Emilie Smith, picture with Paul and Neale made a point of telling us that all pilgrimages involved pain and effort. That is surely true. But if the truth be told, we had the perfect send off from the wonderful clergy of New Westminster (Vancouver). Whatever might come, the warmth of the greeting we received from Paul, Neale, Emilie and Dean Elliott was truly grace filled. They took in strangers and supported us as we began this adventure.
In many ways the pilgrimage was fulfilled just in making these new friends and building a new set of relationships with cyclers and Anglicans. 1000 thank yous would be too few.
As a bonus the sun was out. We had a splendid ride from the hotel to the Cathedral. Neale and Emilie are urban cycling advocates (Critical Mass type folks) They live on their bikes in the city. Paul commutes every day but is not quite so ummmm energetic in his advocacy. They carried us through all the back routes to the cathedral where we got a blessing inside by Dean Elliott.
We will scan in the liturgy, suffice it to say here that it involved anointing us with sunscreen and the bikes with chain oil, not to mention prayers after the fashion of the Celts.
The on to the ferry..... again we saw the back ways through Vancouver and come huge lovely homes. Finally we reached the ferry and said our goodbyes for now.
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