Around 30 pilgrims walking to November’s COP26 United Nations climate summit in Glasgow from Europe arrived in Britain on Tuesday, to a welcome from Cafod staff and volunteers. A visit to Holy Island, Lindisfarne was scheduled.
One group set off from Sweden on the 18 July, with involvement of the Church of Sweden. A core group of pilgrims led the walk through Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and cities such as Hamburg, Münster, and Amsterdam, while journeying by sailboat over waterways.
The other group left Poland on the 14 August, supported by an ecumenical alliance of dioceses, regional churches and church relief organisations in Poland, Germany and Netherlands. SCIAF is planning a welcome at the Scottish border on the morning of 19 October, and then helping to organise local communities to help with accommodation and hospitality in church or community halls in Scotland.
The walks are under the banner “Pilgrims’ Walk for Future”. They aim to lobby the COP26 climate summit for significant action on the climate crisis, but also “providing time for deep thinking and reflection upon the lives we lead”. The summit is expected to bring together the largest gathering of heads of state ever hosted in the UK, alongside climate experts and campaigners, to agree a co-ordinated global action plan to tackle global warming.
Last Saturday, another international group hiking to COP26, March to Glasgow, passed through Coventry. Local people joined the march, largely Spanish environmental activists, which ended with lunch at Coventry Cathedral Ruins.
Meanwhile, the two camino walks from Southern Britain to Glasgow are nearing Scotland. Camino to COP travelled through beautiful rolling hills in Cumbria this week. The Young Christian Climate Network Relay to COP visited Holy Island and then carried on to Edinburgh where they have planned events 20-24 October, before moving onto Glasgow at the end of the month.
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