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Saints

Feast of St David ’26

Whenever I’m celebrating the Patronal Feast of one of the churches in my care, the Saint’s Day of the Saint the church is dedicated to, I find that they’re a bit like birthdays. Like so many of our ancient churches we don’t know the exact date this place first echoed with the sound of praise and worship, and so the patronal for me fills that space, a chance to celebrate the life of the church and community in this place. And, like we often do on our birthdays, I find myself reflecting back, back on the year, and years, that have past. Maybe you find yourself doing the same today, reflecting on years that have past here. Or perhaps you find yourself doing that about your life.

St Matthew ’25

Today as we celebrate St Matthew he poses for us a question; can you be too far gone to be forgiven by God?

We’re, rather fittingly in Matthew’s Gospel today, and here he is, popping up for a few verses. He’s telling us how he came to be a follower of Jesus, how he ended up as one of the twelve.

Feast of St Bartholomew ’25

Whenever we celebrate one of the Apostle’s it always feels to me like we’re celebrating a titan of the faith, someone great. But what is greatness? Who is great according to Jesus?
Bartholomew is a tricky Apostle. Normally on days like today, with Saints who appear in the Scriptures, we have a passage set with them involved, not so today. He’s notably absent. So why is that? Well, he certainly does pop up in the Gospels and in Acts, he’s there in the lists of the Apostle’s in Matthew, Mark, Luke & Acts, listed with the others, but that’s all we know about him.

Feast of St David ’25

As we celebrate St David I want to, as most will today, focus on some of the words from his final sermon: “Lords, brothers and sisters, Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. And as for me, I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.” I’m going to focus on the first of those instructions ‘be joyful’.

Feast of All Saints ’24

We have quite the selection of readings this morning, and in all honesty not what I’d have chosen for today if I was in charge of the lectionary. But that’s the joy and challenge of it, it takes you to places you hadn’t thought to go, makes links you hadn’t thought of. And in our selection of readings is quite the range of events. We have the banquet in Isaiah, the cosmic wedding in Revelation, and the funeral in the Gospel. The wedding and the banquet overlap somewhat, but the funeral stands in stark contrast doesn’t it. Two banquets and a funeral.

Feast of St Michael & All Angels ’24

Angels bear a fascination for many in our day. People have statues of them, talk of loved ones becoming them after death, ponder about guardian angels. Angels, it seems, are taken as the safest idea that there might be more to our world than what we can see. That there might be forces and powers and activities happening in a layer of reality which we cannot observe or measure, a spiritual dimension to things. And there seem to be a few different approaches to this idea that there is more to reality than what we can see.

Feast of St Peter ’24

As we celebrate the Feast of the St Peter we welcome the Rev. Dr Mark Griffiths to come and preach for us about Peter, from his call, through miracles and mistakes, a quick detour through Acts, before arriving at John 21 and Jesus’ question: Do you love me?

Lent 3 / St David’s Day ’24

The most famous of St David’s words are some of his last, spoken in his final sermon; ‘be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you heard and seen me do’. The latter part, do the little things, has become something of a saying in some parts of Wales. And whilst it may not seem it at first glance, these words of St David, these three instructions, serve as a great commentary on today’s Gospel reading and Jesus’ call to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.