Month: September 2026

Earlier this week, I had a couple of days in North Wales, just outside Aberdaron on the Lleyn Peninsula. There I achieved a long-standing ambition; I took a boat to spend a day on Bardsey Island, off the tip of the peninsula. Bardsey has long been known as a Holy Island; tradition has it that a monastery was established there in the 6^th century by St Cadfan, a refugee from Brittainy. In turn, the monastery provided asylum for Welsh monks fleeing the Saxon Northumbrians after a battle at Bangor-on-Dee, near Chester. Later it was the site of an abbey and was a famous place of pilgrimage; three trips to Bardsey was considered the equivalent to one trip to Rome. I followed in their footsteps.  Today it is a lot easier to get to Rome than Bardsey; the current between the island and the mainland is strong and dangerous in winds. Colin, the expert boatman, cannot sail if the forecast is bad, so there is an element of luck in finding a day when it is safe for him  to take passengers. So what did I experience on Bardsey? I loved it; it was warm and sunny, the views were superb. I spent some time at a makeshift altar in the ruins of the abbey, but I cannot truthfully say I had an overwhelming spiritual experience. I was too busy trying to see all I wanted on the island to linger in any one place. This was as I expected; I often find that so-called “thin places” are pretty thick at the time I visit. I have memories which will return to feed me in the future. But I did have one special experience; the walk down the track to the boat, following the footsteps of pilgrims from the 6^th century, the wait for the boat, looking at the same view they saw. Pilgrimage is more about the journey than the destination and I experienced that on my trip to Bardsey.

Rev David Poyner

I recently went on a walk with some friends. She pointed out to me an oak tree in the middle of the field. This had clearly seen a lot of life. Half the tree was dead; white branches sticking up into the sky or on the ground. However, the rest of the tree was in leaf and seemed healthy to my non-expert eye. She explained a few years ago it had been struck by llightening. However, rather than cut it down, the landowner had waited to see what might happen. The tree now seemed to be recovering. We pondered the virtues of patience and waiting. Waiting is not easy and there can be times when it is simply an excuse for avoiding a problem. But rushing in with undue haste can be the greater evil, particularly when it is motivated by a desire to be seen to be acting. Then it is just an exercise in self-justification. Particularly in the church, it is as well to remember that God plays a long game.

Rev David Poyner

I am writing this on the 25^th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, when terrorists hijacked two planes and flew them into the twin towers of the building, causing them to collapse and kill over 3000 people. That afternoon I had to meet a solicitor; he compared it to the killing of President Kennedy, when a past generation could always remember where they were when they heard the news. He was correct; I was working at Aston University and had just walked into the lab to do an experiment.  My colleague always had Radio 1 on; but this time rather than music it sounded like news; then he told me what had happened. We forgot our usual banter and just listened. It is easy to say an event changed the world, but I really think this did; it destroyed the optimism that we were moving to a new era built on liberal democracy and, implicitly, human reason. As it so happens, the attack coincided with the start of the Jewish New Year, a time of inward-looking and self-examination. It is the same idea behind the Christian seasons of Advent and, especially Lent. Sadly, after 9/11, there was very little of this; perhaps as a world we yet again discovered that human reason has it limits in determining human behaviour. Instead, we are left with the insight from the Judaeo-Christian tradition that we are sinners who need to seek a new mind. Today, when we look at the conflicts in the world, we can see what happens when we ignore that.

Rev David Poyner

A couple of years ago, I heard Rowan Williams, the last-but-one Archbishop of Canterbury, give a talk. He is a deep thinker and someone who I greatly respect. After the talk, he was asked about the current state of the Church of England. He was tactful but said that he had never known the church be as anxious as it currently is. To be fair, there are issues facing senior clergy that would disturb me if I were in their position; churchgoing has been declining for generations, congregations are elderly and there is now a shortage of vicars. Some grasp at straws; the Bible Society convinced itself there was a “quiet revival” going on in church attendance amongst young people. This was news to me and indeed to the statisticians in the church who collect data on attendance. Eventually they had to retract their claims. Ironically, this is taking place against a background of real growth locally. Congregations at Billingsley and Glazeley are now as good as they were in the 1970s; Highley and Chelmarsh are seeing growth and I think this is also being observed in the neighbouring benefices. The growth is mainly in the elderly, some might question if it is sustainable in the long-run, but equally society will always have plenty of people over 50. And, despite the “quiet revival” debacle, there is some evidence that young people are more curious about religion than their parents and grandparents. Some in the church seek quick fixes, be that optimistic targets for new congregations or a hankering after old-fashioned revival. I am doubtful about the value of these approaches. It took 300 yearsy to convert the Roman empire to Christianity and it seems to me that a better approach is the quiet work of relation-building with individuals, the “cure of souls”within a community, to use the language of the Book of Common Prayer. This is not quick work, I rarely see results and do not expect to in my life time. But the who God deals with eternity plays the long game.

Rev David Poyner