John Davies: Notes from a small vicar

The tongue is a fire. And it burns to be on the receiving end of people’s enflamed opinions, particularly when they are lazily formed and poorly-informed. An encounter between the son of a gorse-burning farmer and his incomer neighbour illustrates this commonplace countryside occurrence; but also points towards how the tongue, well used, can help put out fires. A talk for the Fifteenth Sunday afte...

"How extremely fragile we are. When everything is connected to everything else, problems over there — whether in Suez, Ningbo-Zhoushan, or Wuhan — became problems over here. We really are all in it together, for good or ill. This would not be a problem if we trusted one another, had reasonably aligned values, or had a robust sense of solidarity which could weather the everyday tribulations that co...

From Revd John Davies, vicar of Clapham with Keasden and Austwick with Eldroth in the Diocese of Leeds. Prayers and reflections from the Churches Weekly Newsletter in a time of the coronavirus: 5 September 2021, The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'In Christ there is no east or west', John Oxenham, 1908. Performed by the William Appling Singers from Shall We Gather - American Hymns &amp...

From Revd John Davies, vicar of Clapham with Keasden and Austwick with Eldroth in the Diocese of Leeds. Prayers and reflections from the Churches Weekly Newsletter in a time of the coronavirus: 29 August 2021, The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.

How the founders of the Salvation Army, William and Catherine Booth, exemplified and triumphed in the ‘struggle ... not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’ (Ephesians 6) A talk for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, 22 August 2021. Find t...

In a rapidly-warming world, Wisdom has built her house. Tired of the clamorous conflict between the deniers and the doomsters, people are seeking wisdom in a time of climate change from the indigenous peoples of the earth, who against all odds have maintained their deep, ancient relationships with their historic lands and waters; from the global poor in their practical knowledge of the way the wor...

Being kind to one another is human nature. Contrary to the belief sunk deep into Western thought, that human beings are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest, it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good. The instinct to cooperate rather than compete, trust rather than distrust, goes right back to the beginning of Homo sapiens. There’s a toughness about kindn...

You need to grow up, Paul tells the Ephesian believers. Now, they were grown up - fully-formed adults who’d taken the familiar paths through family life, work life, community life, including that big decision to deviate from the practice of the religion of their birth, to follow Christ. But nevertheless, to this audience of responsible adults, Paul said, you need to grow up. You need to come ‘to m...

From Revd John Davies, vicar of Clapham with Keasden and Austwick with Eldroth in the Diocese of Leeds. Prayers and reflections from the Churches Weekly Newsletter in a time of the coronavirus: 1 August 2021, The Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'For the beauty of the earth' (F.S. Pierpoint) performed by the Joslin Grove Choral Society from 100 Best Loved Hymns, 2004 and 'How Sweet the Name o...

Our hunger for others to feed us, physically and emotionally, is insatiable. We have received so much - that we want to have more … and more … and more… The superabundance of Jesus in a finite world where our cravings will never stop famishing us.  A talk for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity, 25 July 2021. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

From Revd John Davies, vicar of Clapham with Keasden and Austwick with Eldroth in the Diocese of Leeds. Prayers and reflections from the Churches Weekly Newsletter in a time of the coronavirus: 18 July 2021, The Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'The King of Love my Shepherd is' (H.W. Baker), performed by Utah State University Chorale, Cory Evans, Ellie Evans, Amelia Merkley & Jeremy Adr...

At a time of year when our local shepherds gather in the sheep for shearing, this theme of gathering together again after a long time apart is very current, as tomorrow in England sees the lifting of legal restrictions on our meeting and travelling. This will be both a relief and a cause of anxiety: what politicians are calling ‘Freedom Day’ feels less liberating than it might, as we’re asked to e...

Salome: in popular imagination she is the quintessential femme fatale; or what one 19th century writer called ‘the symbolic incarnation of undying Lust, the Goddess of immortal Hysteria, the accursed Beauty exalted above all other beauties ... the monstrous Beast, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning.’ But there is no Salome in Mark's gospel passage about Herod's birthday party - just...

I first encountered it in 1980 when news of John Lennon's murder was met by some in his home town with the uncharitable judgement, 'He's never done anything for this city...' Anthropologists talk about the complex relationship which we groups of people, whether villages or cities, crowds or churches, have with those people we uphold as our ‘models’ - how at one and the same time we attack and cher...

The initiative here belongs entirely to the woman. From first hearing about him from afar, she slowly but surely closes the gap between them and, touching him, triggers a flow of power from Jesus that is beyond Jesus’ control, intention or even awareness. She is healed before Jesus is even conscious of her presence. When, finally, he says, ‘Your faith has made you well’, he is simply naming what h...

From Revd John Davies, vicar of Clapham with Keasden and Austwick with Eldroth in the Diocese of Leeds. Prayers and reflections from the Churches Weekly Newsletter in a time of the coronavirus: 27 June 2021, The Fourth Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'My Song is love unknown', Samuel Crossman, 1664. Melody: John Ireland. Performed by The Easter Hymns Band from 20 Favourite Easter Hymns, 2005; 'Psa...

From Revd John Davies, vicar of Clapham with Keasden and Austwick with Eldroth in the Diocese of Leeds. Prayers and reflections from the Churches Weekly Newsletter in a time of the coronavirus: 20 June 2021, The Third Sunday after Trinity. Featuring ' Now thank we all our God' Author: Martin Rinkart (1636), Translator: Catherine Winkworth. Performed by The Cambridge University Brass Ensemble &...

When the stricken mega-ship ‘Ever Given’ blocked the Suez Canal many were amazed to learn that 12 per cent of global trade passes through the canal, making the economic damage caused by its closure very significant: a boggling $9.6 billion a day.  All of this was something of a revelation to many of us, for as Rose George so powerfully puts it in her book Deep Sea and Foreign Going, shipping...

What if this passage about the mustard seed is not a parable about human behaviour at all - but instead is a pretty straight telling of how God works in nature? If it is then it should humble us. For mustard might be an 'invader', if we have to call it that, but this 'invasion' is one way in which other-than-human creatures bring healing and stability to habitats that humans have disturbed, renewi...

From Revd John Davies, vicar of Clapham with Keasden and Austwick with Eldroth in the Diocese of Leeds. Prayers and reflections from the Churches Weekly Newsletter in a time of the coronavirus: 6 June 2021, The First Sunday after Trinity.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, 'Are you a teacher... and yet you do not understand these things?' None of us feel up to the task of explaining the mysteries of God the Trinity... and yet each of us has the life experience and understanding to be able to do just that. A talk for Trinity Sunday, 30 May 2021. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

I have always admired those who can speak in a tongue not their own. It’s not my gift. It seems to me this requires generosity and a measure of humility - a reaching outside of what is comfortable and familiar to us, towards others and their different ways of expressing their being. How valuable a gift this is today, in this world where we tend to stick to our tribes, speaking our mother tongues a...

A year ago there was a firm feeling that “We are One”, as we stood together outside on a Thursday applauding our NHS ‘heroes’ at the height of that period in time when we were truly dedicated to keeping to the Covid rules and protecting each other for each other’s sake. But as we’ve since found, unity of that sort is hard to sustain. Self-interest, self-assertion is back: being our brother’s keepe...

Leaving a loved one at the new school gates; the butterfly's lament; and other scenarios each leading to the refrain: There's joy, and a promise of new life from God That comes after saying 'goodbye'. The full text of this poem in the context of my Ascension Day talk for 2021, can be found on my website here .

A talk from Christian Aid's 2021 climate justice campaign focussing on the story of Rose, a villager in Kitui county, eastern Kenya, where 8 out of 10 people depend on water to grow crops, for food and to earn a living, but many are without a reliable water source. A talk for The Sixth Sunday of Easter, 2 May 2021, the start of Christian Aid Week. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/j...