Modern-day Easter journey of discovery by former Doncaster vicar

It was to be a long-awaited holiday break and a healing journey following a challenging period in his twelve-year marriage.

And it turned out to be a healing journey in more ways than Andrew had imagined.

Halfway through his Camino, through the experience of long walking days and the overnight hospitality with strangers and fellow pilgrims, some of his pent up frustration and anger became dislodged, and found release.

And in the renewed peace of the days that followed several remarkable coincidences happened.

Back home in Andalucia, Andrew was used to watching the daily YouTube channel of Dr John Campbell, a popular independent research medic.

For the first time on his Camino, Andrew looked up what Dr Campbell’s latest daily video talk was about. To his surprise, the topic was completely different from any Dr Campbell had previously explored.

It was a research summary of the scientific evidence surrounding the Turin Shroud, presenting the results of some new dating technology and exposing the protocol flaws in the previous carbon dating which had concluded that the Shroud was a medieval forgery.

The new evidence was startling, as was the second coincidence which followed.

Dr Campbell mentioned that there was head cloth, called a

sudarium, that the Gospel accounts record the disciples seeing in Christ’s tomb, folded up separately from the shroud. And where was the head cloth kept, claiming to be the Sudarium of Christ? Where else but at Oviedo Cathedral where Andrew had begun his Camino. And it had a traceable historical provenance dating back to the C6th and blood stains with an exact match to the Shroud despite the two cloths having being

kept apart for centuries, the Holy Shroud only having come into the official safe-keeping of the Catholic Church in the late 1970s.

Andrew’s Camino concluded in Santiago de Compostela on All Saints Day, a third, unplanned coincidence, as he was able to join in the popular Mass where it takes six strong people to pull the ropes that swing the enormous Botafumiero, the world’s largest incense burner.

Andrew’s journey didn’t end there. Planning a new Camino this coming September, Andrew was looking for a follow-on, challenging pilgrim journey. The idea of visiting the Holy Shroud at Turin Cathedral kept coming to mind.

It then occurred to him to look up the distance from his grandmother’s home town, Chateau D’Oex in Switzerland (thereby hangs another unusual tale) to Turin. It was just under 300km, slightly less than the Camino Primitivo but with an even more challenging climb through the Great Saint Bernard Pass in the Alps.

But was there a recognised trail? This is the next coincidence… Andrew discovered that there is a 1,000-year-old pilgrim path called the Via Francigena from Canterbury in England to Rome which passes through Switzerland and the Great Saint Bernard Pass.

Andrew realised that he could join this ancient pilgrim route for most of his new Camino. He’s now decided to make his September Camino a sponsored walk, not to raise money, but to raise awareness of the Turin Shroud and the evidence it presents for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, by asking everyone who sponsors him to give 48 minutes of their time to watch Dr John Campbell’s “Shroud Studies” research video.

Are these events in Andrew’s life just coincidences or Divine Guidance? Is the Turin Shroud the genuine burial cloth of Christ bearing witness to his crucifixion and resurrection or a fake, a medieval forgery?

It’s an Easter mystery Andrew encourages you to explore, to step out on your own Camino adventure at…

https://youtu.be/YT1R2kDPHFA?si=4ValMxdqBrm0xfKQ

Andrew said: “Whether or not you are fortunate or fit enough to make the physical journey, there´s a journey of discovery we can all share.”

Andrew’s career saw him in the role of Curate of Clifton, Rawcliffe & Clifton Moor, York 1995-1999; Vicar of Stainforth, Doncaster, 1999-2013;

Vicar of Filey 2013-16; and Associate Rector for Burnsall, Rylstone & Linton 2016-17.