After torrential rain the day before, the skies cleared at lunchtime on Sunday 15th November ready for pilgrims in Watford to walk to five places of worship in the town centre. All met at the Watford and District Synagogue in Nascot Road at 2pm. Jeremy Roberts gave a very interesting talk and showed everyone the Torah Scrolls in the Ark and unrolled one for all to see the hand written Hebrew text.

Mayor Dorothy Thornhill, patron of WIFA, spoke of how Watford is a town of people of many faiths and none and to enjoy the afternoon. She walked along with pilgrims as they headed for St Mary's Parish Church. Here churchwarden John Way greeted the group and talked about the historic 12th century building and the ways of worship there.

From here the pilgrims passed to the Jamia Central Mosque, a lovely light, purpose built mosque where Mr Salim spoke about aspects of Islam and showed golden pages of the Holy Q'ran. A short walk from here pilgrims visited Holy Rood Catholic Church. Stuart Seaton extolled the virtues of the architecture and decoration in the church and invited pilgrims to look in the confessional.

Another short walk and the Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara was reached. With shoes off and heads covered, pilgrims mounted the stairs to the temple. The priest sat with his lamb's wool whisk keeping the pages of the Guru Granth Sahib free of dust while Harjit Singh explained a little of Sikhism. The pilgrims were invited to take refreshments which were very welcome after such an interesting and diverse afternoon.

Judith Bruni

"I have enjoyed working together with Judith in organizing the interfaith pilgrimage, writing up the publicity, visiting the various places of worship and discussing strategies together with our chairman Lateef Hussaini. This was the first time WIFA arranged such a pilgrimage in Watford. It was a great success, 50 to 60 people from a variety of faiths participated: Hindus, Christians, Quakers, Sikhs, Muslims... We walked together around Watford to pay our respect to the various places of worship of our town.

Our interfaith pilgrimage included a Synagogue, a Church of England and a Catholic Church, a Mosque and we concluded with a Gurdwara. It was also wonderful to have the support of Mayor Dorothy Thornhill who walked with us all the way. The whole experience was very inspiring and enlightening: the pilgrimage gave us the opportunity to have a peek into these different worlds and it made me realise how God has been working throughout history in so many different ways in different times and places. All those separated worlds made of the different faith traditions seem to merge and their walls fade once we observe them more closely with an open heart. I was in awe admiring the beauty of the Holy Books: the Torah, the Bible, the Qur'an and the Guru Granth Sahib all containing those precious sacred messages that have improved and guided the life of so many people throughout history until today, all emphasizing the same basic principles of respect and love for the Creator and for each other, all promoting peace and love between our fellow man.

We would like to thank the District & Watford Synagogue, St Mary's Parish Church, Holy Rood RC Church and the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabah for opening their doors to our pilgrimage and for their warm welcomes. Also a very special thanks to the Sikhs for their generous offering of refreshments at the end of our pilgrimage. Many people expressed interest in doing it again next year."

Françoise Murphy

"Getting to know one another better as we walked. The witness of walking together through the town. Gratitude to those who gave their time to meet us and tell us something about their faith and their building. The privilege of being welcomed in all these places. Feasting together at the Gurdwara."

Stephanie Grant