Faith and FeathersNearly twenty people responded to the invitation from our Education & Training Officer David Peel to join him on Holy Island for Faith & Feathers, weaving together bird-watching, worship and fellowship in a weekend retreat.
The third weekend in October proved blustery (with the wind in the wrong direction for the serious ornithologists, keen to see whatever rarities may have been blown over the North Sea) but with some glorious sunny hours, and hardly any of the threatened rain that instead lingered over the Cheviots.
Less than half of us were Northern Synod folk - once again the St Cuthbert's Centre attracted far more widely, so that we had participants from as far south as Wiltshire and as far west as Liverpool. Together we enjoyed both the comforts of Marygate House and the extra attentions of David and Pat; and those of us who were novices (and that turned out to be quite a few) were grateful to David for his unthreatening readings before each walk from Simon Barnes's How to be a bad Birdwatcher. 
We were also of course guests of the St Cuthbert's Centre, and cared for spiritually by Barry Hutchinson, the Centre's Director. But besides this there was a keen ecumenical dimension to the weekend: Adrian Hughes, formerly vicar of Belford just across the water, and now at Cullercoats, was our chief guide for each of our birding walks, and he was joined on the Saturday by Baptist preacher Mark Winter, who organises bird walks in Northumberland on a professional basis.
And as we walked around the island we recognised how blessed we were through leaders who had an immense amount of knowledge and enthusiasm for birds, and were ready and anxious to share that with us. Those of us accustomed to peering through inadequate binoculars had a whole new world opened up as we looked through the telescopes they shared with us. Scanning the distant seas we discovered red throated divers, flocks of scoter, and a remarkably elusive red necked grebe; but far closer at hand, and in that wonderful warm afternoon sunlight, we also delighted in the radiant colour of the teal on the pond, the compulsive activity of the turnstone on the shore, or even the sheer affrontery of the flock of sparrows in a cottage garden mocking the hunting skills of a tail-less cat.
We saw, between us, seventy different birds in all - and as we shared our experiences before Sunday lunch and final goodbyes, nearly everyone had a different favourite. The short eared owls and the barn owl were special of course: but so was the sight of the merlin on the fence post (not least because most of the party missed it in their hurry to get back in time for lunch!), and certainly the experience at Emmanuel Point of seeing the exhausted redwing land after that journey right across the sea. Birds in all kind of guises are special!
Some of our thoughts and experiences were gathered together in a moving act of worship that was part of the regular pattern of Saturday evening services at St Cuthbert's. Hymns and readings that spoke of God's goodness in creation undergirded Mark's talk that brought faith and feathers together, and reminded us, if we needed reminding, that we were here not just for the birds.
Thanks to David, Adrian and Mark, and Barry too, and all who in various ways made it such a good weekend. One participant declared that she was going home more confident of distinguishing a robin from a seagull. My guess is that all of us went away knowing quite a bit more about birds - but also with a deeper and stronger faith.
We will be looking out for the next Faith and Feathers weekend.
John Durell