We're delighted to support a very special pilgrimage by our own Lay Canon and Eco-Grouper Staffan Engstrom and his wife Katie.
The pair will walk across four beautiful parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), Malvern Hills, Pembrokeshire NP and Wye Valley, to the ancient pilgrimage site of St Davids, Pembrokeshire.
The total ascent is more than the height of Mount Everest!
Staffan explains:
"It is a journey calling for peace. Humans must learn to live and act for the benefit of all and the nature that sustains us. This means seeking peace, social justice and care for the environment. We hope to share this message as we walk.
"We had been planning to visit the Holy Land, provisionally in 2023, which was thoroughly quashed by the trouble and tragic fighting that broke out on 7 October in Israel. We hadn't planned to walk the whole way (!) but to include in our trip the 4-day hike from Nazareth to Capernaum, literally following in the steps of Jesus.
"Exactly 900 years previously, in 1123 AD, it became impossible to go there safely because of the crusades. As a result, Pope Callixtus II decreed that you could go to St Davids, at the very South-Western end of Wales, instead, and that two pilgrimages to St Davids would equal one to Jerusalem.
"The call of Callixtus remains! Here we are, 900 years on, with the Holy Land too dangerous to travel to; wars and conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, the Sahel; and the beautiful world that sustains us under threat."
The pilgrimage aims to raise funds for green spaces at Worcester Cathedral and Christian Charity, Tearfund.