This small chapel is the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall. It is located on an isolated bit of coastline in the southeast of England. In 653 St Cedd sailed down the east coast of England from Lindisfarne and landed at Bradwell. Here he found the ruins of a deserted Roman fort and constructed the chapel that is still standing today. It is still an active place of worship and is the home chapel to the nearby Orthona Community. There is an annual pilgrimage and gathering at the chapel which includes a walk from the nearby St Thomas church, music, prayer, talks, nature and fellowship. Our Bishop, the Bishop of Bradwell had this to say of the pilgrimage...many of us know the value of a purposeful journey, one taken for a reason greater than simply another transaction. Our forbears have good things to teach us, not least about becoming attuned to the rhythms of grace as we move across the landscape to connect with it and with our creator.’ I became aware of the chapel long before I showed any interest in Christianity. I am a keen cyclist and I rode out to the chapel many times. It was always a pleasant ride through the countryside, with an interesting end point and unlike most churches and chapels in the UK, it is always open. It is one of the few places I have visited where there is absolute silence. The chapel has no electricity or running water so that silence is only ever broken by birdsong and the occasional visitor.
In 2015 I lost my wife to a traffic accident. Three months before that I had lost my mother suddenly to cancer. The loss of my wife led to what I can only describe as a mental breakdown. I would go days without sleep and experience auditory hallucinations. I became hyper sensitive to sound and cut off all human contact. The only relief I could find would be rides out to the chapel and the silence it offered. There was never for any religious reason for my visits given days without sleep and being susceptible to hallucinations what I remember happening next may be subject to distortion but it is how I remember it. Like many other times I had cycled out to the chapel. It was an overcast and very grey day. Thick dark cloud and threatening rain. I took my usual place at the back, closed my eyes and tried to rest and loose myself in the silence. I had not noticed at first but a bible and been left behind right next to me. I had never taken the Bible seriously before, having been raised by atheist parents. I picked it up and started reading at a random point. I don’t really know how long I had been reading, 15 minutes maybe when from inside the chapel it looked like weather had drastically improved. The windows of the chapel are extremely high up and sunlight seemed to be streaming down at a 45 degree angle. I went outside expecting to see a break in the clouds but it was still dark grey and overcast. I went back inside and continued to read and after a minute or two, sunlight began streaming through the windows again. This repeated a few times, inside sunny but outside dark overcast. I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing and stayed there for hours. I don’t remember the journey home but the next day I started to look into Christianity for the first time. Regardless of what really happened, I felt I had a religious experience but wasn’t really sure what to do about it. Not knowing where to start, I contacted the biggest local church. It happened to be a Catholic Church but after a month or so I started looking elsewhere. I took the scenic route to Anglicanism,spending time with Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Quakers, just about every denomination that had a local presence. The bizarre thing is that the is an Anglican Church at the bottom of my garden and I never considered going there until after experiencing all of the alternatives. That is now the church I call home, where I was Baptized and Confirmed and where I now serve at churchwarden, parish safeguarding officer and now we have entered interregnum, I lead a morning and evening prayer service twice a week. This church is also called St Peter’s and although it has very much become my church, since joining the congregation I have always had a feeling of being nudged towards something more. It has taken much prayer and searching but I believe that something more is the Community of Francis and Clare.
Paul Dicker (CFC Candidate)