St Mark must be turing in his grave with the present events in Libya. However,  things are calmer elsewhere, with some notable exceptions (Syria, Yemen and Bahrain) and our pilgrims in The Holy Land and Jordan are finding things calm and peaceful. They will be able to visit the Christian communities in Nablus, Bethany and Bethlehem last week, as well as a wander in the Old City of Jerusalem, just as I did earlier in the month.

I flew with my wife  and daughter to Carcassonne on Sunday. Ryanair again proved that flying to small provincial airports in France, Italy and Spain pays off. They are not everyone’s cup of tea, but treat them like a taxi with wings, don’t expect too much, buy priority boarding, take your bag on board with you, buy a sandwich before embarking, don’t feel obliged to buy a scratchcard from them and then look superprised when they arrive on time and you are the only flight arriving in Carcassonne, Pescara, Ancona, Valladolid, or wherever. Oh, and pay for it on your prepaid Virgin Mastercard to save the charges!

We have just launched two new pilgrimages for early and late Summer. The first one, a snip at £99 is for three days in Walsingham, from 27th – 29th June, where Pax will mark the 950th Anniversary of Our Lady’s apparition to Richeldis. Talks by the Catholic writer, Peter Stanford, author of “The Extra Mile, A 21st Century Pilgrimage”, and by Fr Norman Banks, the charismatic vicar of St Mary’s Anglican Church in Walsingham.

The second one is very exciting, and is a first for us, a pilgrimage to Ukraine, on behalf of Aid to the Church in Need. Look on our website for further details. It will fill up fast!

Philip Dean

Managing Director

I have just returned from a short trip to the Holy Land and I mm able to reassure all our friends and clients that everything is very peaceful there. I visited Nazareth and Jerusalem and stayed in a guesthouse in the Old City itself run by Palestinian Christians. To a man and woman they all thanked us for coming to the Holy Land and asked us to pass on the message to all of our pilgrims that they should keep coming on pilgrimage and that by their presence, the local Christians are able to get work and therefore income for themselves and their families. Our Israeli friends said the same thing (more or less) and we are happy to work with both Israeli and Palestinian people. In fact for my last 34 years of working with the Holy Land, I have felt that as pilgrimage operators we are bridge builders forcing both sides of the divide to talk to and to work with each other. So if you are thinking of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land but have not yet decided, then browse through our website and choose one of our scheduled pilgrimages. If you are a group leader we will organise your own parish, or school to make a private pilgrimage. Finally on a different note I can now reveal what the name Gaddafi means:

Go

Abroad

Diabolical

Dictator

And

Face

Ignominy!

Why do I think that that dreadful man will not heed my advice? Finally our sympathies to the people of Japan in their hour of need after the terrible earthquake and Tsunami. This will not put us off the pilgrimage that we are organising to Christian Japan, Nagasaki & Hiroshima in 2012.

Philip Dean