace, war and the necessary evil is a good spiritual practice.  My two companions and I joined in.  After initial introduction followed by silence, people moved by the spirit, spoke.  The depth and the diversity of thought being shared in complete openness was a positive experience.  I walked around the island and arrived at St Mary the Virgin Anglican Church at 5pm and joined in the Evening Prayer with three others.  The service was beautifully led by Revd Samantha Quilty, the Curate.
It is good to see joy and enthusiasm for the Lord in the Revd Quilty.  The Church looked loved.
Today is the first day in England and it felt right to enter England and continue the Walk at the Holy Island.  I walked over to our Caravan site which was about 5 miles away from the Island.  Walking through the Causeway felt like walking with Jesus on the water.  It was not about dodging the forces of nature but experience the power of trust in God which made Cuthbert and Aiden to leave behind all that mattered to them and became an immense source of blessing to generations after them.
We have pitched our tent between the London North Eastern Railway and the coastline of the North Sea.  The peace and tranquillity of the place made me sing, ‘How great thou art.’
If I may briefly return to the stories last night!  James shed some light on why Kirk Yetholm.  The Village Yetholm had only one church and James thought it was Methodist.  And the story was, when the Roman Catholics were allowed public worship post Reformation, they wanted to build the Catholic Church in Village Yetholm.  But, the ‘Methodists’ were not very keen on the idea.  So the Catholics built a church which is now Kirk Yetholm.  There is nothing new under the sun.
Today morning I went to pay for our Caravan Park in village Yetholm.  Fiona at the garage in Yetholm had another story.  Fiona’s grandma lived in the village and when the local Free Church went up for sale in 1964 wanted to buy it as a storage space.  The Church came with its extensive land.  She didn’t want the land but took is as part of the church sale.  One day, someone asked to part their car and ask for permission.  She allowed it freely.  This happened more than once and people offered money to part.  Fiona, recalls, the rest is history.  Grandma turned it into a good money making business and now it is called, ‘Kirkfield Caravan Park.’
Two things came up through this conversation.  Firstly, the church in Village Yetholm was not Methodist but Free Kirk.  Secondly, why does the church not have the vision that Fiona’s Grandma had and continue its business of hospitality and allowed the work of God to thrive.  It seems the Church needs to learn from the world and end its self-destructive beliefs and practices and start embracing the Lord of Life and enable life and all that is.

Last night Mark and Bishop Ella had an early bed.  Nigel and I went to Kirk Yetholm because it was a very special place for the Lammases.  Nigel recalls with great joy the link between Kirk Yetholm and his very existence. On Easter Monday 1955 Catherine Marjorie Coates and Fredric Alexander Lammas were married at St John’s Parish Church in New Castle and drove to the Boarders Hotel in Kirk Yetholm for their honeymoon.  Nigel cherishes the memory of this particular day as it must have been heard by Nigel as a moment of pure joy.
We walked into the hotel and were greeted by this man, larger than life.  We went to the barmaid and I said, you must listed to this story before you serve us.  The man joined the story telling.  Nigel narrated the story with great gusto and the couple were moved to tears of joy as it transpired that their story was deeply intertwined with the story of Nigel’s parents.
Nigel told the honeymoon story and the story of his father in the Royal Air Force flying supply planes and his work in the area afterwards.  James who was at the bar told the story of his grand father who worked in the same place as Nigel’s dad.  A new bond was emerging.  James Giacomo Norman Borin’s father was a Borin from Italy and he talked with passion about ‘Borin’ which comes from Bora, the wind for surfing.
The story continues … 

The walk today is from Harestanes to Yetholm.  The distance is 17.5 miles.  It is sunny and frosty, one of those days where you feel good about walking.  
I have been meaning to email the Scottish Episcopal Bishops of Brechin, St Andrew's and Edinburgh that I am on a 'Sacred Trespass' through their diocese and realised my current status Scottish Episcopal 'Pariah' would make things worse.  Oh, by the way, I have asked Dame Evelyn Glennie if she would compose a percussion piece for my Walk 22.  She had kindly replied she would later in the year.  The theme I proposed was, 'Pariah on Pariah' like Arvo Part's 'Spiegel im Spiegel'  Pariah is a Tamil word for Proclaimer of News and I am a Tamil Pariah by micro ethnicity and thank God for that privilege.  However, as the word has become to mean 'the outcast' or the 'untouchable'.  I feel privileged because I have the greatest honour of being a Pariah proclaiming the Pariah, even my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
As a child, I used to give my heart to Jesus at every evangelical meeting and my brother used to tease me that I would have no heart left for anything.  Oh my heartlessness!! 
Returning to 'Pariah on Pariah is a piece of Percussion Music which will be released in aid of St Andrew's Revival.  Watch the space.
Now on to the walk after some breakfast lovingly prepared by Mark and Bishop Ella.

The day thou gavest Lord is ended ... the news of three dear friends and fellow pilgrims Jean Souter, Florence Cal-Anglia and Pat Foster, entering the Glory remained utmost in my thoughts and prayers as I walked along from Harestanes to Yetholm, a distance of about 18 miles.  The walk was a mixture of wooded area, B and C Roads of the UK.  In case you wonder what these road types are, B&C Roads make for 87% of the total length of roads in the UK.  The purpose of this detail is to say that these roads are relatively quiet, especially the C roads.  The tranquillity of the countryside in the Boarders is something to cherish.  I pray what we do will inspire people to walk more and talk to God more.  In talking with God we learn to talk with one another as if we are talking with God. 
The day included hiking up the highest point in the St Cuthbert Way.  The views of the Cheviots was breath-taking, literally.  I said prayers at the peak of Wideopen Hills.  The spontaneous gesture was to open wide my arms and think of all the people of this land and throughout the world to God's love.  As I was saying the Lord's Prayer I saw someone running and turned the camera off.  The gentleman had a talk and ran with great vigour and said something in the passing.  I did not hear what was said, as I kept saying the prayer very loudly.  It bothered me and reminded me of that joke shared between Pope Francis and Pope Benedict in the Two Popes 'the smoking and praying joke'.  'A Franciscan and a Jesuit were friends. They were both smokers who found it difficult to pray for a long period of time without having a cigarette. They decided to go to their superiors and ask permission to smoke. When they met again, the Franciscan was downcast. “I asked my superior if I could smoke while I pray and he said ‘no,’”. The Jesuit smiled. “I asked if I could pray while I smoke. He said ‘of course’.”  My problems was, 'Can I talk to someone while I pray?' 
Over the years of serving the Lord, I have got into the habit of praying while listening to someone, especially if it is of deep distress or discernment.  It is a blessing to listen while praying.
​Returning to the runner, I was very much hoping that I will have an opportunity meet him again.  Behold, Steve was running down the hill behind me.  It was a joy and a blessing to meet and have a very pleasant conversation.  He gave a picture of the local area and said that pub in the Ale in Kirk Yetholm was better than the one in Village Yetholm.  Nigel Lammas has been speaking about Kirk Yteholm for a few days ever since he heard that I was to do the St Cuthbert Way.  It did not mean much to me until we arrived here.  We have pitched our tent in Village Yetholm at Kirkfield Caravan Park.  We are about to head out to Kirk Yetholm.

Today we do a longitudinal drop of 50 miles from the point of yesterday's walk along the coast of Portobello to pick up St Cuthbert's way at Melrose.  The extraordinary journey began with the most wonderful hospitality in Edinburgh by a fellow seminarian at Coates Hall which was our Theological Seminary. ... more to follow.

​Today we did a longitudinal drop of 50 miles from the point of yesterday's walk along the coast of Portobello to pick up St Cuthbert's way at Melrose.  The extraordinary journey began with the most wonderful hospitality in Edinburgh by a fellow seminarian at Coates Hall which was our Theological Seminary. ...
It was good to catch up on the good old days of Hogwarts Sorcery tricks of becoming a Priest, a Deacon or 'oh sorry we trained you to be nothing because I don't like you!'  There was a 'Dr Death' and then 'the boiled lettuce on two legs!'  The sorcerers collective was quite out of this world.  I only am repeating what I heard.  Please do not shoot the messenger, just love him.  It was all meant well except that pansy who dramatized everything with, ‘I can’t cope!’  Life was so beautiful.
We lived in Coates Hall and it was the early days of PCs and Macs with auto correct.  Those who had a career before coming into the Coates Hall had fancy Macs.  However, the auto correct turned Coates Hall into Coitus Hall!  How clever they were to know the minds of those whose hearts were fixed on God !!!
By the way, what you read here has a lot of ‘imagination’ in them.  So, please stop reading this as you would read the Bible.  Well, Bible needs a load of holy imagination!  Some the stuff you read there !!! I know them all too well.  Let me digress a bit.
The Church I grew up had services that were about three hours long.  They were Orthodox enough but not nine hours long like the real Orthodox services.  So, the only choice to survive the length of the service was to read the stories in the Bible, over and over again.  Some of the stories required imagination beyond imagination and no wonder my Master of Theology thesis was on Holy Imagination: from Order to Celebration i.e. 1929 Scottish Liturgy to 1982 Scottish Liturgy.  I have regrets about my thesis now, because some of the  Mindless Collects that appear in some of our authorised Liturgies nowadays have a feel of ‘what shall I do today because I am bored!’  Prayers that arise from a lifetime of praying them in our hearts and minds before putting them down in words with pen and paper are different from prayers written out of tapping the keyboard out of boredom!  God help us!!
Now going back to the ‘imagination of our hearts’!  The Blog here is a work of Ella Boo, Mark Walker and Nigel Lammas.  Ella is the key contributor and if you have any questions you must take it up with Bishop Ella!  She is gaining some serious global following.  When I read this out to her, Mark says, ‘She is meditating on it’
Let’s consider some boring bits of the day.  We stopped at Dan Browns ‘Roslyn Chapel’ looking for … you know what I mean!  I remembered those good old days of going there to sing Choral Evensong on the Feast of the Ascension.  The first year (1995) I was so excited that I could see the Lord wanting to get out of that place with speed!  A vertical launch!!  It was nothing to do with the choir of St Peter’s, Lutton Place where I did my curacy!  Returning there after all these year and being asked to pay £10 to get in!!! I posted something on the Facebook page standing outside the chapel which is now fenced off!  How desperate we are to commercialise life!
I was dropped off at Melrose Abbey and I was all feeling all ‘holy’ to walk in the footsteps of St Cuthbert, only to discover that the original place where he began was 5 miles away from the present abbey!  It reminded me of my time the Holy Land where everything has multiple versions of everything.  There are five possible places where Jesus was born.  I visited at least two places where Jesus was baptised – one was green and filthy and the other was shallow and muddy like the Red Sea!
I began the walk with a dubious prayer and came to a point where there road had a fork!  The left looked broad and gradual and the right looked the place I remember from Mastrick in Aberdeen.  So, naturally I chose the broad and shallow, ignoring the warning from the Lord, ‘the road that leads to life is narrow' and in my case steep.  The spirit warned me I am making a mistake so I asked a couple who were most lost than I was.  The man took out pages of printed directions and started shuffling!  Thankfully, I noticed someone walk past with a jumper which had the Historic Scotland logo on it.  I asked him for direction and he walked with me to the point where I could see the tiny signpost which was link someone’s back garden.  After a drop of five meters it was hike up of five hundred meters.  There was that deep sense of the Risen Lord’s presence.
It was about 30 minutes of steep hill, I was thanking God for loosing two stones between Epiphany and Easter, preparing for this Walk22.  It was well sign posted by St Cuthbert!  It is very impressive how diligent those saints were unlike our times where the diligence is specialised in something else – disabling others – ‘we do not want people like you here!’
The sign posts suddenly began to disappear and some of them, I am told 'vandalised'.  I thought all this sounds very familiar to me these days where 'spiritual and ritual' vandalism has become the norm in the name of ‘efficiency’.  As I was descending I received a call from someone who is in the process of discerning vocation in the church!  It is a joy and a blessing to hear from young people contemplating vocation in the church!  I told him, I made six attempts to stay clear of the ‘Church’ and was tricked on the seventh time!  How I wish I had the tenacity to resist!  I could have tried vocation in the church when things went wrong in real life.  Instead, I was robbed from a well paid job that my brother thought I have gone mad.  And the church I grew in prayed the God will annihilate me for betraying the Fellowship of the Ring!  I now feel that their prayers are being answered!!  What all we do for the LOVE OF GOD.
As I was descending with the signposts getting mixed up with local walk signposts I pulled out Google Maps and followed it faithfully!  I know now you are expecting to read how that ended up being a disaster!!  All I had to do was to walk on water to cross the river.  It eventually got to me destination not before meeting Val with Ailsa.  I asked her for direction and told her what I was doing.  She said, without hesitation, ‘You are NUTS’  I did my usual 'Isaac laughter' and she realised I was metal kind of nuts as opposed to the fruit kind!  I said, I do both!  Life is so beautiful out in the world because the spirit of the Risen Lord is out there!  How I wish we ‘Episcopalians’ can get out more into the real world.  We would have less problems and more joy in the Lord.
It is time for bed and the temperature outside is -1.  I am thinking I am not doing artic expedition!