(Chi-Rho, St. Peter’s Parish, North Lake, Wisconsin)
Pilgrimage is a hot topic these days. The Roman church is in the midst of a large Eucharistic pilgrimage with four different routes that will converge onipip[ Indianapolis during the month of July. The Camino de Santiago saw its best year ever in 2023 and it’s actually starting to cause some infrastructure problems. Meanwhile, the British organized the Pilgrim Trust to encourage either the rebuilding or the building of pilgrim routes in the British Isles.
The interest in pilgrimage reflects the current cultural moment, especially in light of survey after survey which shows people losing interest in church. Personally, I think it goes hand in glove with the so-called “deconstruction” movement. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, but it reflects an important point that must be considered by people in the church. That is, while people don’t want to darken the doorsteps of a church, they do want to search for God.
Of course, you might rightly wonder if they actually want to find The Lord, but that’s a whole other set of questions. Still, I think it’s important for the church, especially the three great apostolic traditions, Roman, Orthodox and Anglican, to jump into this cultural moment. How? By starting new pilgrim trails, especially if people can’t make the trip to Europe or the Holy Land.
In Wisconsin, The Wisconsin Way has already been started and it’s attracting more hikers every year. The Guardians of the Our Lady of Walsingham Shrine in Sheboygan (of which I’m a member) is starting The Walsingham Way-Wisconsin which began with a seven mile pilgrimage a few weeks ago.
The Guardians are working on expanding the trail. Jennifer and I decided to become the first pilgrims to walk this path. In truth, there is really no rule book to starting a pilgrim trail. The whole process might be better described as “discovering” what’s there rather than “making” a trail. Yet, it does take some planning.
(The starting point of The Walsingham Way-Wisconsin at Nashotah House)
We started by contacting the starting point of the pilgrim trail, Nashotah House, an Ango-Catholic Seminary located west of Milwaukee. It’s basically ground zero for the Ango-Catholic wing of the Episcopal Church with a fascinating history.
The seminary was founded in 1842 by three deacons of the church committed to the principles of the Oxford Movement which started in England. Essentially, it was a movement to bring back some of the faith practices that had been banished around the time of the Reformation. It’s a long complicated history, but there is no doubt about its affects on the wider Anglican Communion, especially when it comes to Sunday morning liturgy.
If you’re going to take this pilgrimage, I encourage you to give yourself a few hours to wander around the Nashotah Campus. You’ll need to keep reminding yourself that you’re in Wisconsin and not the British Isles. Make sure you check out the Red Chapel, one of the oldest buildings on campus and the first chapel for students. I recommend attending morning or evening prayer.
The Center of all this beauty is The Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin, located on the Western side of campus. It’s a gorgeous Neo-Gothic Chapel that resembles many of the larger churches in Wales that I visited during my pilgrimage last year. On the outside of the Southeast corner of the chapel, there is a stone effigy of Our Lady of Walsingham with a lovely memorial garden. It’s here that you will start your pilgrimage.
Day One
At 7:30 in the morning, a priest from Nashotah House, Father Jason Terhune, conducted a pilgrim blessing for us with a liturgy the Guardians developed based on some prayers from Walsingham, the Sheboygan Shrine and a St. David’s pilgrimage book. We brought along shells and stones to be blessed. The stones we will leave at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham when we arrive and the shells we tied to our backpacks will mark us as pilgrims.
When the blessing was finished, we started to walk, passing by “Michael” the legendary bell tower of Nashotah House. Many of the Episcopal Churches along The Walsingham Way-Wisconsin have these separate bell towers, recalling another British Isles tradition.
“Michael” bell, Nashotah House
A quick note, the first part of this section is pretty much all road hiking until you reach St. Peter’s North Lake. In this growing exurb area of Milwaukee, it’s a bit difficult to find forest trails. However, there is Lois Jensen Nature Preserve that allows for about a half of mile of trail walking.
Our plan had been to walk all 12 miles to St. Peter’s on the first day. However, the weather was not looking great, with tornadoes touching down about an hour west of us. We decided to stop at the five mile point at Inclusion Coffee. This beautiful place seeks to employ neurodivergent individuals. As a dad of a son who has autism, I go out of my way to support businesses who seek out neurodivergent folks for their employees. It’s a good pilgrim practice to be a patron of these sort of businesses.
Side Note: As it stands right now, Jennifer and I are car hopping our route. That is, we park a car at the day’s ending point and then drive with another car to the starting point. As we do a week hike in October, we’re going to make some other plans.
(St. Peter’s Parish, North Lake, Wisconsin)
Day Two:
We started the second out with attending Eucharist at St. Peter’s Parish in North Lake, Wisconsin, our ending point for the day. This is a gorgeous church that seems designed to welcome pilgrims. Indeed, the Senior Warden asked us to introduce ourselves during morning announcements and share about what the Guardians are doing. Part of the goal of this pilgrim path is to link up smaller rural Episcopal Churches and draw attention to their work in their communities.
The outside of St Peter’s church is surrounded by a graveyard, something that’s not very common in American churches. Again, it’s more of a practice in Great Britain and Ireland. I rather love it, myself. It’s good to be surrounded all of God’s people whether seen or unseen. The Parish even has a pilgrim’s gate in the front of the church with a stone wall lining the front of the parish boundaries.
After Morning Eucharist, we drove to Inclusion Coffee to start our walk. Here is where we ran into a bit of a snag. Originally, I planned to walk into Hartland, catch the Ice Age Trail and then head north. However, to do so would be to completely miss St.Anskar Parish.
(St. Anskar Parish, near Hartland, Wisconsin)
St. Anskar Parish, along with St. Peter’s, is one of the oldest Episcopal Churches in Wisconsin. Its founding rector was the first graduate of Nashotah House, Gustaf Unonius, a Scandinavian immigrant who also wrote a book, A Pioneer in Northwest America. They also have a separate bell tower which is worth checking out.
After St. Anskar, we made the mistake of trying to take a straight shot up state road 83. We do not recommend doing this, as it’s not great for road hiking. Instead, we suggest back tracking a bit to Campus Drive, walking up to Highway K, and catching the Ice Age trailhead at the Merton Section parking lot.
That said, we made it to St. Peter’s in once piece and celebrated the start of the trail at Beer Snobs in nearby Hartland.
(Pilgrim Gate, St. Peter’s)
Statistics
Total Distance from Nashotah to St. Peter’s: 12 Miles
Conditions: Mostly Road Hiking and flat with a few hills. However, road hiking can be hard on the knees and feet. Be careful of potential blisters.
Total Hiking time: 4.5 hours.