This summer, stay connected with St. Helen’s
no matter where you are or what you are doing!
Keep moving – keep praying – keep learning!
As a parish, we will spend the summer virtually walking the British Isles. We originally did this walk in the winter of 2016 with 58 participants. We hope to get more this time because it is the summer.
We have updated the newsletters and added two new components: a weekly prayer prompt to support your on your travels and travel postcards to document your walks as you achieve certain distances.
The Mystic Britain Walk is open to everyone, young or old.
- If you are not connected to a computer, you can still participate by telephone, and your newsletters and postcards will be available at the church for pickup on Sundays. (Speak to Catherine Cromey)
- It is not necessary to own a sophisticated tracker (FITBIT or Apple watch or even a pedometer). Instead, you can record the kilometres you achieve each week by using the following conversion: 15 minutes of activity = 1 kilometre. Those 15 minutes of activity do not need to be done all at the same time. If you garden for five minutes, then you have done 1/3rd of a kilometre. Whether you walk or do aqua-fit; bicycle or vacuum, garden or swim – all activities are equal!
- It is important to remember that you are only competing against yourself. Maybe week one you go 10 kilometres but week two you are able to do 12. Some people will be able to get 70 kilometres per week but their challenge will be to maintain or go farther.
- And you don’t need to record your minutes/kilometres at all! You can still sign up to receive the prayers prompts and newsletters and keep your mind and soul active!
How it works
- Sign up at the church or by emailing virtualpilgrimage@sthelens.ca.
- Sunday, June 18, 2023, bring-your-own-sandwich for lunch in Trinity Hall after the church service. We will eat together and then go for a short walk around the neighbourhood to kick off the event. (Dessert will be provided.)
- You will keep track of the mileage you achieve each week and report this mileage to our mileage recorder at virtualpilgrimage@sthelens.ca. You will receive a message from this email address every Saturday morning reminding you to send in your kilometres that evening. You will receive your first reminder June 24, 2023, and your final reminder will be September 8, 2023.
- Starting Monday June 19, 2023, you will receive a prayer prompt for the week from either Rhonda, John or Kay. These will continue every Monday for the twelve weeks ending September 4, 2023.
- Starting Friday June 23, you will receive a Newsletter explaining about spiritual sites and interesting facts about the Anglican church. These also will continue for 12 weeks ending September 8, 2023.
- Postcards for mileages achieved will be sent out Tuesday or Wednesday after your kilometres have been recorded. You will not necessarily get a postcard each week, and some weeks you could get more than one.