Easterthon 2010 Day 2

Blog written at 7.27pm Monday April 5th - Easter Monday

13.4 miles and my legs (mainly knees) are protesting.  We walked from our Berkhamsted flat to Sunnyside Church, then on to St Albans Abbey for the Easter Monday pilgrimage.

The route is pretty in places - we chose to go along the canal to Boxmoor, then through the centre of the Hemel 'magic roundabout' and up the hill to Tesco (quick stop off to buy fruit and drink), and then through Leverstock Green.  It was the shortest but not the safest or most scenic route, so next-time we may start earlier and follow some footpaths instead of the main road.

Leverstock Green looked spring-like and picturesque.

An unexpected treat was being investigated by a red kite.  It soared and circled over us for some minutes before I could get the camera out, and then lost interest and moved higher up in the sky. They are a joy to watch.

Much to my delight, when we arrived at the Abbey we met some people from both churches and lots of friends from other churches in the diocese.

The grounds of the Abbey Orchard soon filled up, and by the time we came to process into the Cathedral it was clear that there were even more people present than in recent years.  The queue to get into the building went on and on, and the service started with six hymns instead of three to give time for the people still streaming in to find a space. 

So many people arrived that the nave of the Abbey was standing room only, and the crossover in front of the High Altar - where we ended up - was packed full. Some people even had to sit on on the steps of the High Altar.

I love these events where the Cathedral is filled to the gunnels. Tourists were standing outside looking at the queues of people waiting to enter with their banners. It must have been a puzzling sight to the casual visitor.

As the Abbey was full-to-bursting, a general call went out for all clergy and readers to assist with communion.  I think there were around 15 distribution points, each with one ciborium and two chalices.  I had one chalice and people just kept on coming - it seemed like well over a hundred, maybe more, and I only got about one-third of the communicants at our station because of the flow of the crowd. Certainly I've never distributed communion to so many people so quickly.

What made it so special was seeing people I hadn't known were there, so the unexpected familiar faces in among the strangers made the atmosphere even more special.

'The Choir' from South Oxhey, led by Gareth Malone, were featured in the service, but the acoustics are such that we couldn't hear them, so they stayed behind to so those of us who had been in the crossover could come through to the nave to see and hear them.

Then it was hugs all round (we had spotted our friends in The Choir), and introductions to some of the others before walking back to the car for a lift home, thanks to E and J.