John Davies: Notes from a small vicar

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 23 August 2020, The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'These hills where the hawk flies lonely' (Colin Gibson) performed by the Festival Choir, Wellington, and 'God is love, let hea...

You know, we live in an age of intemperate speech. I won’t list any examples, because you know : from presidents to people in the post office queue, folk can be very rude. Maybe someone’s been rude to you and it still rankles; or maybe you’ve said something hurtful which you now regret. So you’d expect me to preach a sermon saying, let’s show we follow Jesus by not talking intemperately, let’s sha...

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 16 August 2020, The Tenth Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'Springs of Water, Bless the Lord' and 'The Hand of God Shall Hold You' both written and performed by Marty Haugen, from  the...

For so long we have been taught that Christianity is a journey towards an angry God who will judge us for our wrongdoings - that life is a pilgrimage of fear. But what we have here, in the gospel, is a different story altogether. Rather than us walking in trepidation towards that terrifying God, what we find is our Jesus walking towards us - who are terrified - to greet us with words of comfort an...

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 9 August 2020, The Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'I heard the voice of Jesus say' (Horatius Bonar) and 'Do not be afraid' (Gerard Markland) both performed by Kathryn Crosweller fro...

“If you are thirsty, come to the waters; if you have no money, come, buy and eat!” Inspiring words - which make no sense to us , economically. For the way our world is organised means that those who have no money cannot buy and eat. But Isaiah’s wondrous hymn celebrates God’s economy , opening the door to a different way of organising our world. A talk for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity, 2 August...

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 2 August 2020, The Eighth Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'O Lord All The World Belongs To You' (Patrick Appleford) from 'Divine Hymns: The Worship Collection Volume 9', and 'My Shepherd W...

If you were given an empty ‘time capsule’, what would you put in it? What of all those things and people you treasure would you want to preserve for a future generation to discover? What old things would you want to share with them? And what new things do you wish for, for those who will come after? What are your hopes and dreams for the coming generations? A talk for the Seventh Sunday after Trin...

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 26 July 2020, The Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'We Love the Place O God' (William Bullock) performed by The Scottish Festival Singers from '90 Favorite Hymns', and 'May the mind...

One strange twist can completely subvert the stories we live by. Consider our response to the government's nbarrative "Stay home - Save lives" either side of the revelations about one man's trip to Barnard Castle. Similarly, when Jesus said “Let the wheat and the weeds grow together until the harvest” he did so to completely subvert the oldest story that “We are the wheat and these others, over th...

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 19 July 2020, The Sixth Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'Let us with a gladsome mind' (John Milton) performed by The Sign Posters from '20 Golden Songs of Praise', and 'There's a wideness...

On Sea Sunday the Mission to Seafarers invites us to think of those who work out in the elements at sea, vulnerable to the weather, to international pirates, to maltreatment by their employers, to poverty, fatigue, homesickness and loneliness - all of this heightened at this time of the coronavirus. The parable of the Prodigal Sower invites us to consider another elemental force at work in the wor...

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 5 July 2020, The Fifth Sunday after Trinity: Sea Sunday. Featuring 'Christ Is the World's Light' (E.P. Green & R. Lloyd) performed by Bussemse Koorvereniging Pro Musica from the album...

If you feel like you can’t do right for doing wrong, you are in good company. As a people for some weeks now we have been asked to carry the burden of this damned coronavirus on our own shoulders. We are commanded to ‘Control The Virus’ - as if we had the power - and abandoned to make our own choices as to what that means in practice. And so you are burdened, for if you stay indoors aren’t you fai...

Jesus said, “Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones - will be rewarded". Who are 'the little ones' in our community, society, our world? And how do we bring refreshment to them? A talk for the Third  Sunday after Trinity, 28 June 2020. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

Amongst the many contradictions of life in lockdown there's the current paradox of the people's game restarting without any people watching. "I’m not looking forward to football again / Not missing the beautiful game / My team are unbeaten since I don’t know when / I’m glad to be free of the strain," writes footy poet Paul Cookson . This joyous release from the pressures of 'normal' life has been...

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 21 June 2020, The Second Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'Jesu, lover of my soul' performed by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band and  'Christ, be our light' by Bernadette Farrell.

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Crowds - we miss them (those we enjoy like the sports or the concert-hall crowds); or we fear or condemn them (usually those who aren't 'our' crowd). Jesus had compassion on them - what might that mean for us today? Whilst across the world crowds gather to protest fair trea...

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 14 June 2020, The First Sunday after Trinity. Featuring 'Come to Jesus' performed by Mahalia Jackson,  'I know the Lord will make a way' by Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Ala...

We are living through anxious and lonely days: we may find some comfort and inspiration in the prayers of the ancient Celts of these islands, invoking God's protection whilst keenly aware of being in the company of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and all the saints; learning to be humble partners in the life of the earth. A talk for Trinity Sunday 7 June 2020. Find the text to this and all my tal...

There is a Spirit spreading through the nation, bringing joy and inspiration to those who feel its power. This Spirit unites people; it is a Spirit of vision and dreams, for those it affects imagine audacious new possibilities for the world. In this talk for Pentecost Sunday 31 May 2020 I make connections between the spirit(s) of our times and the coming of God's Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and expl...

When somebody close to us leaves us, we are still keenly aware of their presence: a talk for Sunday 24 May 2020, the Sunday after Ascension Day, reflecting on how this theme of absence and presence connects the ascension with our experiences of disconnection and apartness in this time of the coronavirus. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

From Revd John Davies, priest in charge 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: Sunday 24 May 2020, The Seventh Sunday of Easter, the Sunday after Ascension Day. Featuring 'Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise' performed by Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band, and 'The Summons' (...

Who are the 'gods' of our age? Bupa and Lotto, Nike and Asda, Barclays and Goldman Sachs, Ant and Dec, Google and Zoom....? And who is the 'unknown god', who Paul described to the Athenians, and who we suspect is still around today? A talk for Sunday 17 May 2020, during the time of the coronavirus. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

What does it mean to 'walk the way of Jesus' in this time of such questioning and uncertainty? A talk for Sunday 10 May 2020, Christian Aid Sunday during the time of the coronavirus. Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.