Two Peace Pledge Union members from Kent have completed a 150-mile walk to promote peace. Richard Barnard and Holly Adams raised funds for the PPU and other peace organisations during their eight-day pilgrimage from Canterbury to the Greenbelt festival, held near Kettering, Northamptonshire, last weekend. 

Holly and Richard are both members of Kent Christian Peace Activists. Other members of the group joined them for stages of their walk.

The group has been involved in campaigns against Armed Forces Day, arms exports and domestic violence, while promoting nonviolent conflict resolution and policies to tackle climate change. 

The Peace Pledge Union has thanked them not only for the funds raised by the walk but also for their promotion of peace and nonviolence, through their blog and the conversations they took part in as they walked. 

After completing their journey, the pilgrims wrote that they were "thankful beyond measure of the kindness and hospitality of friends and strangers". Holly said, "I am totally blown away by the hospitality these wonderful people extended to us, sometimes with very little notice, sometimes going very, very far out of their way to help us, sometimes spending much time and resources planning and preparing for us. Every one of them made our walk easier and deeper."

Richard and Holly said they were encouraged by the slogan "pacifist, not passive", often used by the PPU.

"Being against violence is not a matter of quietly disapproving of the violent systems that go on around us," explained Holly. "It requires individuals and communities to be courageously active. We must say audibly, consistently and patiently – not in my name, I will not be complicit, I will not be silent. We must be agitators for peace, disrupting the systems of violence."

You can read more about the walk and the issues involved on the Peace Pilgrimage Blog.