In 2015 The Bishop of Durham, the Right Revd. Paul Butler, began a series of walks to cover the sixteen deaneries of the Durham Diocese, on the way meeting various people, and visiting different organisations and places with the aim of being able to get to know the Diocese of Durham but also an act of pilgrimage and to pray for the people and the areas as the Bishop and his team pass through.
This year, on the 26th May, the Bishop, along with The Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Revd. Sarah Clark and the Bishop’s Chaplin, Revd. Chris Knights began to walk through the deanery of Auckland, our deanery.
The party were in Newton Aycliffe on Friday 29th May, while there they walked from St. Clare’s Church to visit Newton Press, where they met with Paul, Stuart and Carrie. It’s fair to say that both Bishop’s were incredibly impressed with both the community spirit and ecological approach the company takes and both said they could have spent a lot more time there than they had.
The next stage found them walking up to St. Francis school were they met head teacher, Lisa Lakey, and members of the staff before meeting pupils and looking around the school. While at the Sunday morning Service at Saint Clare’s, Bishop Sarah, in her sermon, said at the visit she felt the school radiated a light. A light that was nothing to do with the windows, it was a light that shone from the staff and the pupils and their friendships and relationships to each other. All in all a good morning before they moved off at lunch time to walk to Shildon.