As has happened for the past 51 years, Churches Together in Dursley made their annual Good Friday Walk of Witness, setting off from outside Sainsbury’s in Dursley at 9am to Cam Peak, a 600-foot-high hill overlooking the Severn Vale.
More than 200 people joined the procession which included Stations of the Cross on the route. Another group left from outside Tesco in Cam at 9.15am and the two groups met near the Vale Hospital.
In previous years all the walkers accompanied the cross to the top of the hill. Christine Wetton, who has organised the event for the past 20 years, told Stroud Times: “We haven’t been to the top of the hill for the last three years. The peak is managed by The Cam, Dursley and Uley Joint Woodland Management Committee who give us permission to place the cross up there, but they don’t want large numbers of people going to the top, mainly due to concerns about erosion.”
Torrential rain soaked the procession when it was at St George’s Church in Cam, but the rain held off for final stage when the cross was put in place and attached to the flagstaff at the top of the peak: “I think there might be fewer people in the procession this year because of the weather – it has been so very wet, but I think there are more than 200,” added Mrs Wetton.
The full-sized wooden cross was carried by four people – Rod, Isaac and Will Irvine from Dursley Tabernacle, and Mark Gabb from St Dominic’s Catholic Church, accompanied by Jonathan Everett – to the top of the hill, where it will stay for the duration of the Easter weekend.
Pictures by Matt Bigwood
