Rogation Festival Campaign Reports, 2025 and 2026

Our 2026 Rogation Festival campaign — news from our 2026 participants

Each year the British Pilgrimage Trust offers £250 grants to help local parishes bring this beautiful tradition to life — funding hospitality and festivities for a community to lead an outdoor procession with land blessings and a shared lunch.

Rogation invites a community to step outside to pray for fields and footpaths, crops and gardens, wildlife and neighbours, and to welcome the wider community into a shared celebration of place.

Applications for 2026 are now closed — read on for how this year's communities celebrated. To register interest for next year, or to support the campaign, email us.

Read more about the history and traditions behind the festival of Rogation.

News from our 2026 participants

Rogation 2026 was a joyful success. Well over 600 people took part across at least a dozen parishes, from the Isle of Man to West Cornwall — and in community after community, turnout comfortably outstripped expectations. This year's grants helped communities step outside to bless their land, walk their bounds, and share food with neighbours.

Rogation 2026 by the numbers

• 650+ people took part
• 20+ communities took part, from the Isle of Man to West Cornwall‍
• 50 people joined together with the community of St Andrew's Aller to walk along a route acknowledging connections to King Alfred‍
• 248 at the largest walk alone — the Whitacres, Lea Marston & Shustoke in Warwickshire
• Turnout repeatedly beat expectations: 60 at Lower Heyford against a parish electoral roll of just 19, and 35 on the Isle of Man where the usual congregation is around 12

We were so delighted to read your reports. Thank you.

Reviving Rogation traditions lost for decades

Several communities used the grant to bring back a custom that had lapsed for years.

‍All Saints, Bighton in Hampshire revived Rogation for the first time in at least a decade, combining a service, a parish history talk and a walk along part of a boundary first recorded in 959 AD; they plan to walk a different stretch each year for the next three years.

At St Margaret's, Rainham in Kent, the parish beat its ten-mile bounds for the first time in around twenty years, with a runner setting off at 9.15am to cover the whole route and arrive back in time for Communion. One walker reflected: "What a privilege to tread the footsteps of those who walked before us more than 300 years ago — a true pilgrimage."

Reaching well beyond the regular congregation

A recurring theme was welcoming people who don't usually come to church.

At St Mary's, Lower Heyford and Caulcott in Oxfordshire, some 60 walkers turned out — against a parish electoral roll of just 19 — around three-quarters of them not regular churchgoers; the PCC has already booked 2 May 2027 to do it again.

At St Mark's & St Stephen's, Gateacre in Liverpool, around 60 people gathered in the community garden for a litter-pick and BBQ, 15–20 of whom had never engaged with the church before.

And at All Saints, Cressing in Essex, a Rogation Sunday Communion was followed by a "mini-pilgrimage" across the parish to St Barnabas, Tye Green — drawing 25–30 people, among them families and several who would not normally attend church — pausing to pray for the land, farmers, schools and homes along the way, before a feast laid on by the village's irrepressible "Cressing Catering Club."

The largest walk: Warwickshire's four-church pilgrimage

The much-loved walk around the Whitacres, Lea Marston and Shustoke in Warwickshire was once again the biggest event, with 248 people walking or supporting the day — including three visitors from America — journeying between four churches and an environmental centre for toast, sausage rolls, ploughman's lunches, strawberries and "a small mountain of cake."

As one walker put it: "From a walker's perspective it was 10/10."

Connecting Rogation with local history

Rogation Day coincided with Somerset Day weekend for the community of St Andrew's Aller in Somerset, a day that celebrates King Alfred's time in the area, and the surprise attack by Guthrum during Twelfth Night in 878AD. The community acknowledged the spirit of resilience and forgiveness with close to 50 people taking their Rogation pilgrimage along the King Alfred Pilgrimage route.

Quiet, contemplative and accessible days

Elsewhere the day did gentler work. St Hilary, West Cornwall drew 68 adults and 17 children to a Rogation Sunday Eucharist that included a farming family's baptism, a churchyard procession overlooking arable land, and a mile-long walk to the village primary school, ending in a community lunch of locally-sourced Cornish pasties.

The United Benefice of Charlcombe with Bath St Stephen built a 4.2-mile pilgrimage with three contemplative stops around its meditation group, deliberately designing the route so those with mobility issues could drive to each stop and still take part.

On the Isle of Man, the parish of Malew and Santan rewrote its long-standing ecumenical mini-pilgrimage from St Mark's to the Methodist chapel, adding a pet blessing, a bench dedication and a reading in Manx — and welcomed 35 people where the usual congregation is around 12.

 In Hampshire, the Parish of Somborne with Ashley kept the day with a service at All Saints, Little Somborne and a two-mile pilgrim walk from King's Somborne — led by parishioner Phil Carr, fresh from walking the Pilgrim's Way from Winchester to Canterbury — followed by a Rogation tea and the launch of new guided walking-route sheets linking the benefice's six churches; the walkers were greeted at journey's end by "a field full of cowslips."

An opportunity for re-enchantment in Nature

On Ascension Day, the parishes of Tyberton and Preston on Wye in Herefordshire took Rogation back to its roots and gave it a gentle reinvention. Where medieval communities once "beat the bounds" with stripped willow to drive off malevolent spirits — sometimes coming to blows where two parishes met — this benefice chose to re-enchant the custom through song and blessing instead: greeting one another at a holy well, reading poetry in the presence of ancient oaks, and proclaiming trinitarian blessings over wilderness, hedgerow and crop. There was time, too, for cheesy chips at the Yew Tree Pub, a toast to the apple orchards, and a walk home through the dusk beneath the flying geese — and, as the leader cheerfully confessed, they quite forgot to turn anyone upside down. Beneath the fun lay a serious invitation: that ritual is an expression of affection for the living world, and that affection, turned to love, is what moves us to protect it.

"Ritual can be seen as an expression of affection for the web of relationships with the more-than-human community and with the heavens. Affection turns to love — and you must love something to really nurture and protect it." Rev. Simon Lockett

Community and civic life

Local and civic life threaded through the whole campaign. The Mayor and Mayoress of Maldon joined the celebration across Christ Church Latchingdon, St Barnabas Mayland and St Mary Maldon in Essex; a County Councillor walked part of the 12-mile beating of the bounds with St James', Bramley in North Hampshire, where some 40 walkers aged from 10 to 78 finished with a BBQ; and the Abbeydore Deanery wove a Rogation theme into its monthly Reflective Ramble around Dorstone in Herefordshire, where twelve walkers formed a "gratitude circle" on the village green — a touch the leaders plan to keep.

What we learned for next year

Across the reports, two notes sounded again and again: the value of a shared meal that everyone can join without contributing, and a strong desire to make these days an annual fixture. The most common practical lesson was simply to allow more lead time — several organisers felt that two or three months' notice, rather than a few weeks, would have brought even more people out.

We take this feedback on board! Thank you!

"My Dad, almost 82 years young, myself and my friend's autistic son along with Moss the collie had a great day." A resident of Lower Heyford, on the village WhatsApp

"What a wonderful prayerful way to see and learn about our beautiful parish." A walker, St Margaret's, Rainham, Kent

"We love building community within and across our four churches in the Benefice. This Rogation Walk brought together people from the churches and the wider parishes and was a lovely way to spend time walking, chatting and eating together." Rev. Mark Anderson, Rector, St James' Church, Bramley

"A joyful and memorable occasion which brought together worship, pilgrimage, community — and an excellent amount of cake and carbohydrates." Revd Tayrina Ferguson, All Saints, Cressing

Thank you to everyone who took part.

A look back at our 2025 Rogation Festival campaign — link to news from our 2025 participants

We were so moved, and motivated, to hear from all the communities participating the 2025 Rogation Sunday festivals — our inaugural year.

Communities chose to run services in churches, in farm barns, and in fields. There were churchyard tours, walks across the fields, and nature activities for families. Everyone happily joined in on the community food and festivities theme, with picnics and refreshments in churchyards and on village greens.

The community at St Wite's, Dorset, started with an authentic recreation of a medieval worship service written espectially for Sarum, called the Sarum Rite Vespers, with plainsong chants in Latin. On Saturday afternoon, there was a sold-out talk on the St Wite's Way pilgrimage experience and also a Medicinal Herb Walk led by Eleanor Gallia, a well known medical herbalist. In addition to these rogation contributions, cream teas, local bands, a barbeque, an art exhibition, floral shrine decorations, a treasure hunt and other children's activities took place around the village. The community had a steady stream of visitors through the afternoon that culminated in a celebration concert by The Eden Quartet, which was much appreciated.

The community at Shaftesbury Abbey worked with Positive Nature and included blessings inspired by the Canticle of St Francis and Hildegard.

The community at St Ethelbert's Church, Larling in Norfolk embracing the theme beautifully by running their service inside a farm barn building, complete with piles of corn, and bought along farm animals for blessing.

The community at the Church of the Holy Rood, Rodbourne ran their service at a local farm and included a pet blessing at the conclusion of the service.

The community at Youlgreave and Middleton in Derby covered the 16 miles of their boundary with members of the Youlgreave Harriers runners club, as well as walkers completing different sections, all finishing in time for morning Holy Communion followed by prayers looking out over the fields of the parish and a hearty picnic.

Thank you to everyone who participated.

It is hard to describe how wonderful the whole weekend was and thank you so much for the grant to make it possible. One hundred and twenty people attended in addition to the choir. It was extraordinary.
Revd Virginia Luckett on behalf of Whitchurch PCC

The whole day was a great success and definitely united our community – about one third of the walkers were not churchgoers, so it was good to be able to extend this event to the whole community. I think there are now plans to make this a more regular event which is great.
Sarah Mounroury, Curate, St Giles Church Sidmouth

Thank you to the BPT from all of us who took part in the marking of Rogation and beating the bounds in the parish of Youlgreave and Middleton in the Diocese of Derby. The BPT’s support helped to galvanise and expand existing plans to reintroduce the marking of Rogationtide and beating the bounds.
Dan Cocker, Church Warden, Youlgreave and Middleton, Derbyshire.

2025 and 2026 Participating Rogation Communities

Here is a map of the participating communities

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What are Rogation Festivals?

From the Latin rogare, meaning "to ask," Rogation is the ancient festival of blessing the land — a procession of outdoor prayer and "beating the bounds," welcoming everyone, churchgoer or not.

New to Rogation, or planning your own celebration? Read our guide to the history and meaning of Rogation →

To support our Rogation campaign

• Make a donation via Givestar.
• Email us to request our bank details.
• If you have questions or need further help, email us at hello@britishpilgrimage.org.

Rupert Sheldrake and Guy Hayward collaborated on this Rogation project, and have also worked together on a similar project for Patronal Festivals for the Choral Evensong Trust here. They are leading a Rogation Pilgrimage together in Hampstead on Sunday 10th May from 12-5pm - book here.