A dedicated vicar will take on a trek between 15 churches in aid of the community.

Rector of Beaminster Area Team Ministry, Revd Canon David Baldwin, has announced plans to walk the 26 miles between the team’s 15 churches all in one day.

The rector and his colleague, team vicar Revd Joanna Neary, will complete the sponsored walk to raise money for the Beaminster team’s mission fund which carries out outreach work on behalf of local children, schools and families.

The event is part of the global Thy Kingdom Come prayer movement being celebrated between Ascension and Pentecost.

The 26-mile, 385-yard cross-country walk between the churches begins at 6am today, May 17, at South Perrott and will end at Toller Porcorum. Along the way, David and Jo will also visit the churches of Beaminster, Netherbury, Hooke, Drimpton, Salway Ash, Blackdown, Mapperton, Burstock, Seaborough, Broadwindsor, Stoke Abbott, Mosterton,and Melplash.

Revd Baldwin said: “We have over the past years undertaken a number of initiatives such as prayer walks in each of the parishes and prayer walking over a number of days between all 15 churches but, this year, I’m going to have a crack at doing it all in one day. It’s a daunting distance of 26 to 30 miles dependant on how lost I get along the way.

“This is a great opportunity to show our church’s commitment to these areas of our longer term mission across the communities served by the Beaminster area team."

Revd Baldwin has invited those who wish to sponsor him on his epic trudge across West Dorset to do so via the Beaminster team church office or via the team’s website at beaminsterteamchurches.org.

The team covers some 50 square miles of largely unspoilt countryside in rural West Dorset.