TWO pilgrims are walking to each Anglican cathedral in England to lift funds towards university tuition fees for varsity leavers from a college within the West Bank.
The pilgrims, Clare Slator and Dorothy Gray, are walking to each cathedral over a period of 24 months to publicise the Jeel scholarship fund, which provides educational grants to highschool leavers from Jeel Al-Amal School, near Bethany.
They are walking as much as ten miles on each visit, following known pilgrimage routes to every cathedral. Starting in Yorkshire, near their homes, their first visit was to Durham. They have visited 19 cathedrals up to now, and hope to finish the remainder in 2025, although attending to Truro is taking some planning.
At each, they attend a service and meet a member of the clergy to lift awareness of the work of the college and the scholarship fund. Their two dogs — a miniature Jack Russell and a collie — accompany them on each walk and into the services, too, and have been “warmly received”, Ms Slator said.
“Our longest walk up to now has been around ten miles. It’s been quite an eye-opener for each of us. On some routes, we go through great beauty, and on others now we have seen signs of dire poverty.
“We can’t have a favorite, but I used to be really surprised by our visit to Coventry; it was just amazing. It was lovely and welcoming. At Bury St Edmunds, people were unbelievably friendly, and, once we attended morning prayer at Ely, we opened the small wood door and just felt, wow, it was so beautiful, with the natural light streaming in.”
She said that she was particularly looking forward to her visit to St German’s Cathedral, on the Isle of Man, near to which her father, a refugee from Nazi Germany, was interned within the war. He died a decade ago.
Their next visit is to Leicester Cathedral; “so we’re busy reading up about Richard III.”
She was inspired, she said, by the scholars at Jeel Al-Amal whom she first visited on a pilgrimage along with her former vicar the Revd Alison Askew. “We are so in awe of what they do to proceed their studies. Some should travel three hours each way by bus to get to college, because of roadblocks, they usually come home late for a number of hours sleep before starting again. It is humbling.”
Jeel Al-Amal educates pupils whose parents are unable to take care of them, or who’ve been orphaned. When they reach 18, they’ve to go away the college and its accommodation and find work, however the fund hopes to pay the tutoring fees of scholars who want to go on to further study.
The fund’s first student, Mohammad, qualified as a nurse anaesthetist this 12 months.
The fund is currently supporting students undertaking degrees in medicine, nursing, and IT.
To support the scholarship fund, visit: jeelscholarshipfund.org
