History of Walk to Emmaus in England

Walk to Emmaus was brought to the UK by a steering group of individuals within British Methodism who had experienced it overseas and wanted to bring the programme here.
Although it has been set up under the sponsorship and auspices of The Methodist Church, it is an ecumenical venture and there are many within the Community who are not Methodists. That is to be encouraged because of the benfits we can each offer from our own traditions and experiences

The steering commitee had the vision of launching and co-ordinating the work in these Islands, including setting up groups of a more-local nature. There has been discussion as the community has grown as to how best to give effect to this, bearing in mind the needs to ensure that local groups do not act so autonomously that the work elsewhere loses its impetusdue to lack of resources during these early years, when we are necessarily 'playing it by ear'.

In order to run here, we have a licence from The Upper Room in America, where the Walk was developed from the existing Fourth Day programmes, and from whence we obtain our materials, including the pilgrims' crosses and books and the operating manuals (which is an authorised adaptation to suit our own culture). The supervising committee in any area is known as a Board, and it is the Board which is responsible for appointing the teams on each Walk, as well as organising the administration and things like this website

We held our first Walk in October 1995


Walk 1 Men October 1995
Walk 2 Women 9-12 November 1995
Walk 3 Mixed 18-21 April 1996
Walk 4 Men October 1996
Walk 5 Women 7-11 November 1996
Walk 6 Mixed 20-23 Feb 1997
Walk 7 Mixed 2-5 May 1997
Walk 8 Men 6-9 November 1997
Walk 9 Women 27-20 November 1997
Walk 10 Mixed 1-4 May 1998
Walk 12 Women November 1998
Walk 11 Youth Summer of 1999
Walk 13 Men 16-19 October 1999
Walk 14 Women November 1999
Walk 15 Mixed
Walk 16 Men February 2002
Walk 17 Women March 2002
Walk 18 Men February 2003
Walk 19 Women March 2003
Walk 20 Men 12-15 February 2004
Walk 21 Women 11-14 March 2004
Walk 22 Men 10-13 February 2005
Walk 23 Women 10-13 March 2005
Walk 24 Women 9-12 February 2006
Walk 25 Men 23-26 March 2006
Walk 26 Men 12-15 July 2007
Walk 27 Women 15-18 March 2007