A very modern pilgrimage

What makes a clergyman give up Holy Week – the climax of the Church’s calendar – to spend his days and nights on the streets of London, sleeping in doorways and eating cast-off food? Rebecca Paveley spoke to the Revd Nick Molony to find out.

Nick Molony had his feet ceremoniously washed by his colleagues at his church’s Maundy Thursday service, as no doubt did many other clergy in the diocese. But in Nick’s case the action was especially welcomed, for he had spent the previous four days walking miles into, and around, London.

He had undertaken the walk to try and meditate upon Jesus’ final journey into Jerusalem.

‘I saw it as a privilege,’ he said. ‘I’d always been haunted by Jesus saying ‘now we are going to Jerusalem’ and the fact the disciples were obviously excited but Jesus knew what was coming…

‘I wanted to walk into London to try and think about what Jesus’ final journey must have felt like.’

He left his Marlow home on the Monday of Holy Week and spent four days getting to Waterloo, where he ended his pilgrimage at the offices of the USPG (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel).

Some days he managed to pick up some discarded food, and shelter in doorways, on others he was treated liberally to food and hospitality, as at the Sikh temple in Acton.

‘I only ate what I could find or was given to me. On Monday that was just half a bacon toastie I found at Heathrow, on Tuesday it was a discarded cheese roll. But in the Sikh temple I was welcomed in for a lavish meal, no questions asked.’

His most surreal experience was being followed around for two and a half hours by a BBC crew.

His worst night was when he walked to Victoria ‘into an east wind all the way’.

‘The place was a wind tunnel when I arrived about 10pm and there wasn’t anyway to find shelter. I discovered the station closes between 1-5am and heard about a shelter near Westminster Cathedral so I went looking for that but couldn’t find it.

‘I spent a couple of hours with five other people huddled in a doorway, listening to their experiences.

‘I eventually managed to get a couple of hours sleep in a Green Line bus station, and I was just changing my socks in the morning when I was told to move on.’

Nick didn’t wear his dog collar on the walk, and only told people when he was asked.

The next day he heard about a shelter at St Martin in the Field, but found he had to get police approval before he could go in.

‘I didn’t manage to get approval, quite rightly the police were protective of the genuine homeless and were a bit suspicious of me. But the police woman said I could sit in their foyer for a couple of hours, I think they were a bit worried about me.

‘The next morning, my last, I walked up the Strand to St Paul’s Cathedral. It was Maundy Thursday and a renewal of vows service was on. I was told I couldn’t attend, it was for clergy, so I told them I was a vicar from the Oxford Diocese and I was allowed in.’

His walk taught him a great deal, he said.

‘I learnt a lot about the inevitable stereotyping of people and about who is closest to God's heart of love. I built up a bit of resentment about the time we waste on trivial things, or people who hijack your time for things that aren't really important.

His walk also raised money for the USPG, as his walked was sponsored. Parishioners have also organised a competition to guess the number of steps Nick walked along the route – he carried a pedometer to measure them precisely.

So far his efforts have raised £2,000. For more details see www.followingthefootsteps.co.uk, a website set up by one of Nick’s congregation to follow the walk.