Posted date: 19 Jul 2010
Church leaders throughout south west Wales are lining up with offers of support for one of the most ambitious mission initiatives planned for the region in recent years. For three weeks this coming autumn 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 in their more familiar buildings.
The thinking behind the mission, Walk Saint David, was outlined at a meeting in Cardigan in January last year, 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 September 18th and finish in the north on October 10th.
The volunteers who come 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.
There has been a warm response to the mission across the denominations. The Bishop of St. David’s, the Right Reverend 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,” he says.
The General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Wales, the Reverend Peter Thomas, has 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”, says Rob James, Executive Chair of Evangelical Alliance Wales. “Most people seemed to have walked away from church. This is a fabulous chance to make a move towards them!”
The leader and founder of Through Faith Missions, the Reverend Daniel Cozens, has great expectations for this coming 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.”
Every church across the mission area has been 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 benefitted 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, called ‘The Walk of 1,000 Men’. Since then the organisation has been invited to do the same in many parts of the British Isles, including Cornwall, Ulster, Cumbria and last year in the National Forest area in England.
For more information check out the website: www.through-faith-missions.org
