Pope John Paul II's guidelines on popular devotion and making pilgrimage suggest that, despite great advances on the road to reconciliation, some important first steps need to be retraced. Reconciliation needs penitence, humility and mutual forgiveness, and to be embedded in the lives and hearts of Christians on the way to Unity, as well as in the day to day consciousness of what it is to be the Church. Pope John Paul thus spoke of the 'purification of memory', and Pope Benedict XVI, from the very beginning of his Petrine ministry, has called for 'concrete acts of unity' that repair the damage and divisions of the past, purify Christians' sense of memory and history and, since they are gifts of God's own grace, restore for the future the sight of our 'unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace'.

Unitas commends the work in the Walsingham group of Anglican parishes, led by their parish priest, Fr Norman Banks (a member of the Council of the Catholic League) to develop a special Pilgrimage of Reparation through the village churches on the way to Walsingham:

• At All Saints' Church, East Barsham:
  • A Litany of Reparation for the destruction and sacrilege of the past
  • A Prayer to Our Lady of Greeting, whose veneration marked the beginning of the visit to Walsingham prior to the Reformation
  • An Act of Repentance for Dishonour to the Eucharist at the Broken Altar Stone
  • An Act of Reparation for Dishonour to the Faithful Departed at the Chantry Ruins
  
  
  
• At the Church of St Mary of the Assumption, West Barsham:
  • Prayers for Grace to be Ministers of Peace and Forgiveness
  
  
  
• At All Saints' Church, North Barsham:
  • An Act of Prayer for Unity in the faith of the Resurrection and in the Communion of the Saints
  
  
  
• At St Giles' Church, Houghton:
  • Prayers for Healing and, as appropriate,
  • The Sacrament of the Sick
  • The Sacrament of Reconciliation
  
  
  
• At the Slipper Chapel:
  • Visit to the Roman Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and Prayers for Unity to Mary, Mother of the Church
  • Act of Reparation for the Destruction of the Chapel at the Dissolution
  • Thanksgiving for the Restoration of the Shrine and the Pilgrimage
  • Prayers for Roman Catholic Christians
  • Prayers for the Unity of Christians
  • Prayers for the Unity of all Humanity in the Peace of Christ
  
  
  
• At the Methodist Church and the Ruins of the Franciscan Friary:
  • Act of Reparation for the the Dissolution of the Friary
  • Thanksgiving for the Foundation of the Methodist Chapel and the Preaching of the Gospel
  • Prayers for Unity to St Francis by the merits of Christ's Passion
  • Prayer for Methodist and Free Church Christians
  • Prayers for the Unity of Christians
  • Prayers for the Unity of all Humanity in the Peace of Christ
  
  
  
• At the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham:
  • Visit to the Holy House and Prayers for Unity to Mary, Mother of the Church
  • Act of Reparation for the Dissolution of the Augustinian Priory and the Destruction of the Holy House at the Reformation
  • Thanksgiving for the Restoration of the Holy House and the Pilgrimage
  • Prayers for Anglican Christians
  • Prayers for the Unity of Christians
  • Prayers for the Unity of all Humanity in the Peace of Christ
  
  
  
• At the Orthodox Church (or the Orthodox Chapel within the Anglican Shrine Church):
  • Prayers for Eastern and Orthodox Christians
  • Prayers for the Unity of Christians
  • Prayers for the Unity of all Humanity in the Peace of Christ
  
  
  
• At the Nicholas Mileham Chapel of Reparation:
  • Act of Reparation for the Dissolution of the Monasteries
  • Act of Reparation for the Suffering, Persecution and Bloodshed on all sides during the Reformation period and for the subsequent schisms
  • Prayer for Vocations to the Religious Life
  • Prayer for Faithfulness to Christ and to the Unity of his Church
  • Prayer for the Unity of Christians
  • Prayer for the Mutual Repentance and Forgiveness of Christians
  • Prayer for the Unity of Humanity in the Peace of Christ
  • When appropriate, the Eucharist in honour of the Martyrs, for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Unity of the Church

For further details, please contact Fr Norman Banks, St Mary's Vicarage, Little Walsingham, Norfolk. Telephone 01328 863385.