Priest, aged 78, walks for water

THE Revd Michael Waters, 78, a Christian Aid supporter for half a century, walked to 56 Yorkshire churches over two weeks, filling a bottle of water from one church and carrying it to the next, as a gesture of solidarity with the poor.

 

Mr Waters, a retired rural dean, completed his walk on 2 May. “Our water is so easy to come by, but in the developing world people often have to carry it home, often many miles,” he said.

On his walk, which took six days spread over the two weeks from 21 April, Mr Waters visited churches of various denominations in the Whitby area. “I visited the Unitarian church, and the woman there said she was so pleased I had come, because “no one bothers with us because we are not Trinitarian,’” he said. He was accompanied by five Roman Catholic priests at one stage, and by a nun at another.

 

Mr Waters was given £220 on the walk to give to Christian Aid, which he has supported since he was in Salzburg in 1957. “It was during the Hungarian trouble, and all the people were coming over the border. The Roman Catholics were going to the Roman Catholic supporters and the Lutherans to the Lutheran supporters, and all the rest were being taken by the forerunner of Christian Aid, the Inter-Church Aid and Refugee Service.”