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 About Oxford Leg  


Oxford leg is one of the 10 Legs headed for Walsingham, and not surprisingly Oxford is where we start walking. We walk 135 miles during the week, stopping at parishes along the way. Celebrating the Eucharist, carrying the Cross, singing hymns, eating sandwiches, and sharing our thoughts everyday make this pilgrimage a very special way to remember the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Oxford Leg setting out

Our route takes us around Milton Keynes, Bury St. Edmunds, Norwich, and eventually into Walsingham. The people that help us on the way are extremely kind, sometimes giving us tea, sometimes cooking our evening meal, and one night welcoming us into their homes and giving us supper and a bed for the night. They all make us feel most welcome.

There will be both a Catholic chaplain, and an Anglican chaplain walking with us during the week.

You don’t have to be super fit to walk every step of the way, but it is strongly advised that you do all you can to get fit and stay fit before the walk. Of course, suitable footwear is essential, footwear that you are used to (i.e. not new boots!). Waterproofs are also useful – it rains in this country! There is a support car always near the walkers to assist the weary.

At the beginning of the pilgrimage, there are those who do not know each other, but very soon a strong community has grown from the individual pilgrims, pilgrims unified by the cross they carry. On Easter Sunday afternoon, when it is time to go our separate ways, the separation is sad because of leaving each other, but also joyful because we have walked Oxford Leg together.

Walsingham

This small town in north Norfolk houses shrines to Our Lady and a place of Pilgrimage for many around the world. We arrive on Good Friday afternoon; with a sense of solemnity for the occasion, which is marked by a service of the Lord's Passion, but also with a sense of exhilaration for it will soon be time to celebrate the resurrection.

Over the weekend there is time to rest, but there is also time to pray, to reflect and to mingle with pilgrims from other Legs. A high point of the weekend is Saturday night with a Easter Vigil Mass, after which the pilgrims party in further celebration well into the early hours. Then it is out into the open air (weather permitting) for an Easter Sunday celebration – an Anglican Eucharist, with more wonderful music and friendly hugs.

Coaches are available to transport people from Walsingham to Leicester or London on Easter Sunday.

 
     
 
A week of fellowship and a lifetime of friendships