It’s been nearly three weeks since the Revd Phil Wall, Minister of St David’s Uniting Church, in Pontypridd, and Bethan Walkling, daughter of the Revd Simon Walkling, Moderator of the National Synod of Wales, trekked across Wales to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the NHS.

Having walked 180-miles between 7-17 July and with worn feet now rested, Mr Wall reflects on their achievement with a specially written poem. Here is an excerpt:

Christians are calling for calm, and for prayers of peace, amid rising tensions in Zimbabwe after Emmerson Mnangagwa of the Zanu-PF party was declared the winner of the country’s national elections.

Six anti-Mnangagwa demonstrators were killed, and many others injured after MDC Alliance supporters – who backed the opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa – clashed troops in the days that followed the election on 30 July.

Zimbabwe has long established links with the United Reformed Church through Commitment for Life and the global partnership between the Eastern Synod and the Presbytery of Zimbabwe within the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa.

Terry Waite was a former envoy for the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1980s, and successfully negotiated the release of numerous hostages in Iran, Libya and Lebanon.

But on the 20 January 1987, he was taken hostage in Beirut and held for 1,763 days, spending four of these five years in captivity in solitary confinement.