Support our pilgrimage for peace and nature...
...as we walk from Worcester to St Davids
How a 900 year-old call to action inspires us today
A walk of 224 miles over 20 days
We are walking across 4 beautiful parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), Malvern Hills, Pembrokeshire NP, & Wye Valley, to the ancient pilgrimage site of St Davids, Pembrokeshire. Total ascent is more than the height of Mount Everest.
At the same time, 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.
Supporting green spaces
Staffan has been involved with Worcester Cathedral's Eco Group for some time. As a city community we are fortunate to have riverside green spaces in the grounds of the Cathedral which have real potential for development. We hope to raise money to sustain these spaces, to rewild in support of wildlife, and to substitute imported flowers with home-grown. Please support our pilgrimage by making a donation (all donations are anonymous to us).
Raising money for peace (and poverty)
We have supported the Christian charity Tearfund for many years. Tearfund partners with churches in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries. We travelled to Ethiopia with Tearfund and were completely amazed at the work that they do to empower people out of poverty. Please have a look at this recent independent report on their work, then do support our endeavour by supporting them! If you want your donation to be anonymous, do remember to click the appropriate box.
Why walk to St Davids?
We had been planning to visit the Holy Land, provisionally in 2023, which was thoroughly quoshed by the trouble and tragic fighting that broke out on 7th October in Israel. We hadn't planned to walk the whole way (!) but to include in our trip the 4-day hike form 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 from out-of-control industrialisation.
The Centre for Christian Pilgrimage says: “A Christian Pilgrimage is a journey to a significant place, made with the intention of encountering God in Christ. It encourages engagement with the surrounding landscape, offering space to reflect and pray.”
We have planned a new 'Pilgrimage for Peace and Nature', to walk from Worcester Cathedral to St Davids Cathedral, as a spiritual, human and natural world encounter, raising money for green spaces to support wildlife and flowers at Worcester Cathedral, and for peace and poverty with Tearfund. See our route in detail below.
Join us for part of the way! Get in touch for details.
Staffan and Katie Engstrom: e-mail: se@staffanengstrom.co.uk
