RSB6Living the Christian Life: Pilgrimage, Festivals and the Church in the World

A pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place for religious reasons. The journey itself is part of the experience, not just the arrival.

• In the Bible: Jesus’ family travelled to Jerusalem every year for the Passover festival. When he was twelve, Jesus stayed behind in the Temple (Luke 2:41-43). Christians see this as an example of pilgrimage.
• History: from early times Christians travelled to the places of Jesus’ life and to the tombs of saints. In the Middle Ages pilgrimage was very popular, for example to Canterbury and Santiago de Compostela.
• Purposes: to feel closer to God; to remember and learn about Jesus or a saint; to say sorry for sin and make a fresh start; to pray for healing or give thanks; to make a big decision; to meet other Christians.
• Activities on pilgrimage: prayer, attending services, walking the route, visiting holy sites, confession, quiet reflection, singing, helping other pilgrims.
• Catholic views: pilgrimage is encouraged as a way to grow in faith; many Catholics visit shrines linked with Mary or the saints, and the Church may grant indulgences (release from the punishment due for sins) to pilgrims in special years.
• Protestant views: pilgrimage is not necessary, because God is everywhere and can be worshipped anywhere; Jesus told a Samaritan woman that true worship is ‘in spirit and truth’, not tied to a place (John 4:21-24). Many Protestants still value pilgrimage as a retreat or holiday with a purpose, but not as earning anything from God.

Pilgrimage

A journey to a holy place for religious reasons.

Shrine

A holy place linked with a saint or event, visited by pilgrims.

Indulgence

In Catholic teaching, a release from some of the punishment due for sins already forgiven.

• Iona and Taizé are ecumenical: Christians of different denominations pray together there. Walsingham was destroyed at the Reformation and revived in the 20th century; it now has both Anglican and Catholic shrines.
• Taizé’s current prior is Brother Matthew. Its next European meeting of young adults is in Łódź, Poland, from 28 December 2026 to 1 January 2027. Last checked: 6 November 2026.

Four places of pilgrimage named in the specification

Via Dolorosa

The route in Jerusalem believed to be the way Jesus carried his cross.

Iona Community

An ecumenical Christian community, founded in 1938, working for justice and peace and based partly on Iona.

Taizé

An ecumenical community of brothers in France, known for simple sung prayer and welcoming young people.

• Advent means ‘coming’. It covers the four Sundays before Christmas and begins the Church’s year.
• Its meaning: Christians prepare to celebrate Jesus’ first coming, his birth, and look forward to his second coming at the end of time. It is a time of hope, prayer and getting ready, not yet of celebrating.
• How it is marked: an Advent wreath with a candle lit each Sunday, often a fifth on Christmas Day; Advent calendars; purple or blue church colours; readings from the prophets about the coming Messiah; Christingle and carol services; many give to charity.
• Christmas (25 December; many Orthodox Christians celebrate on 7 January) celebrates the Incarnation: God becoming human in Jesus. ‘The Word became flesh and lived amongst us’ (John 1:14, World English Bible, British Edition).
• How it is celebrated: Midnight Mass or a late-night service on Christmas Eve; carol services and nativity plays telling the stories in Matthew and Luke; a crib scene in church; giving gifts, as the wise men did and as a sign of God’s gift of Jesus; family meals; helping people who are alone or homeless.

Advent

The four weeks of preparation before Christmas, looking forward to Jesus’ birth and second coming.

Incarnation

The belief that God the Son became human in Jesus.

Second coming

The Christian belief that Jesus will return at the end of time.

• Why Easter matters: Christians believe the resurrection shows Jesus is the Son of God, that his death has defeated sin and death, and that believers will also rise. Paul wrote, ‘If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain’ (1 Corinthians 15:14, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Paul goes on: ‘But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep’ (1 Corinthians 15:20): his resurrection is the first of many.
• Orthodox Christians often celebrate Easter on a later date, because they calculate it with the older Julian calendar.

Holy Week, day by day

Holy Week

The week before Easter, from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday.

Maundy Thursday

The day Christians remember the Last Supper and the foot-washing.

Resurrection

Jesus rising from the dead on the third day; celebrated at Easter.

• Mission means being ‘sent’: the whole task Christians believe God gives the Church, including sharing the faith and serving others. Evangelism means spreading the Christian message (the ‘Good News’ or gospel) so that others may believe.
• The Great Commission: the risen Jesus said, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to the whole creation’ (Mark 16:15, World English Bible, British Edition). Most scholars think these verses (Mark 16:9-20) were added to Mark’s Gospel later, but the specification names them and many Christians treat them as Scripture.
• John 20:21-22: Jesus said, ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you’, and breathed on the disciples: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit!’ (World English Bible, British Edition). Christians believe the Spirit gives them power to share their faith.
• Locally: courses introducing the faith, such as Alpha; welcoming services and events; outreach in schools, prisons and hospitals; street evangelism; new congregations (church plants).
• Nationally and globally: missionary societies such as the Church Mission Society (1799) send people abroad; online services and Christian media reach people at home; Christians from Africa and Asia now also come to Britain as missionaries.
• Why Christians do it: Jesus commanded it; they want others to know God’s love and the hope of eternal life; the first apostles did it at Pentecost; it keeps the Church alive.

Mission

Being sent out by God to share the faith and serve others.

Evangelism

Spreading the Christian message so that others may believe.

Great Commission

Jesus’ command to his followers to go into the world and make disciples.

• In Britain, the share of people calling themselves Christian is falling: in England and Wales it fell from 59.3% in the 2011 Census to 46.2% in 2021, while ‘no religion’ rose to 37.2%. Christianity is still the largest religion.
• Some churches in Britain are growing, for example many Pentecostal and independent churches, and congregations of Christians from other countries, especially in cities.
• Worldwide, the number of Christians is growing, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The ‘centre’ of world Christianity has moved south.
• How churches try to grow: church plants in new housing areas; new styles of worship for people who don’t go to church, such as cafe churches; youth work; courses introducing the faith; online services.
• Why it matters to Christians: they believe Jesus commanded them to make disciples (Matthew 28:19); a growing church can do more good in the community; they believe it shows the Holy Spirit at work, as at Pentecost, when about three thousand people were baptised (Acts 2:41).

Church plant

A new congregation started by an existing church, often in a new area.

The local church is both a building and, more importantly, a community of Christians in one place.

• 1 Peter 5:1-4 tells church leaders to ‘shepherd the flock of God which is amongst you… willingly’ (5:2, World English Bible, British Edition): to care for the people in their area like a shepherd.
• Worship and the sacraments: Sunday services, baptisms, weddings, funerals, and Holy Communion for those who are ill at home.
• Outreach (helping and reaching out to the wider community): food banks (the Trussell network, founded by Christians, has more than 1,600 locations), lunch clubs for older people, debt advice, youth clubs, toddler groups, Street Pastors who help people in town centres at night.
• Christian identity: the local church is where Christians belong, learn the faith, support each other and grow, so it shapes who they are.
• Why it matters: Jesus taught love of neighbour; the early Christians met and shared everything (Acts 2:42-47); the parish church is often the centre of village or town life.

Local church

A community of Christians, and its building, serving one area.

Outreach

A church’s work to help and reach people in the wider community.

Ecumenism is the movement to bring Christians of different denominations together, in friendship, worship and action, and towards unity.

• Jesus’ prayer: at the Last Supper he prayed for his followers ‘that they may all be one… that the world may believe that you sent me’ (John 17:21, World English Bible, British Edition). Christians see division as weakening their witness.
• Churches Together: local groups of churches of different denominations meet, pray and plan together; Churches Together in England links them nationally.
• Shared worship: the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (18–25 January) with joint services; joint walks of witness on Good Friday; united carol services and Christmas events.
• Shared buildings and ministers: some areas have Local Ecumenical Partnerships, where, for example, Anglicans and Methodists share one church and minister.
• Shared action: joint food banks, Street Pastors teams, school assemblies, chaplaincy in hospitals and prisons, and responses to local crises.
• Ecumenical communities such as Taizé and Iona bring Christians of different traditions together to pray. Worldwide, many Churches belong to the World Council of Churches.
• Limits: Churches still disagree on some beliefs and practices, for example who may receive Communion, so full unity has not been reached.

Ways local churches work together

Ecumenism

The movement to bring Christians of different denominations together and towards unity.

Denomination

A distinct branch of the Church, such as Catholic, Anglican, Methodist or Baptist.

• Reconciliation means restoring friendship after conflict, between people and God, and between people. Paul wrote that God ‘reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation’ (2 Corinthians 5:18, World English Bible, British Edition). Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ (Matthew 5:9).
• Examples: after Coventry Cathedral was destroyed by bombing in 1940, it became a centre of reconciliation; its Community of the Cross of Nails links partners worldwide working for peace. Corrymeela in Northern Ireland brings Catholics and Protestants together.
• The persecuted Church: in some countries Christians face discrimination, imprisonment or violence because of their faith. Campaign groups such as Open Doors, Release International and Aid to the Church in Need publish reports and support them; their figures come from advocacy work and are hard to check independently.
• How Christians in Britain respond: praying for persecuted Christians; giving money for food, shelter, Bibles and legal help; writing letters to prisoners; campaigning and lobbying governments for freedom of religion for everyone; welcoming refugees.
• Teachings: ‘Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them, and those who are ill-treated’ (Hebrews 13:3, World English Bible, British Edition); the Church is one body, and ‘When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it’ (1 Corinthians 12:26). Jesus told his followers to ‘love your enemies… and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you’ (Matthew 5:44).

Reconciliation

Restoring friendship and peace after conflict, between people and God or between people.

Persecution

Hostility or ill-treatment because of a person’s beliefs.

• Charity means giving to people in need. For Christians it comes from love (agape): ‘Love is patient and is kind’ (1 Corinthians 13:4), and ‘faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love’ (1 Corinthians 13:13, World English Bible, British Edition).
• The Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46): Jesus says that whoever fed the hungry, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked and visited the sick and prisoners did it for him: ‘because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’ (25:40, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Different Christian responses: some give a tenth of their income (tithing); some give quietly, as Jesus taught (Matthew 6:3); some prefer local causes, others global ones; some stress practical help, others prayer and evangelism as well; some say giving time and skills matters as much as money.
• Christian Aid was founded in 1945 by churches in Britain and Ireland to help refugees after the Second World War. Christian Aid Week began in the 1950s.
• What it does today: long-term development (clean water, farming, health); emergency relief after disasters and conflict; campaigning on the causes of poverty, such as debt, unfair tax and climate change. It works through local partner organisations and helps people of any religion or none. Its slogan is ‘We believe in life before death’.

What Christian Aid does

Charity

Giving help, money or time to people in need.

Agape

Selfless, unconditional love; the love Christians believe God shows.

Christian Aid

A charity founded in 1945 by British and Irish churches to fight poverty worldwide.