St Albans Cathedral hails Alban Pilgrimage ‘reimagined’ a huge success

Daisy Cooper read from Bede's History of the English Church and People during the Alban Pilgrimage live stream organised by St Albans Cathedral. Picture: St Albans Cathedral (Image: Archant)

The celebrations of St Alban, who was martyred on June 22 circa 300AD, were streamed online to replace the usual festivities.

Special trails were created to tell the story of Alban. Local residents learnt the significance of red roses in Alban’s story and a Patronal Eucharist and virtual Pilgrimage was lived streamed on YouTube.

The Revd Dr Kevin Walton, Canon Chancellor said: “When we realised that we could not celebrate the Alban Pilgrimage in our usual way, we saw it as a great opportunity to reach out much more widely than usual. We put a call out to link churches across the world and throughout the Diocese to join us and send in images of their community for us to incorporate. It was a great delight for so many to share in this year’s celebration.”

In response to what he called ‘the brave new world’ of Zoom and digital meetings, Revd Richard Coles pointed out that places like St Albans Cathedral tell us that “Matter matters. It matters that we gather in flesh and blood… in places where those who have gone before us gave theirs as a sacrifice and marked it forever for Christ.”