Walsingham​—England’s Controversial Shrine

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN BRITAIN

WALSINGHAM, a picturesque village in Norfolk County, England, receives up to 100,000 pilgrims a year who visit the shrines of Our Lady of Walsingham. One shrine is sponsored by Roman Catholics, and the other is sponsored by the Church of England. This has led to a controversial situation.

“The National Pilgrimage to Walsingham has been a painful experience in recent years,” wrote a Church of England cleric in the Church Times. “The procession of pilgrims . . . is confronted by the loud and angry shouts of . . . an increasingly large and well-​organised crowd of protesters.”

Why the protest? “What is being practised here under the name of Christianity is nothing short of paganism,” proclaim the protesters against the Church of England shrine, “a blatant affront to the Truth, an abomination in the sight of God and a vile insult to our protestant heritage.”

In England, religion rarely raises such passions. What is there at Walsingham to generate such strong feelings? A review of the history of the shrines will help you understand.

Protestant Versus Catholic

Prior to the Reformation of the 16th century, England was Roman Catholic and boasted many shrines. One of the oldest was at Walsingham, the country’s principal shrine of the Virgin Mary. It started in the year 1061 when the lady of the manor built a house in the village. According to legend, details of its construction were given in a vision, as it was supposedly to be a replica of the house in Nazareth where Mary, the mother of Jesus, had lived. In the Middle Ages, this shrine to Mary gained international importance and popularity.

Kings and commoners alike flocked to Walsingham. What attracted them? Aside from the wooden image of Mary with the infant Jesus on her knee, indulgences and relics were readily available for sale, and diseases were reported to have been cured there. Pilgrims could also view the “miracle” of Walsingham, a vial reputed to contain a few congealed drops of Mary’s milk. Some visitors were convinced that the contents were just chalk or white lead, while Erasmus, the Bible scholar, questioned the authenticity of the relic, which to some looked like beaten chalk tempered with the white of an egg.

Why did such an eminent reformer as Erasmus make a pilgrimage to Walsingham? Apparently to fulfill a vow. Although he described the shrine in great detail, “his satire on the whole devotion is exceptionally caustic,” says The Catholic Encyclopedia. Erasmus wrote “in a satirical and unbelieving mood,” explains historian Frederic Seebohm, adding that there is no proof “that he himself was a worshipper of the Virgin or a believer in the efficacy of pilgrimages to her shrine.”

During the Reformation the newly formed Church of England deposed the Roman Catholic religion. In the year 1538, the shrine of the “Witch of Walsingham,” as she had become known, was destroyed by order of King Henry VIII, the head of the breakaway church, and the site was sold. The statue, a hated symbol of idol worship, was taken a hundred miles [160 km] to Chelsea in London and there burned publicly.

Protestants Mimic Catholics

Early in this century, however, the Church of England restored Our Lady of Walsingham​—as a Protestant shrine! In 1921 a carved replica of the original statue was installed in the parish church of Walsingham, and the first modern pilgrims arrived a year later. As the shrine has grown in popularity, so too has the ire of some church members. In May of each year, when the statue is carried through the streets during a 30-​minute procession, they vehemently protest the idolatry.

In 1934, Roman Catholics set up in Walsingham their National Shrine of Our Lady. This shrine contains a second replica of the original mother and child image and is located in the old Slipper Chapel. This is the place where pilgrims used to leave their shoes to walk barefoot to the original village shrine. Interestingly, the target of the protesters is limited to the Church of England shrine, which they maintain is a promotion of Mariolatry and a repudiation of the church’s Protestant heritage.

But is there another reason for the fervent opposition of the protesters? Many believe there is. The “protests have become increasingly homophobic of late,” reports The Independent, a newspaper, “directed particularly at the Gin and Lace element.” This is a reference to a group of Church of England men, mainly clergymen, who for the past few years have made Walsingham their annual convention. Why do they come? One regular pilgrim commented: “This is not the most deeply heterosexual event in the world.”

Clearly, such an event, steeped deeply in idolatry and now with homosexual overtones, is to be avoided by true Christians.​—1 Corinthians 6:9; 10:14; 1 John 5:21.