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 has already happened - responding to ‘the whole truth’ that she has told him. What was this woman’s ‘whole truth’ which she told Jesus? 

A talk for The Fourth Sunday after Trinity , 20 June 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: 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; 'Psalm 130: Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD' Arranged by Michael Hay & Joseph B. Sullivan. Performed by the William Ferris Chorale from Lectionary Psalms, Vol. 4, 2013; 'We cannot measure how you heal', John L. Bell and Graham Maule ©1989 WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow. Performed by Joy and Ruth Everingham, 2021, Source: https://youtu.be/OrNoQisGbDw; 'Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord!', Timothy Dudley-Smith, 1962. Melody: Walter Greatorex. Performed by Huddersfield Choral Society & Huddersfield Choral Society & Joseph Cullen from The Hymns Album, 2006.

Including my reflection for the day 'Man, interrupted: becoming a listener to a woman’s whole truth', also available with 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: 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 & The Choir of Queens' College, Cambridge from Wedding Hymns, 1999; 'Some went down to the sea in ships' Psalm 107 adapted and performed by Pastor Joel S Neubauer, St Mark Lutheran Church (ELCA), Yorktown, Virginia; and 'Psalm 107: Give thanks to the Lord (His love is everlasting)' composed by Francesca LaRosa Rohrer and performed by Francesca LaRosa © 2021.

Including my reflection for the day '“Those who go down to the sea in ships…” Overcoming our sea blindness', also available with all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

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 is an ‘invisible industry that brings you 90% of everything’. ‘It has quadrupled in size since 1970. We are more dependent on it now than ever’. And yet we suffer from what the chief of the Royal Navy, the First Sea Lord, calls ‘sea blindness’. We pay little heed to the sea itself and those who traverse it, to the companies who run shipping under their very elusive flags of convenience; we pay scant attention to what goes on behind the high-security fences of the world’s container ports, and least of all to the conditions in which the world’s seafarers live. They will joke that their job is like being in prison with a salary - but those who know both forms of institution agree that sea life is the far harsher form of incarceration.

This talk attempts to overcome our sea blindness and open our eyes to these people who have brought us nine out of every ten things we own.

A talk for The Third Sunday after Trinity , 20 June 2021.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.

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, renewing the fertility of soils that humans have farmed-out and overgrazed. Mustard and its kindred seeds are driving green life back into the open through the cracks in the concrete.

A talk for The Second Sunday after Trinity , 13 June 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: 13 June 2021, The Second Sunday after Trinity.

Featuring Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty! (Reginald Heber, 1826, John B. Dykes), Performed by Sufjan Stevens from Peace! Songs For Christmas, Volume 5, 2006, We will not take what is not ours (Graham Maule, John L. Bell © 1989 Wild Goose Resource Group, Iona Community). Performed by The Wild Goose Resource Group from Love and Anger, 1998, and Hills of the North, rejoice, (Charles Edward Oakley Martin Shaw). Performed by Belfast Cathedral Choir from Complete New English Hymnal Vol. 22, 2005.

Including my reflection for the day 'The mustard seed in the wood-wide-web: introducing the kin-dom of God', also available with 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: 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.

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: 30 May 2021, Trinity Sunday.

Featuring All creatures of our God and King, St. Francis of Assisi, 1225, paraphrased by William H. Draper, 1919, Performed by Keith & Kristyn Getty from Getty Kids Hymnal: Family Hymn Sing, 2018; Three is a magic number, Bob Dorough, 1973, From Schoolhouse Rock!, ABC, youtu.be/aU4pyiB-kq0; The Triune God: a mystery, Howard Higashi, 1937 - 1998, From Living Stream Hymns, youtu.be/H3bDaihcIUs, and St Patrick’s Breastplate (I bind unto myself today), St Patrick of Ireland, 11c, paraphrased by Cecil Frances Alexander, 1889, Performed by Anna Purdum from Anglican Hymns, 2020.

Including my reflection for the day 'Trinity Sunday - searching together for answers to the mysteries', also available with 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 and keeping our distance from those who talk differently....

A talk for Pentecost, 23 May 2021.

Find the text to this and all my talks at bit.ly/johndavies-talks.