The aim of The Fellowship is to unite likeminded people who want to help secure the future of the Camino and support fellow pilgrims. The Fellowship will be run by pilgrims for pilgrims, with members being invited to put forward their ideas and choose which projects to develop.
The Fellowship is therefore extending an invitation to over 5 million pilgrims from 200 countries, together with every Facebook group, association, travel company, albergue and Camino-related website in order to harness the collective knowledge, support and goodwill generated by the Camino.
Together we can create an extraordinary legacy for Holy Year!
The symbol that unites all pilgrims on the Camino is the scallop shell, it is therefore fitting that Holy Year will see the creation of ‘Fellowship Shells’, bringing pilgrims closer together and ensuring a ‘part’ of every pilgrim can remain on the Camino for years to come.
The aim is to get 50,000 Fellowship Shells on the Camino by the end of Holy Year and raise over a million Euros a year to develop services to support the Camino and pilgrims
For more information about turning your scallop shell into a Fellowship Shell for Holy Year, see Fellowship Shells
N.B. The Fellowship of the Camino will shortly be launched in a further 5 languages (Spanish, French, German, Italian & Portuguese) with pilgrims from 200 countries invited to join
Past, present and future pilgrims are being invited to create Fellowship Shells, which will be carried by fellow pilgrims on the Camino over the next 100 years - providing an extraordinary legacy for Holy Year.
Holy Year Pilgrims – Simply register and ’Create a Fellowship Shell’. You will be provided a unique number to write on your shell. At the end of your Camino, the shell will be collected in Santiago de Compostela and transported back to the start of a Camino route, ready for the next pilgrim to carry your shell and build upon your legacy.
All Other Pilgrims – The Fellowship of the Camino will source a scallop shell from Galicia on your behalf, etch your unique number on the shell and transport it to the beginning of a Camino route, ready for your legacy to begin.
Everyone that creates a Fellowship Shell for Holy Year will be invited to name and dedicate the shell to a loved one as well as add their own Camino story. Every subsequent pilgrim that carries your Fellowship Shell will see your story and dedication online, then add their own Camino story to the shell’s history. You will receive a message every time your Fellowship Shell starts a new journey and be able to see each pilgrim’s story. For further details, please read our comprehensive FAQs
Fellowship Shells create a legacy for you and your loved ones, but in turn you will be creating an extraordinary legacy for the Camino. For every pilgrim that creates a Fellowship Shell in Holy Year, hundreds more will carry them over the years to come, each adding to the legacy and helping fund future projects
To register and create a Fellowship Shell costs 20 Euros.
The Fellowship of the Camino has been developed by Paul Kent, founder of Community Inspired. Community Inspired is a social enterprise that specialises in providing support to help 15,000+ schools raise over £150million a year for projects to inspire their pupils (see www.pta.co.uk & www.funded.org.uk) .
For 20 years Paul has designed projects to bring communities together to support one another. His passion for walking coupled with a fascination of the history of the Camino (ask to see his collection of pilgrim badges, medieval pewter shells and other pilgrim artefacts!) led Paul to persuade his team to devote their summer to develop the Fellowship of the Camino.
The service will be run as a social enterprise, with all profits re-invested to provide services to the Camino ‘family’.
For more information:
pilgrims@fellowshipofthecamino.com
c/o Community Inspired
Unit 2, Bulrushes Business Park
Coombe Hill Road
East Grinstead
West Sussex
RH19 4LZ
United Kingdom