Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

Anglicans processing their image during their National Pilgrimage to Walsingham within the grounds of the ruined abbey, May 2003.

The Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is a Church of England shrine church built in 1938 in Walsingham, Norfolk, England. Walsingham is the site of the reputed Marian apparitions to Richeldis de Faverches in 1061. The Virgin Mary is therefore venerated at the site with the title of Our Lady of Walsingham.

History

Father Alfred Hope Patten SSC, appointed as the Church of England Vicar of Walsingham in 1921, ignited Anglican interest in the pre-Reformation pilgrimage. It was his idea to create a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham based on the image depicted on the seal of the medieval priory. In 1922 the statue was set up in the Parish Church of St Mary and regular pilgrimage devotion followed. From the first night that the statue was placed there, people gathered around it to pray, asking Mary to join her prayers with theirs.

Throughout the 1920s the trickle of pilgrims became a flood of large numbers for whom, eventually, the Pilgrim Hospice was opened (a hospice is the name of a place of hospitality for pilgrims) and, in 1931, a new Holy House encased in a small pilgrimage church was dedicated and the statue translated there with great solemnity. In 1938 that church was enlarged to form the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Father Patten combined the posts of Vicar of Walsingham and priest administrator of the Anglican shrine until his death in 1958. Enid Chadwick contributed to the artwork in the shrine.

List of priest administrators

• Fr Alfred Hope Patten SSC (1938 to 1958); founder and first priest administrator
• Fr John Colin Stephenson MBE (1958 to 1968)
• Fr Charles David Smith (1968 to 1972)
• Fr Alan Vincent Carefull (1973 to 1981)
• Canon Christopher Colven (1981 to 1986)
• Fr Roy Fellows (1987 to 1993)
• Fr Martin Warner SSC (1993 to 2002)
• Fr Philip North CMP (2002 to 2008)
• The Rt Revd Lindsay Urwin OGS (2009 to 2015); previously Bishop of Horsham
• Fr Kevin Smith (2016 to present)

Notable members

• Nicholas Kerrison, Incredible Organist and Teacher. Often affectionately known as the K Meister by fellow peers.

Associated groups

Beyond the staff (who include a resident community, and external day staff) a number of groups are officially associated with the life of the shrine. These include:

• The Guardians of the Shrine, who hold capitular responsibility for the governing of the shrine;
• The Order of Our Lady of Walsingham, founded in 1953, its members, originally known as "dames" (women) or "clerks" (men), are admitted as a reward for service to the shrine; they have special privileges at Walsingham, and meet in annual chapter; since 2000 both men and women are simply styled "member" of the order;
• The Association of Priests Associate of the Holy House, founded in 1931, an association of priests who undertake to offer Mass for the shrine and who enjoy certain privileges at the shrine;
• The Society of Our Lady of Walsingham, whose members meet in local cells around the world, and pray for the life of the shrine; it was founded in 1925.

External links

• Official website