Traveling the Camino De Santiago, A Friends Account

In this session Valerie Brown, who has led many groups of pilgrims to Santiago, and George and
Frances Rhoads who have participated in two such trips with Valerie will show a few pictures
and share their thoughts about the value of the pilgrim experience.
Simple refreshments will be available.

Pilgrimage has been defined as travel to a sacred place for a sacred purpose. Since Quakers
have held that God is present wherever we gather to worship, the concept of pilgrimage has not
been prominent in Quaker practice. Nevertheless, in many of the world’s major faiths,
pilgrimage to holy sites has been widely valued. Within Christendom, Santiago in the green,
northwest corner of Spain has been one of the most prominent, based on the legend that the
apostle, St James, was interred there.

Millions of pilgrims from various parts of Western Europe have trekked across Spain (and
France) using a number of different routes to Santiago. The days of walking across beautiful
landscapes afford much time for spiritual reflection and appreciation of the natural world, all the
while engaging in the simplest of activities—just walking. There is much opportunity in this
experience to deepen one’s spiritual life. Special aspects are meeting the wide variety of
people from all over the world who are trekking the same route and knowing that one has been
preceded by many thousands of others over a period of close to a thousand years.

To learn more about Valerie Brown and her work click here.