Walk Saint David mission initiative planned for Wales

Church leaders throughout West Wales are lining up with offers of support for one of the most ambitious mission initiative planned for Wales in recent years.

For three weeks from next year, churches throughout Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire will ‘step out of the box’, organising special events in pubs, schools, community centres and the open air, as well as their more familiar buildings, as they Walk Saint David.

The thinking behind Walk Saint David was outlined at a meeting in Cardigan in January, and received a wholehearted response from the large number of church leaders present.  Teams of experienced and committed volunteers will be available to work with local churches throughout the three counties, from Laugharne in the south to Aberystwyth in the north, as well as all places inland.  It will start in the south on 18 September and finish in the north on 10 October 2010.

The volunteer teams are being recruited and trained by the established mission organisation Through Faith Missions who have co-ordinated many such large-scale missions in the last 20 years, including one along the Offa’s Dyke footpath in 1996.

Through Faith Missions is working in partnership with a planning group of church leaders drawn from across the three counties in the mission area. Group Chair Canon Stuart Bell, Rector of St Michael’s Church in Aberystwyth said: “This initiative has grabbed the imagination of church leaders across south west Wales and a sense of expectation is rising amongst us.   We feel that this enterprise is of God and will have a significant effect on the whole area.”

There has been a warm response to Walk St David across the denominations. The Bishop of St David’s, the Right Rev Wyn Evans, is one who has welcomed the project:  “Mission is at the top of the Church's agenda and Walk Saint David emphasises our commitment to it.”

The General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Wales, Rev Peter Thomas, said: “The Baptist Union of Wales is committed to mission and evangelism initiatives and is delighted to support the Walk Saint David outreach in 2010.”

Walk Saint David will have the Christian message at its heart.  Wherever there is an invitation, mission team members and local church people will be seeking to live out their faith and to put it into words.  The emphasis over the three weeks will be to do so outside church walls. “And that’s very exciting,” said Rob James, Executive Chair of Evangelical Alliance Wales. “Most people seemed to have walked away from church. This is fabulous chance to make a move towards them!”

The leader and founder of Through Faith Missions, Rev Daniel Cozens, has great expectations for next September.  “I think there is something special about the invitation to walk the Welsh coast and we are looking forward not backwards to what God will do.  We will be walking and preaching the Gospel as we have done in hundreds of places throughout the UK.  It’s a marvellous opportunity.”

Before the end of this year every church in the mission area will be invited to take part in Walk Saint David.  Those with previous experience of such missions know that they can revitalise and encourage local congregations.  One is the Reverend Ifan Roberts, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Wales.

“As a minister in Prestatyn some years ago I was involved with the ‘Walk of a 1,000 Men’ along Offa's Dyke, he says.  “The local churches and the community benefited greatly from the mission and I would encourage all the churches to be part of the Walk during the autumn.”

Walk Saint David will be the 14th such large-scale mission undertaken by Through Faith Missions since the first along the Pennine Way in 1991.  Since then the organisation has been invited to do the same in many parts of the British Isles, including Cornwall, Ulster, Cumbria and this year in the National Forest area in England.  



 

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