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How the liturgy works on Northern Cross
One of the most important things we do on pilgrimage is to share worship. As we come from many different traditions of Christianity, this is a great learning experience, to discover how other group s worship.
We share services with many of the parishes we walk through; these are all pre-arranged .
We are hosted by churches and parishes of many different denominations; for instance Catholic, Church of England, Church of Scotland, Baptist, Methodist, URC, Salvation Army. There are some places we stay at that are non denominational village halls as well.
Each group decides what services they have, and it is all very much ‘roll your own’. All contributions are welcome, from everyone.
We generally have morning and evening prayers as a group, as a preparation for starting off the day, and finishing the day.
While we are walking, we stop for refreshments and a rest, and there we have what is known as a station – one member of the group shares their thoughts on a particular topic with everyone else.
If there is a requirement for someone to attend a particular denomination’s service on a particular day, it can generally be arranged.
On Holy Island, we have a service of arrival on Good Friday, then have the Good Friday liturgy in the evening to give everyone a chance to get clean and rested. On Holy Saturday we have the Easter Vigil at the Anglican church of St Mary’s, which includes a service of new light on the beach by the church, and then on Sunday morning we return to St Mary’s for the Easter morning service, followed by a procession of the decorated crosses around the island, with singing and several stops for short reflections, before we all leave to go home.