About Walk Church
Walk Church uses nature to help us connect with God. We are an itinerant congregation that meets, starting at different churches around the Diocese of Canterbury, (Kent UK). We move out of the security of a church building and into the open, where we can experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in the wildness of nature. Outdoors we can allow ourselves to be surprised and challenged by potential insights inspired by new surroundings.
Each walk is in a sense a pilgrimage, and includes a Bible reading, prayer and discussion. The walks, which are 3-4 miles long, are an opportunity for fellowship but also include periods of walking in silence. Throughout the walk we are encouraged to pay attention to what we see and hear around us.
What might you expect taking part in Walk Church
A typical session can look like this:
- Gathering outside a church. Introductions, welcome, and opening prayer
- During the walk we will stop for prayer of confession, readings, reflection, intercessions.
- There may be a period where we walk in silence.
- Walks typically take about 2 – 2.5 hours
Each walk creates a new community — we journey in faith, telling stories, sharing food, listening to the Bible and praying. We never really know how things will go, but remain open to being surprised by our awe of nature, allowing the landscape to speak into moment of our lives, and inform our conversation and prayers.
At Walk Church each meeting becomes a pilgrimage and an adventure.
Why Walk Church?
The inspiration for Walk Church comes partly from the growing popularity of communal walking, organised health walks and rambling groups. But Walk Church also offers those who are restless with the experience of sitting in a pew other opportunities to explore faith in a less formal setting.
Most sessions of Walk Church attract a mix of committed churchgoers and people who are not part of any congregation.
Nature and faith
Walk Church is also about how we can better value our natural world. Too often with indoor worship we have struggled to make the environment a theme that lifts and excites our imagination.
We may appreciate in our heads that there is an environmental crisis, but how can we respond if we don’t have passion and love for our world in our hearts? The writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry said: “We need to fall in love with the natural world again… We take care of the things which we love.”
Who is Walk Church
Walk Church is the passion of the Rev Alex Bienfait. An Anglican Priest since 1995, Alex served mainly in parish-based ministry in rural and urban settings in Kent. He is deeply interested in re-imagining ministry for our times, and Walk Church is partly a response to this. He also has a life-long concern for the health of our planet and passion for incorporating an appreciation of nature within worship.
Alex has now retired from Parish Ministry, and lives and supports the Ashford Town Team ministry. Walk Church is registered as a Fresh Expression congregation in the Ashford Town Team ministry, Diocese of Canterbury.
Alex took a three-month sabbatical in 2017 during which he explored alternative, nature-based forms of worship, in Sri Lanka, in other European countries, and at in the UK. The inspiration for Walk Church was a direct result of his prayerful thinking about his experiences.
Supporting Walk Church financially
We greatly value your financial support. It helps cover costs such as web hosting, travel, but most important it enables us to make donations to the churches we visit. Click here for details of how you can give and support the experimental ministry of Walk Church.
Find out more
Contact Alex Bienfait: alexander.bienfait@gmail.com, or see our Contact page
Last updated on October 5th, 2024