Welsh Fire

Dear friends

Gifted speakers change lives. They can both motivate, and inspire. A few well chosen and carefully thought words can make all the difference, for both good, or ill. This last week America mourned the death of the Revd Jesse Jackson, whose life and mission was spent carrying the torch passed to him by Martin Luther King. It is to our own detriment as a nation that there seem few capable of saying much with any coherence or intelligence in public life. All is posture and foaming at the mouth, whipped to a moralised froth by the media which feeds us what the algorithm dictates. Is there anyone who will tell us the true truth? (And not just “their” truth?). The collapse of public trust is a direct and serious consequence of the debasement of truth as a currency of absolute worth.

St David, whose day approaches (Sunday) was a man of fierce and unassailable integrity. Rising from the debris of the Roman period he established a Christian community at Minevia (St David’s) far from the seats of power. It was a hard and ascetic life, a serious discipline which brought body and soul together in labour, study and prayer. From the start David was a preacher, drawing men to Christ, by the challenge of the gospel, and also the order of their days. In a world of chaos and insecurity, when David spoke, people heard the words of God. He was a lover of Creation six hundred years before St Francis preached to the animals, and had to be persuaded to accept a Bishopric (times have not changed, it seems). The Welsh artist Brian Gardiner was commissioned to etch St David in glass for the restored narthex of St Woolas’ Cathedral, Newport. His David has the saint with shepherd’s crook, and the dove of the Spirit on his shoulder. The eyes catch you like Christ. Will you follow me, they seem to say.

Worship Services for Sunday 1st March

9.30am Family Service at St John’s Stoke Row with Mr Peter Ferguson

11am Morning Prayer at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Canon Kevin Davies

Ten Minute Tuesdays.

In the spirit of the community of St David I invite you to join me at 8pm on zoom, starting next Tuesday (3rd March) for a selection of Lenten readings from one of the 20th century’s classics of spiritual writing. “Celebration of Discipline” by Richard Foster is a succinct study of eleven of the classical spiritual disciplines.  The book’s aim, put simply, is to encourage us along the path of spiritual growth. Everyone from around the team is welcome to drop in.

Kevin Davies’ Ten Minute Tuesdays
Time: Mar 3rd, 2026 08:00 PM Meeting ID: 842 3186 5923 Passcode: 598598

Do feel free to pass these details to anyone you might think would be interested. In prayer, do not forget the suffering and fortitude of the people of Ukraine on this bleak anniversary of the Russian invasion. Let us hope our leaders do not lose sight of the fight, which is as much about freedom and truth as it is about land.

Your Rector, in Christ’s service

Kevin Davies (“one of David’s men”)