Two Bibles are being carried by foot, car, bus, horseback and boat down the West Highland Way to Glasgow to be used during the Commonwealth Games.
Members of a Fort William church bade the good books farewell yesterday morning as they started their pilgrimage to the international sporting gathering.
The package includes a soft-bound, red leather bible and a copy of the limited-edition Commonwealth New Testament, which has a foreword written by the Queen.
After a short blessing given by Rev Chris Biggs at the “Sair Feet” statue in the town’s High Street yesterday morning, the Bibles were carried by two walkers, Alex Callison and David Anderson, to Kinlochleven, where a service was taking place in the Parish Church.
The books, produced and donated by the Scottish Bible Society, will be carried by various walkers, including local ministers, along the way.
They will also be taken by bike and horseback on various sections of the route, and by boat across Loch Lomond, before arriving in Milngavie to begin the final walk to Glasgow.
There they will be given to Flourish Scotland, a Glasgow-based chaplaincy, for use in worship during the Commonwealth Games.
Rev Morag Muirhead, of Duncansburgh MacIntosh Church in Fort William, said: “It is all about trying to make a connection with the sporting world and the church.
“It has been a year in the planning because it has taken a lot of organising to get churches along the road interested in participating.”
Ish Lennox, from Christian charity More than Gold, which has organised the journey, said it proved the church was still at the heart of communities in the modern world.