Saturday 21 September saw the launch of ‘Walk Cornwall 2’ (Kerdh Kernow 2) as over 150 mission team members were commissioned outside Camborne Wesley Methodist Church.

In 1993, there was a six-week walk mission dubbed ‘The Walk of 1,000 Men’. This was a local ecumenical initiative, set up by church leaders from across the Duchy and facilitated by Through Faith Missions (TFM).

Twenty years on and ‘Walk Cornwall 2’ is a repeat of this wave of evangelism, being brought to life by TFM teams gathered from the length and breadth of the UK working with Cornish churches eager to take the Christian message out into the community.

‘Walk Cornwall 2’ will last for three weeks, commencing in West Cornwall and progressing eastwards, involving as many different churches as possible and meeting people ‘where they are’ – in their places of work, pubs and clubs, and in local community centres.

There will be an emphasis on engagement with young people and encouraging a willingness to innovate and to do new things. Team members will be involved in pub quizzes, breakfasts, pasty lunches, curry nights, skittle evenings in ‘non-churchy’ venues and in teaching and preaching at a whole range of church services.

At 6pm on Sunday 29 September, during ‘A Night of Colour’ in Truro Cathedral, the founder of Through Faith Missions, Daniel Cozens, will tell his life story and what Jesus means to him; and on Saturday 12 October there will be an all-day, open air festival with over100 performers at the Truro Piazza on Lemon Quay.

Revd John Hibberd, senior evangelist from Through Faith Missions, who is co-ordinating Walk Cornwall 2, said: “No matter how well each of our churches may be doing, recent Census information revealed that a large number of people no longer regard themselves as Christian — with many now saying they have ‘no religion’ at all.

“The challenge is clear. This ‘bad news’ calls for the ‘Good News’; with a need for Jesus to be made known in a living and vibrant way, so that many people who’ve never considered him can do so and respond.”

Greeting the visiting teams to Cornwall, the Venerable Bill Stuart-White, Archdeacon of Cornwall, said that the next three weeks would be “exciting and significant”; and he assured them of a warm welcome similar to that greeting the visitors who brought the Christian faith to Cornwall hundreds of years ago.

In a moving address, founding evangelist, Revd Daniel Cozens, encouraged team members to be gentle in their work; but to remember that spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ was a matter of urgency and a priority. “Leave the people you meet with his words,” he said. “And his words will grow.”

The next Commissioning Service will be at 10.30am on Saturday 28 September to launch the second week of ‘Walk Cornwall 2’ on the steps of Truro Cathedral.