During the pilgrimage, The Revd Rachel Gardner and The Revd Ian Nott were accompanied by soft toys – Koyun and Waggle, who travelled along with the group and were photographed at various stops along the way.
Rachel writes:
Before I set off on the pilgrimage my vicar suggested taking a soft toy with me to create a resource for a school session on pilgrimage as she’s found children are far more interested in an animal going on pilgrimage than a person. So, I made sure sheep was in my bag and ready for pilgrimage too!
As we travelled around the sites I tried to think what would catch the imagination of a child and it helped walking around with the sheep to do this. What would it have been like to live here? I thought about what it would sound and smell like and what shops they would have.
The sheep’s name has changed during the week and now goes by his Turkish name for sheep, Koyun.
Sheep said, “I really enjoyed my Pilgrimage, and I have even gone away with a new name Koyun. I’ve been told names are really important in the book of Revelation and I love my new name.
“My favourite place we visited was Sardis when we looked around the different shops they had. I thought about what colour paint I’d buy from Jacob’s paint shop for our sheep pen and what vegetables I would eat at the restaurant that was definitely vegetarian. We then visited the market where they used to buy and sell the softest sheep wool and I’m pretty sure my wool would have been sold there.
“I did get lost and stuck a few times on the top of columns and in a thicket. I’m so grateful to my fellow pilgrims for looking out for me and getting me out of scrapes just like my good shepherd does.”
We also had a fun game of ‘where’s the sheep?’ Which you can play below. Bishop Christopher was really good at this!
Then towards the end of the trip we discovered that one of the Pilgrims had a stowaway in their bag.
Ian explains:
About half way through the pilgrimage my wife asked me if I had taken out all my shirts and when I said I hadn’t, she urged me to look through them and there amongst them was Waggle! Waggle is a glow worm – a soft toy – who often accompanies the family on holiday and who sometimes gets into the family photos – he even has his own Instagram account for them. There were not that many days left when I found him, but he enjoyed looking at places with Koyun and we have some photos of the friends together finding out more about the churches which they will share when they are home.
Watching our Pilgrims together was a wonderful way to come to know more of the creativity and energy that they each – in different ways – put into sharing the Good News with those around them. For although Koyun and Waggle will appeal to the younger ones, we all had fun playing find the sheep (some of us not so good at it!). But there were many serious discussions too about how we can use our newly expanded knowledge about the Seven Churches of the Revelation to help us to think with others about what the Spirit is saying to the churches today.
Contributors:
The Revd Rachel Gardner
The Revd Ian Nott
