Pilgrimage of Remembrance and Healing: Our wounded veterans

War Memorial Chapel
Washington National Cathedral

Forgive me, dear friends, for not posting much here recently. The Fall is upon us and many things are launching at St. Paul's.

I want to share with you an experience I had yesterday at our Fall gathering of the Episcopal clergy in our Central Virginia region -- our "clericus" as it is called. Our host was the Rev. Randy Haycock, who is the interim rector at Grace Church, Keswick.

Randy is a retired U.S. Army chaplain, and he still works with wounded veterans. He shared with us a program he began a few years ago while posted at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center that is extraordinary. He leads wounded vets on a "Pilgrimage of Remembrance and Healing" at the National Cathedral.

The veterans walk through the Cathedral remembering lost friends, praying, talking, forgiving, and paying tribute to their fallen friends. They spend time in the War Memorial Chapel in the Cathedral, remembering friends. The Cathedral is closed while they are there -- no tourists, no one else but the wounded warriors. Randy's presentation was very moving, and it reminded me that we in Charlottesville sometimes lead very comfortable lives far away from the battlefields.

Public television recently did a short segment on Randy's work. Here it is:

Watch Pilgrimage of Remembrance and Healing on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.