Advent series offers a walk with Jesus in Jerusalem

Canon Richard Sewell, Dean of St George’s College in Jerusalem, will be among speakers giving an Advent series of online talks about Pilgrimage.

The talks are organised by Pilgrimage People, a Cambridge–based charity which grew out of a Diocese of East Anglia project. It has run pilgrimages and tours, mainly to the Holy Land but also to other pilgrimage destinations, since 2006. All of the surplus money it generates is given to development projects which support the Christian communities in the Holy Land and in the last decade over £600,000 had been donated.

The charity has now formed a link with the Anglican Diocese of Norwich and has begun to support social action projects from the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem which covers Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

The first talk, entitled ‘Walking with Jesus in Jerusalem’ will be given by Canon Sewell on Thursday December 2. It will be an imaginative journey around the Holy City to some of the places that Jesus was familiar with – the Temple, the Garden of Gethsemane and Golgotha.

Canon Sewell previously served as a priest in the Diocese of Southwark. He trained at St Augustine’s College and has a BA in Theology from University of Birmingham and an MA in Biblical Studies from Heythrop College. 

He has volunteered in Tiberias, run an interfaith project in East London and worked as a mission educator with churches in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In addition to his role as Dean of the College, he is Residentiary Canon of St George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem and Honorary Canon of Southwark Cathedral in the UK.

On Thursday December 9 Richard Bowen will follow with a talk on ‘The Footsteps of the Apostle Paul in Rome’.

Richard has lived in Rome for 30 years. He has an MA in History from University College London. Over the years he has led tours to many different sites in Rome and its environs and is particularly fond of Ostia Antica, Tivoli and the ancient Roman sites including Baths of Caracalla, Trajan’s Market and the Ara Pacis. 

The final talk, on Thursday December 16, will be by Peter Stanford on the theme of pilgrimage. 

Peter is an award-winning British writer, journalist and broadcaster best known for his biographies and books on the history, theology and cultural significance of religious ideas. A former editor of the Catholic Herald, he writes for the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and The Tablet. He has presented television and radio documentaries on BBC1, Channels 4 & 5 and is a regular panellist on BBC Radio’s The Moral Maze.  His biography of Lord Longford was the basis of Channel 4’s multi-award-winning drama, Longford.

All talks will be live on-line via Zoom at 4pm. They will also be recorded for you to watch in your own time.

The cost is £40 for the series, and you can book on info@pilgrimagepeople.org 

Image of Jerusalem from Pilgrimage People.

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