Thought for the week: Sharing in symbols of Christ’s death and life, by Rev Dr Houston McKelvey

Some may be associated with a particular saint or saints.

I first became interested when I watched a series on television about an agnostic presenter driving a classic car from Paris to Santiago de la Compostela in Spain where the Camino Frances ends.

A number of my friends have completed the 117-kilometre walk from Sarria to Santiago and not all of them have been weekly church worshippers. However, there is no danger of me actually walking the camino due to age and the twitches of long-dated sporting injuries.

A recent visit to my home parish in Co Antrim to conduct a service of Holy Communion got me thinking deeply about the people, most now gone from this Earth, who encouraged me by their faith example to make the pilgrimage of faith within our church.

It was the physically short journey from the font to the communion table or altar.

I learned that in my baptism I was given my identity – as the prayer book says - as a child of God, a member of Christ and an inheritor of the Kingdom of God.

My camino was the short distance from the aisle to the altar. It is a journey I make regularly after confession of my sins and profession of my belief in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Then, I share in receiving the symbols of Christ’s death and resurrection, in the company of not only those present but with those communicants around the world, with those of all colours and cultures, and with those from ages past whose faith in Christ means they are in the communion of Saints gathered in the very presence of God.

Yes, it was in a local community of faith that my own faith and vocation to ordained ministry was nurtured. You never know where a camino inside your church building may take you.