116-572: Sonning (traditional: / ˈ s ʌ n ɪ ŋ / ; modern: / ˈ s ɒ n ɪ ŋ / ) is a village and civil parish in Berkshire , England , on the River Thames , east of Reading . The village was described by Jerome K. Jerome in his book Three Men in a Boat as "the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river". The place-name Sonning seems to contain an Old English personal name, Sunna , + ingas (Old English), 'The village of
232-522: A London borough . (Since the new county was beforehand a mixture of metropolitan boroughs , municipal boroughs and urban districts, no extant parish councils were abolished.) In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 retained rural parishes, but abolished most urban parishes, as well as the urban districts and boroughs which had administered them. Provision was made for smaller urban districts and boroughs to become successor parishes , with
348-587: A Stockholm University study in 2011, these pilgrims visit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith , confirm their beliefs in the holy context with collective excitation, and connect personally to the Holy Land. Pilgrims and the making of pilgrimages are common in many religions , including the faiths of ancient Egypt , Persia in the Mithraic period , India , China , and Japan . The Greek and Roman customs of consulting
464-475: A journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith , although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone's own beliefs. Many religions attach spiritual importance to particular places: the place of birth or death of founders or saints, or to the place of their "calling" or spiritual awakening, or of their connection (visual or verbal) with
580-515: A Special Expense, to residents of the unparished area to fund those activities. If the district council does not opt to make a Special Expenses charge, there is an element of double taxation of residents of parished areas, because services provided to residents of the unparished area are funded by council tax paid by residents of the whole district, rather than only by residents of the unparished area. Parish councils comprise volunteer councillors who are elected to serve for four years. Decisions of
696-576: A boundary coterminous with an existing urban district or borough or, if divided by a new district boundary, as much as was comprised in a single district. There were 300 such successor parishes established. In urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes, the parishes were simply abolished, and they became unparished areas . The distinction between types of parish was no longer made; whether parishes continued by virtue of being retained rural parishes or were created as successor parishes, they were all simply termed parishes. The 1972 act allowed
812-477: A city council (though most cities are not parishes but principal areas, or in England specifically metropolitan boroughs or non-metropolitan districts ). The chairman of a town council will have the title "town mayor" and that of a parish council which is a city will usually have the title of mayor . When a city or town has been abolished as a borough, and it is considered desirable to maintain continuity of
928-462: A city council. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government , in England in 2011 there were 9,946 parishes. Since 1997 around 100 new civil parishes have been created, in some cases by splitting existing civil parishes, but mostly by creating new ones from unparished areas. Parish or town councils have very few statutory duties (things they are required to do by law) but have
1044-559: A city was Hereford , whose city council was merged in 1998 to form a unitary Herefordshire . The area of the city of Hereford remained unparished until 2000 when a parish council was created for the city. As another example, the charter trustees for the City of Bath make up the majority of the councillors on Bath and North East Somerset Council. Civil parishes cover 35% of England's population, with one in Greater London and few in
1160-440: A civil parish is usually an elected parish council (which can decide to call itself a town, village, community or neighbourhood council, or a city council if the parish has city status). Alternatively, in parishes with small populations (typically fewer than 150 electors) governance may be by a parish meeting which all electors may attend; alternatively, parishes with small populations may be grouped with one or more neighbours under
1276-481: A civil parish which has no parish council, the parish meeting may levy a council tax precept for expenditure relating to specific functions, powers and rights which have been conferred on it by legislation. In places where there is no civil parish ( unparished areas ), the administration of the activities normally undertaken by the parish becomes the responsibility of the district or borough council. The district council may make an additional council tax charge, known as
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#17327753270641392-445: A clearly delineated small village. Most of the village together with the grounds of Reading Blue Coat School forms a Conservation Area . In Anglo-Saxon times , the village was of considerable importance as the lesser centre of the bishopric of Ramsbury , sometimes called the see of Ramsbury and Sonning. The church was a secondary cathedral and the present structure, St Andrew's Church , contains reused Anglo-Saxon carvings. By
1508-586: A common parish council. Wales was also divided into civil parishes until 1974, when they were replaced by communities , which are similar to English parishes in the way they operate. Civil parishes in Scotland were abolished for local government purposes by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 ; the Scottish equivalent of English civil parishes are the community council areas established by
1624-469: A few days at a time; within a few years appointments were extended internationally, formally designated as "pilgrims", and scheduled for twice-yearly, week-long visits at each local congregation. International Bible Students Association (IBSA) pilgrims were excellent speakers, and their local talks were typically well-publicized and well-attended. Prominent Bible Students A. H. Macmillan and J. F. Rutherford were both appointed pilgrims before they joined
1740-543: A historic or architectural tour rather than – or as well as – a religious experience. Under communist regimes, devout secular pilgrims visited locations such as the Mausoleum of Lenin , the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong and the Birthplace of Karl Marx . Such visits were sometimes state-sponsored. Sites such as these continue to attract visitors. The distinction between religious, cultural or political pilgrimage and tourism
1856-502: A journey is called a pilgrim. As a common human experience, pilgrimage has been proposed as a Jungian archetype by Wallace Clift and Jean Dalby Clift . Some research has shown that people who engage in pilgrimage walks enjoy biological, psychological, social, and spiritual therapeutic benefits. The Holy Land acts as a focal point for the pilgrimages of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism , Christianity , and Islam . According to
1972-527: A journey or procession. While many pilgrims travel toward a specific location, a physical destination is not always a necessity. One group of pilgrims in early Celtic Christianity were the Peregrinari Pro Christ , (Pilgrims for Christ), or "white martyrs", who left their homes to wander in the world. This form of pilgrimage, akin to the concept of " hajj " in Islam, which means "procession,"
2088-641: A magnet for travelers since medieval times. While Solomon's Temple stood, Jerusalem was the centre of the Jewish religious life and the site of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals of Passover , Shavuot and Sukkot , and all adult men who were able were required to visit and offer sacrifices ( korbanot ) at the Temple. After the destruction of the Temple, the obligation to visit Jerusalem and to make sacrifices no longer applied. The obligation
2204-529: A new code. In either case the code must comply with the Nolan Principles of Public Life . A parish can be granted city status by the Crown . As of 2020 , eight parishes in England have city status, each having a long-established Anglican cathedral: Chichester , Ely , Hereford , Lichfield , Ripon , Salisbury , Truro and Wells . The council of an ungrouped parish may pass a resolution giving
2320-431: A new smaller manor, there was a means of making a chapel which, if generating or endowed with enough funds, would generally justify foundation of a parish, with its own parish priest (and in latter centuries vestry ). This consistency was a result of canon law which prized the status quo in issues between local churches and so made boundary changes and sub-division difficult. The consistency of these boundaries until
2436-680: A parish (a "detached part") was in a different county . In other cases, counties surrounded a whole parish meaning it was in an unconnected, "alien" county. These anomalies resulted in a highly localised difference in applicable representatives on the national level , justices of the peace , sheriffs, bailiffs with inconvenience to the inhabitants. If a parish was split then churchwardens, highway wardens and constables would also spend more time or money travelling large distances. Some parishes straddled two or more counties, such as Todmorden in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Pilgrim A pilgrimage
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#17327753270642552-416: A parish council, and instead will only have a parish meeting : an example of direct democracy . Alternatively several small parishes can be grouped together and share a common parish council, or even a common parish meeting. A parish council may decide to call itself a town council, village council, community council, neighbourhood council, or if the parish has city status, the parish council may call itself
2668-503: A population of between 100 and 300 could request their county council to establish a parish council. Provision was also made for a grouped parish council to be established covering two or more rural parishes. In such groups, each parish retained its own parish meeting which could vote to leave the group, but otherwise the grouped parish council acted across the combined area of the parishes included. Urban civil parishes were not given their own parish councils, but were directly administered by
2784-1079: A range of discretionary powers which they may exercise voluntarily. These powers have been defined by various pieces of legislation. The role they play can vary significantly depending on the size, resources and ability of the council, but their activities can include any of the following: Parish councils have powers to provide and manage various local facilities; these can include allotments , cemeteries, parks, playgrounds, playing fields and village greens , village halls or community centres , bus shelters, street lighting, roadside verges, car parks, footpaths, litter bins and war memorials. Larger parish councils may also be involved in running markets , public toilets and public clocks, museums and leisure centres . Parish councils may spend money on various things they deem to be beneficial to their communities, such as providing grants to local community groups or local projects, or fund things such as public events, crime prevention measures, community transport schemes, traffic calming or tourism promotion. Parish councils have
2900-537: A relatively minor role in local government. As of September 2023 , there are 10,464 parishes in England, and in 2020 they covered approximately 40% of the English population. For historical reasons, civil parishes predominantly cover rural areas and smaller urban areas, with most larger urban areas being wholly or partly unparished ; but since 1997 it has been possible for civil parishes to be created within unparished areas if demanded by local residents . In 2007
3016-409: A role in the planning system; they have a statutory right to be consulted on any planning applications in their areas. They may also produce a neighbourhood plan to influence local development. The Localism Act 2011 allowed eligible parish councils to be granted a " general power of competence " which allows them within certain limits the freedom to do anything an individual can do provided it
3132-598: A set number of guardians for each parish, hence a final purpose of urban civil parishes. With the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930, urban parishes became a geographical division only with no administrative power; that was exercised at the urban district or borough council level. In 1965 civil parishes in London were formally abolished when Greater London was created, as the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below
3248-654: A site of pilgrimage. The designated sites for pilgrimage are currently not accessible to the majority of Bahá'ís, as they are in Iraq and Iran respectively, and thus when Bahá'ís currently refer to pilgrimage, it refers to a nine-day pilgrimage which consists of visiting the holy places at the Bahá'í World Centre in northwest Israel in Haifa , Acre , and Bahjí . Places of pilgrimage in the Buddhist world include those associated with
3364-943: A small village or town ward to a large tract of mostly uninhabited moorland in the Cheviots, Pennines or Dartmoor. The two largest as at December 2023 are Stanhope (County Durham) at 98.6 square miles (255 km ), and Dartmoor Forest (Devon) at 79.07 square miles (204.8 km ). The two smallest are parcels of shared rural land: Lands Common to Axminster and Kilmington (Devon) at 0.012 square miles (0.031 km ; 3.1 ha; 7.7 acres), and Lands Common to Brancepeth and Brandon and Byshottles (County Durham) at 0.0165 square miles (0.043 km ; 4.3 ha; 10.6 acres). The next two smallest are parishes in built up areas: Chester Castle (Cheshire) at 0.0168 square miles (0.044 km ; 4.4 ha; 10.8 acres) (no recorded population) and Hamilton Lea (Leicestershire) at 0.07 square miles (0.18 km ; 18 ha; 45 acres) (1,021 residents at
3480-521: A spur to the creation of new parishes in some larger towns which were previously unparished, in order to retain a local tier of government; examples include Shrewsbury (2009), Salisbury (2009), Crewe (2013) and Weymouth (2019). In 2003 seven new parish councils were set up for Burton upon Trent , and in 2001 the Milton Keynes urban area became entirely parished, with ten new parishes being created. Parishes can also be abolished where there
3596-524: A strict, literalist interpretation of Islam and opposition to practices they consider innovations, such as shrine visitation. Ziyarat also includes the Ziyarat al-Imam, which refers specifically to the pilgrimage to the shrines of the Shia Imams, especially revered figures like Imam Ali and Imam Hussein . The Arba'in pilgrimage is the world's largest pilgrimage and largest annual public gathering in
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3712-594: A variety of sacred and historically significant locations beyond Mecca. These include mosques, tombs, battlefields, mountains, caves, and other places where important spiritual or historical events in Islamic history took place. It holds deep spiritual significance for millions of Muslims around the world. One notable example is the Grand Magal of Touba , 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Dakar , Senegal. About four million pilgrims participate annually to celebrate
3828-518: Is a Grade II listed house situated on an island in the River Thames at Sonning. It was originally built in the 17th century and, like much of the village, was formerly owned by the Rich family , Lords of the Manor of Sonning, although they did not live there. The Great Western Railway passes about 0.5 miles (1 km) south of the village, in a 2-mile (3.2 km) long cutting, Sonning Cutting . It
3944-524: Is a Shia Muslim religious observance that occurs forty days after the Day of Ashura . It commemorates the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali , the grandson of Muhammad , which falls on the 20th or 21st day of the month of Safar . Imam Husayn ibn Ali and 72 companions were killed by Yazid I 's army in the Battle of Karbala in 61 AH (680 CE ). Arba'een or forty days is also the usual length of mourning after
4060-497: Is a journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin peregrinus ) is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system. Pilgrimages frequently involve
4176-507: Is at present the only part of England where civil parishes cannot be created. If enough electors in the area of a proposed new parish (ranging from 50% in an area with less than 500 electors to 10% in one with more than 2,500) sign a petition demanding its creation, then the local district council or unitary authority must consider the proposal. Since the beginning of the 21st century, numerous parish councils have been created, including some relatively large urban ones. The main driver has been
4292-539: Is evidence that this is in response to "justified, clear and sustained local support" from the area's inhabitants. Examples are Birtley , which was abolished in 2006, and Southsea , abolished in 2010. Every civil parish has a parish meeting, which all the electors of the parish are entitled to attend. Generally a meeting is held once a year. A civil parish may have a parish council which exercises various local responsibilities prescribed by statute. Parishes with fewer than 200 electors are usually deemed too small to have
4408-520: Is held every September at the village primary school. Notable former and current village inhabitants include: The following recipients of the Victoria Cross are buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church : Civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government . It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to
4524-733: Is nearby, off the Old Bath Road. Sonning Golf Club is on the other side of the A4 road . Sonning Regatta restarted in 2000 and is held every two years just upstream from Sonning Lock. There is sailing and waterskiing on the Caversham Lakes across the Thames and the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake has recently been created there as well. The Sonning Village Show, started in the 1960s by the local Women's Institute,
4640-419: Is not necessarily always clear or rigid. Pilgrimage could also refer symbolically to journeys, largely on foot, to places where the concerned person(s) expect(s) to find spiritual and/or personal salvation. In the words of adventurer-author Jon Krakauer in his book Into The Wild , Christopher McCandless was "a pilgrim perhaps" to Alaska in search of spiritual bliss. The main pilgrimage sites associated with
4756-405: Is not prohibited by other legislation, as opposed to being limited to the powers explicitly granted to them by law. To be eligible for this, a parish council must meet certain conditions such as having a clerk with suitable qualifications. Parish councils receive funding by levying a " precept " on the council tax paid by the residents of the parish (or parishes) served by the parish council. In
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4872-492: Is now much smaller and triangular shaped. The ecclesiastical parish of Sonning continues to include Sonning, Charvil and Sonning Eye. The northwestern boundary is formed by the River Thames before passing through the middle of the Thames Valley Park . The southern border follows the railway line. The northeastern boundary travels over Charvil Hill and follows the edge of the housing at Charvil itself until it reaches
4988-423: Is one of the five pillars of Islam and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence. The Hajj is one of the largest annual gatherings of people in the world. Since 2014, two or three million people have participated in
5104-586: Is the most famous sea goddess in the Chinese southeastern sea area, Hong Kong , Macau and Taiwan . Mazu Pilgrimage is more likely as an event (or temple fair), pilgrims are called as "Xiang Deng Jiao" ( pinyin : xiāng dēng jiǎo, it means "lantern feet" in Chinese), they would follow the Goddess's (Mazu) palanquin from her own temple to another Mazu temple. By tradition, when the village Mazu palanquin passes,
5220-504: The 'Standards Board regime' with local monitoring by district, unitary or equivalent authorities. Under new regulations which came into effect in 2012 all parish councils in England are required to adopt a code of conduct with which parish councillors must comply, and to promote and maintain high standards. A new criminal offence of failing to comply with statutory requirements was introduced. More than one 'model code' has been published, and councils are free to modify an existing code or adopt
5336-521: The Great House on the site of the original ferryman's cottage. The Bull Inn had the added bonus of being near the church where pilgrims could venerate a relic of Saint Cyriacus . The Bishops of Salisbury succeeded those of Ramsbury and Sonning and had a bishop's palace in the village until the 16th century. King Richard II 's young bride, Queen Isabella of Valois , was kept captive here during his imprisonment and deposition. Aberlash House
5452-774: The Hajj annually. The mosques in Mecca and Medina were closed in February 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the hajj was permitted for only a very limited number of Saudi nationals and foreigners living in Saudi Arabia starting on 29 July. Another important place for Muslims is the city of Medina, the second holiest site in Islam, in Saudi Arabia, the final resting place of Muhammad in Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (The Mosque of
5568-761: The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , which have fewer powers than their English and Welsh counterparts. There are no equivalent units in Northern Ireland . The parish system in Europe was established between the 8th and 12th centuries, and an early form was long established in England by the time of the Norman Conquest . These areas were originally based on the territory of manors , which, in some cases, derived their bounds from Roman or Iron Age estates; some large manors were sub-divided into several parishes. Initially, churches and their priests were
5684-1010: The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) to become the smallest geographical area for local government in rural areas. The act abolished the civil (non-ecclesiastical) duties of vestries . Parishes which straddled county boundaries or sanitary districts had to be split so that the part in each urban or rural sanitary district became a separate parish (see List of county exclaves in England and Wales 1844–1974 ). The sanitary districts were then reconstituted as urban districts and rural districts , with parishes that fell within urban districts classed as urban parishes, and parishes that fell within rural districts were classed as rural parishes. The 1894 act established elected civil parish councils as to all rural parishes with more than 300 electors, and established annual parish meetings in all rural parishes. Civil parishes were grouped to form either rural or urban districts which are thereafter classified as either type. The parish meetings for parishes with
5800-438: The ancient system of parishes , which for centuries were the principal unit of secular and religious administration in most of England and Wales. Civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), which established elected parish councils to take on
5916-708: The apostles , saints and Christian martyrs , as well as to places where there have been apparitions of the Virgin Mary . A popular pilgrimage journey is along the Way of St. James to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral , in Galicia , Spain, where the shrine of the apostle James is located. A combined pilgrimage was held every seven years in the three nearby towns of Maastricht , Aachen and Kornelimünster where many important relics could be seen (see: Pilgrimage of
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#17327753270646032-472: The break with Rome , parishes managed ecclesiastical matters, while the manor was the principal unit of local administration and justice. Later, the church replaced the manor court as the rural administrative centre, and levied a local tax on produce known as a tithe . In the medieval period, responsibilities such as relief of the poor passed increasingly from the lord of the manor to the parish's rector , who in practice would delegate tasks among his vestry or
6148-612: The five vices ." Eventually, however, Amritsar and Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) became the spiritual and cultural centre of the Sikh faith, and if a Sikh goes on pilgrimage it is usually to this place. The Panj Takht (Punjabi: ਪੰਜ ਤਖ਼ਤ) are the five revered gurdwaras in India that are considered the thrones or seats of authority of Sikhism and are traditionally considered a pilgrimage. Mazu , also spelled as Matsu,
6264-573: The gods at local oracles , such as those at Dodona or Delphi , both in Greece , are widely known. In Greece , pilgrimages could either be personal or state-sponsored. The Eleusinian mysteries included a pilgrimage. The procession to Eleusis began at the Athenian cemetery Kerameikos and from there the participants walked to Eleusis, along the Sacred Way (Ἱερὰ Ὁδός, Hierá Hodós ). In
6380-470: The (often well-endowed) monasteries. After the dissolution of the monasteries , the power to levy a rate to fund relief of the poor was conferred on the parish authorities by the Poor Relief Act 1601 . Both before and after this optional social change, local (vestry-administered) charities are well-documented. The parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of
6496-504: The 12th century Sonning church had eight dependent churches, four of which had become independent parishes by the 15th century. This is an example of the organisation of the Anglo-Saxon church into minsters with their own parochially known as the minster system . Sonning prospered as an important stopping post for travellers, both by road and by boat. There were a number of ancient hostelries where they could have stayed, notably
6612-564: The 19th century is useful to historians, and is also of cultural significance in terms of shaping local identities; reinforced by the use of grouped parish boundaries, often, by successive local authority areas; and in a very rough, operations-geared way by most postcode districts. There was (and is) wide disparity in parish size. Writtle , Essex traditionally measures 13,568 acres (21 sq mi) – two parishes neighbouring are Shellow Bowells at 469 acres (0.7 sq mi), and Chignall Smealy at 476 acres (0.7 sq mi) Until
6728-591: The 2011 census, Newland with Woodhouse Moor and Beaumont Chase reported inhabitants, and there were no new deserted parishes recorded. Nearly all instances of detached parts of civil parishes (areas not contiguous with the main part of the parish) and of those straddling counties have been ended. 14 examples remain in England as at 2022, including Barnby Moor and Wallingwells , both in Nottinghamshire. Direct predecessors of civil parishes are most often known as "ancient parishes", although many date only from
6844-511: The 2021 census). The 2001 census recorded several parishes with no inhabitants. These were Chester Castle (in the middle of Chester city centre), Newland with Woodhouse Moor , Beaumont Chase , Martinsthorpe , Meering , Stanground North (subsequently abolished), Sturston , Tottington , and Tyneham (subsequently merged). The lands of the last three were taken over by the Armed Forces during World War II and remain deserted. In
6960-541: The A4 to the village. The A4 itself passes through the south of the parish , as does the Great Western Main Line , though there is no station. On the Thames, there are moorings both above and below Sonning Lock, as well as in the weir stream. Sonning is a civil parish with an elected parish council of nine councillors. It falls within the area of the unitary authority of Wokingham . The parish council and
7076-645: The Firouzabad ruins sixty kilometres south of Shiraz in the province of Pars . Atash Behram ("Fire of victory") is the highest grade of fire temple in Zoroastrianism . It has 16 different "kinds of fire", that is, fires gathered from 16 different sources. Currently there are 9 Atash Behram, one in Yazd, Iran and the rest in Western India . They have become a pilgrimage destination. In India
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#17327753270647192-543: The Holy Land, to the places associated with the Lord's passion, death and resurrection. They go to Rome, the city of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, and also to Compostela, which, associated with the memory of Saint James, has welcomed pilgrims from throughout the world who desire to strengthen their spirit with the Apostle's witness of faith and love. Pilgrimages were, and are, also made to Rome and other sites associated with
7308-607: The Prophet). The Ihram (white robe of pilgrimage) is meant to show equality of all Muslim pilgrims in the eyes of Allah. 'A white has no superiority over a black, nor a black over a white. Nor does an Arab have superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab - except through piety' - statement of the Prophet Muhammad. A different form of pilgrimage is ziyarat ( Arabic : زِيَارَة ziyārah , "visit"; Persian : زیارت , ziyārat ). Ziyarat generally refers to
7424-634: The Relics, Maastricht ). Marian pilgrimages remain very popular in Latin America . The Catholic priest Frank Fahey writes that a pilgrim is "always in danger of becoming a tourist" and vice versa, and describes pilgrimages as journeys containing "faith expectancy", a search for wholeness, that are often solitary and employing silence to create an internal sacred space . According to Karel Werner's Popular Dictionary of Hinduism , "most Hindu places of pilgrimage are associated with legendary events from
7540-673: The Tooth in Sri Lanka and the numerous sites associated with teachers and patriarchs of the various traditions. Hindu pilgrimage destinations may be holy cities ( Varanasi , Badrinath ); rivers (the Ganges , the Yamuna ); mountains (several Himalayan peaks are sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists); caves (such as the Batu Caves near Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia ); temples; festivals, such as
7656-445: The act of visiting holy places such as tombs or shrines, often associated with the Prophet Muhammad, his family, companions, and other revered figures like legal scholars and Sufi saints. Ziyarat is a voluntary act of pilgrimage practiced by both Sunni and Shia Muslims. Unlike Hajj, which is obligatory for Muslims who are physically and financially able, or Umrah, which is highly recommended but not mandatory, Ziyarat involves visits to
7772-738: The administration of the poor laws was the main civil function of parishes, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 , which received royal assent on 10 August 1866, declared all areas that levied a separate rate or had their own overseer of the poor to be parishes. This included the Church of England parishes (until then simply known as "parishes"), extra-parochial areas , townships and chapelries . To have collected rates this means these beforehand had their own vestries, boards or equivalent bodies. Parishes using this definition subsequently became known as "civil parishes" to distinguish them from
7888-787: The board of directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania ; the IBSA later adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses and renamed pilgrims as traveling overseers . The purpose of Christian pilgrimage was summarized by Pope Benedict XVI in this way: To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe. Above all, Christians go on pilgrimage to
8004-529: The cathedral fire temple that houses the Iranshah Atash Behram , located in the small town of Udvada in the west coast province of Gujarat , is a pilgrimage destination. A modern phenomenon is the cultural pilgrimage which, while involving a personal journey, is secular in nature. Destinations for such pilgrims can include historic sites of national or cultural importance, and can be defined as places "of cultural significance: an artist's home,
8120-399: The charter, the charter may be transferred to a parish council for its area. Where there is no such parish council, the district council may appoint charter trustees to whom the charter and the arms of the former borough will belong. The charter trustees (who consist of the councillor or councillors for the area of the former borough) maintain traditions such as mayoralty . An example of such
8236-412: The confluence of St Patrick's Stream with the Thames, near St Patrick 's Bridge. The northern corner of the parish consists of very low-lying land adjoining the river. The Sonning Golf Course sits in the southeast corner, with Holme Park , Sonning Hill and the business park in the southwest, and the village roughly in the middle. Sonning village is at a crossing point of the River Thames , where
8352-537: The council are carried out by a paid officer, typically known as a parish clerk. Councils may employ additional people (including bodies corporate, provided where necessary, by tender) to carry out specific tasks dictated by the council. Some councils have chosen to pay their elected members an allowance, as permitted under part 5 of the Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003. The number of councillors varies roughly in proportion to
8468-464: The council of the urban district or borough in which they were contained. Many urban parishes were coterminous (geographically identical) with the urban district or municipal borough in which they lay. Towns which included multiple urban parishes often consolidated the urban parishes into one. The urban parishes continued to be used as an electoral area for electing guardians to the poor law unions . The unions took in areas in multiple parishes and had
8584-466: The council will an election be held. However, sometimes there are fewer candidates than seats. When this happens, the vacant seats have to be filled by co-option by the council. If a vacancy arises for a seat mid-term, an election is only held if a certain number (usually ten) of parish residents request an election. Otherwise the council will co-opt someone to be the replacement councillor. The Localism Act 2011 introduced new arrangements which replaced
8700-459: The creation of town and parish councils is encouraged in unparished areas . The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 created a procedure which gave residents in unparished areas the right to demand that a new parish and parish council be created. This right was extended to London boroughs by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 – with this, the City of London
8816-471: The death of a family member or loved one in many Muslim traditions. Arba'een is one of the largest pilgrimage gatherings on Earth, in which up to 31 million people go to the city of Karbala in Iraq . The second largest holy city in the world, Mashhad , Iran, attracts more than 20 million tourists and pilgrims every year, many of whom come to pay homage to Imam Reza (the eighth Shi'ite Imam). It has been
8932-463: The desire to have a more local tier of government when new larger authorities have been created, which are felt to be remote from local concerns and identity. A number of parishes have been created in places which used to have their own borough or district council; examples include Daventry (2003), Folkestone (2004), Kidderminster (2015) and Sutton Coldfield (2016). The trend towards the creation of geographically large unitary authorities has been
9048-400: The destruction of the Temple, there is a mitzvah to make a pilgrimage on holidays. Sikhism does not consider pilgrimage as an act of spiritual merit. Guru Nanak went to places of pilgrimage to reclaim the fallen people, who had turned ritualists. He told them of the need to visit that temple of God, deep in the inner being of themselves. According to him: "He performs a pilgrimage who controls
9164-422: The divine, to locations where miracles were performed or witnessed, or locations where a deity is said to live or be "housed", or any site that is seen to have special spiritual powers. Such sites may be commemorated with shrines or temples that devotees are encouraged to visit for their own spiritual benefit: to be healed or have questions answered or to achieve some other spiritual benefit. A person who makes such
9280-678: The early 20th century, a second country house was built in the village, the Deanery Garden . It provides a fine example of an Edwin Lutyens house with a Gertrude Jekyll garden, originally designed as a show house for the founder of Country Life magazine. The main road through Sonning is the B478, running from the Bridge to the Charvil roundabout on the A4 . The B4446 runs north from
9396-573: The early example of Origen in the third century, surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the 4th century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers including Saint Jerome , and established by Saint Helena , the mother of Constantine the Great . Beginning in 1894, Christian ministers under the direction of Charles Taze Russell were appointed to travel to and work with local Bible Students congregations for
9512-519: The early period of Hebrew history , pilgrims traveled to Shiloh , Dan , Bethel , and eventually Jerusalem (see also Three Pilgrimage Festivals , a practice followed by other Abrahamic religions ). These festivals, including Passover, Tabernacles, and Shavout, often involved journeys that reflected a physical and spiritual movement, similar to the concept of " tirtha yātrā" in Hinduism, where "tirtha" means "ford" or "crossing," and "yatra" signifies
9628-439: The ecclesiastical parishes. The Church of England parishes, which cover more than 99% of England, have become officially (and to avoid ambiguity) termed ecclesiastical parishes . The limits of many of these have diverged; most greatly through changes in population and church attendance (these factors can cause churches to be opened or closed). Since 1921, each has been the responsibility of its own parochial church council . In
9744-534: The established English Church, which for a few years after Henry VIII alternated between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England , before settling on the latter on the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558. By the 18th century, religious membership was becoming more fractured in some places, due in part to the progress of Methodism . The legitimacy of the parish vestry came into question, and
9860-645: The gift and continued patronage (benefaction) of the lord of the manor , but not all were willing and able to provide, so residents would be expected to attend the church of the nearest manor with a church. Later, the churches and priests became to a greater extent the responsibility of the Catholic Church thus this was formalised; the grouping of manors into one parish was recorded, as was a manor-parish existing in its own right. Boundaries changed little, and for centuries after 1180 'froze', despite changes to manors' extents. However, by subinfeudation , making
9976-455: The government at the time of the Local Government Act 1972 discouraged their creation for large towns or their suburbs, but there is generally nothing to stop their establishment. For example, Birmingham has two parishes ( New Frankley and Sutton Coldfield ), Oxford has four, and the Milton Keynes urban area has 24. Parishes could not however be established in London until the law was changed in 2007. A civil parish can range in area from
10092-476: The late 19th century, most of the "ancient" (a legal term equivalent to time immemorial ) irregularities inherited by the civil parish system were cleaned up, and the majority of exclaves were abolished. The census of 1911 noted that 8,322 (58%) of "parishes" in England and Wales were not geographically identical when comparing the civil to the ecclesiastical form. In 1894, civil parishes were reformed by
10208-495: The life and teachings of Cheikh Amadou Bamba , the founder of the Mouride brotherhood, who established the order in 1883. The pilgrimage begins on the 18th of Safar , the second month of the Islamic calendar. While ziyarat is viewed as permissible and spiritually enriching by most Sunni and Shia traditions, some fundamentalist movements, such as Salafism and Wahhabism, discourage or oppose it. These movements are characterized by
10324-564: The life of the historical Buddha : his supposed birthplace and childhood home ( Lumbini and Kapilavastu in Nepal ) and place of enlightenment ( Bodh Gaya in northern India ), other places he is believed to have visited and the place of his death (or Parinirvana), Kushinagar , India. Others include the many temples and monasteries with relics of the Buddha or Buddhist saints such as the Temple of
10440-403: The lives of various gods.... Almost any place can become a focus for pilgrimage, but in most cases they are sacred cities, rivers, lakes, and mountains." Hindus are encouraged to undertake pilgrimages during their lifetime, though this practice is not considered absolutely mandatory. Most Hindus visit sites within their region or locale. The Ḥajj ( Arabic : حَـجّ , main pilgrimage to Mecca)
10556-534: The location of a pivotal event or an iconic destination". An example might be a devotee of the Beatles visiting Liverpool in England. Destinations for cultural pilgrims include Auschwitz concentration camp , Gettysburg Battlefield or the Ernest Hemingway House . Cultural pilgrims may also travel on religious pilgrimage routes, such as the Way of St. James , with the perspective of making it
10672-411: The main A4 road , including hockey and rugby fields. Sonning Hockey Club, Reading Hockey Club , Reading R.F.C. , and Berkshire Shire Hall R.F.C. can all be found on Sonning Lane . Sonning Hockey Club was the first club in the county of Berkshire to be awarded Club 1st National Hockey Accreditation for junior coaching and development. The club also has squash courts and tennis courts . Rams RFC
10788-465: The mid 19th century. Using a longer historical lens the better terms are "pre-separation (civil and ecclesiastical) parish", "original medieval parishes" and "new parishes". The Victoria County History , a landmark collaborative work mostly written in the 20th century (although incomplete), summarises the history of each English "parish", roughly meaning late medieval parish. A minority of these had exclaves , which could be: In some cases an exclave of
10904-521: The most familiar ones are in the province of Yazd . In addition to the traditional Yazdi shrines, new sites may be in the process of becoming pilgrimage destinations. The ruins are the ruins of ancient fire temples . One such site is the ruin of the Sassanian era Azargoshnasp fire temple in Iran's Azarbaijan Province. Other sites are the ruins of fire temples at Rey , south of the capital Tehran , and
11020-602: The narrow arched Sonning Bridge on the B478 crosses the river to the hamlet of Sonning Eye on the Oxfordshire bank. Just upstream of the bridge is Sonning Lock . The old village is now joined to further housing along Pound Lane and the A4 Bath Road . It lies some 4 miles (6.4 km) east of the major town of Reading . In other directions, this would put it within the Reading suburban sprawl, but Sonning remains
11136-465: The new district councils (outside London) to review their parishes, and many areas left unparished in 1972 have since been made parishes, either in whole or part. For example, Hinckley , whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, which together cover part of its area, whilst the central part of the town remains unparished. Some parishes were sub-divided into smaller territories known as hamlets , tithings or townships . Nowadays
11252-488: The other conurbations. Civil parishes vary greatly in population: some have populations below 100 and have no settlement larger than a hamlet , while others cover towns with populations of tens of thousands. Weston-super-Mare , with a population of 71,758, is the most populous civil parish. In many cases small settlements, today popularly termed villages , localities or suburbs, are in a single parish which originally had one church. Large urban areas are mostly unparished, as
11368-401: The parish the status of a town, at which point the council becomes a town council . Around 400 parish councils are called town councils. Under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 , a civil parish may be given one of the following alternative styles: As a result, a parish council can be called a town council, a community council, a village council or occasionally
11484-404: The parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it became increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built-up, areas the select vestry took over responsibility from the entire body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite. The administration of the parish system relied on the monopoly of
11600-562: The parish; the church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary from 1868. During the 17th century it was found that the 1601 Poor Law did not work well for very large parishes, which were particularly common in northern England. Such parishes were typically subdivided into multiple townships , which levied their rates separately. The Poor Relief Act 1662 therefore directed that for poor law purposes 'parish' meant any place which maintained its own poor, thereby converting many townships into separate 'poor law parishes'. As
11716-581: The people of . . .' ; 'the village of the people called after . . .', so probably, 'homestead/village of Sunna's people', the Sunningas . Sonning appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Soninges . The parish of Sonning originally included Charvil , Woodley and Earley and, before the formation of civil parishes in 1866, was a cross-county-boundary parish containing Sonning Eye , Dunsden Green and Playhatch in Oxfordshire as well. It
11832-499: The perceived inefficiency and corruption inherent in the system became a source for concern in some places. For this reason, during the early 19th century the parish progressively lost its powers to ad hoc boards and other organisations, such as the boards of guardians given responsibility for poor relief through the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 . Sanitary districts covered England in 1875 and Ireland three years later. The replacement boards were each entitled to levy their own rate in
11948-502: The peripatetic Kumbh Mela , in 2001 the biggest public gathering in history; or the tombs and dwelling places of saints ( Alandi , Shirdi ). In India and Nepal , there are four places of pilgrimage which are tied to the life of Gautama Buddha : Other pilgrimage places in India and Nepal connected Gautama Buddha's life are: Savatthi , Pataliputta , Nalanda , Gaya , Vesali , Sankasia , Kapilavastu , Kosambi , Rajagaha . Other famous places for Buddhist pilgrimage include: In
12064-411: The population of the parish. Most rural parish councillors are elected to represent the entire parish, though in parishes with larger populations or those that cover larger areas, the parish can be divided into wards. Each of these wards then returns councillors to the parish council (the numbers depending on their population). Only if there are more candidates standing for election than there are seats on
12180-770: The pre- Inca culture Chavín to come together, to attend and participate in rituals, consult an oracle, worship or enter a cult, and collect ideas. Bahá'u'lláh decreed pilgrimage to two places in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas : the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, Iraq , and the House of the Báb in Shiraz, Iran . Later, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá designated the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahji, Israel as
12296-644: The residents would offer free water and food to those pilgrims along the way. There are 2 main Mazu pilgrimages in Taiwan, usually held between lunar January and April, depending on Mazu's will. Zoroastrians have as their main pilgrimage destinations the city of Yazd and the temples of Pir-e Sabz and Pir-e Naraki in Iran , as well as the cities of Navsari and Udvada in India. In Iran , there are pilgrimage destinations called pirs in several provinces, although
12412-438: The right to create civil parishes was extended to London boroughs , although only one, Queen's Park , has so far been created. Eight parishes also have city status (a status granted by the monarch ). A civil parish may be equally known as and confirmed as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council, a right not conferred on other units of English local government. The governing body of
12528-450: The secular functions of the parish vestry . A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely populated rural area with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, to a large town with a population in excess of 100,000 . This scope is similar to that of municipalities in continental Europe, such as the communes of France . However, unlike their continental European counterparts, parish councils are not principal authorities , and in most cases have
12644-399: The spiritual literature of Christianity , the concept of pilgrim and pilgrimage may refer to the experience of life in the world (considered as a period of exile) or to the inner path of the spiritual aspirant from a state of wretchedness to a state of beatitude. Christian pilgrimage was first made to sites connected with the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus . Aside from
12760-488: The unitary authority are responsible for different aspects of local government. Sonning is twinned with Ligugé , France . The village has an active twinning association and the lane to the village primary school is called Ligugé Way. Sonning Parish Magazine , established in 1869, serves Sonning and the neighbouring village of Charvil. Sonning has a King George's Field in memorial to George V , where Sonning Cricket Club plays. There are playing fields between Sonning and
12876-507: The village, above Sonning Lock , is the independent secondary school, Reading Blue Coat School, in the 19th century manor house , Holme Park. Built in the home park of the old palace, it replaced a Georgian mansion erected for the Lords of the Manor who eventually superseded the bishops . The first of these was Laurence Halstead, partner to the Reading cloth merchant , John Kendrick . In
12992-402: The world, where millions of Shia Muslims travel to Karbala to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein during the 40-day mourning period after Ashura. Al-Arba‘īn ( Arabic : ٱلْأَرْبَـعِـيْـن , "The Forty"), Chehelom ( Persian : چهلم , Urdu : چہلم , "the fortieth [day]") or Qirkhī , Imāmīn Qirkhī ( Azerbaijani : İmamın qırxı ( Arabic : إمامین قیرخی ), "the fortieth of Imam")
13108-531: Was an ascetic religious practice, as the pilgrim left the security of home and the clan for an unknown destination, trusting completely in Divine Providence . These travels often resulted in the founding of new abbeys and the spread of Christianity among the pagan population in Britain and in continental Europe. The ceremonial center Chavín de Huántar served as a gathering place for people of
13224-429: Was off-limits to Jews from 1948 to 1967, when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. There are numerous lesser Jewish pilgrimage destinations, mainly tombs of tzadikim , throughout Israel and Palestine and all over the world, including: Hebron ; Bethlehem ; Mount Meron ; Netivot ; Uman , Ukraine ; Silistra , Bulgaria ; Damanhur , Egypt ; and many others. Many rabbis claim that even today, after
13340-669: Was opened in 1840, and was the scene of one of the first railway disasters in 1841, when a mixed passenger and goods train ran into a landslip. Nine passengers died in the accident, being thrown from the open trucks just behind the engine. Many were stonemasons working on the Houses of Parliament , and the disaster led to changes in the Railways Act , which required that third-class passengers be carried in stoutly constructed carriages rather than open trucks. The Act also created Parliamentary trains for third-class passengers. Just outside
13456-609: Was restored with the rebuilding of the Temple , but following its destruction in 70 CE, the obligation to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices again went into abeyance. The western retaining wall of the Temple Mount , known as the Western Wall or "Wailing" Wall, is the remaining part of Second Jewish Temple in the Old City of Jerusalem is the most sacred and visited site for Jews. Pilgrimage to this area
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