St. David's Episcopal Church
Celtic Spirituality Pilgrimage
led by
Ken and Darlene Swanson
Day 7, April 10th: St. David's, Wales and Tintern Abbey
Day 7, April 10th: St. David's, Wales and Tintern Abbey
We returned to St. David's Cathedral for the third time this morning to attend their 9:30am Family Mass.
The Reverend Canon Dorrien Davies warmly welcomed us by name. He preached an inspiring sermon ending with the words of Jesus from today's Gospel lesson, "Come follow me."
Many of the St. David's Cathedral's parishioners sought us out for conversation following the service. We were able to walk the cathedral grounds, and explore the ruins of the bishop's palace and view the cathedral frontal from that perspective.
The bishop's palace.
The cathedral frontal.
We then drove to the ruins of the great Cistercian Abbey at Tintern in the Wye Valley on the border of Wales and England. The ruins of the great church haunted the Romantics in the 19th century. J.M.W. Turner painted it several times and William Wordsworth made it familiar to most English speaking secondary students with his poem, "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey".
Abbey Crossing.
The Abbey Santuary.
Ken taught a lesson on the role of the Cistercians in replacing Celtic Christianity with Roman Catholicism in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Pilgrims in the ruins of the Tintern Abbey crossing.
We drove into Birmingham for the night. After prayers, Darlene gave a teaching on St. David of Wales. His final words remind all Christians on how we are to live: "Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things."
Tomorrow we're off to York, to walk the Shambles, tour Yorkminster Cathedral and hopefully attend Choral Evensong.
Tomorrow we're off to York, to walk the Shambles, tour Yorkminster Cathedral and hopefully attend Choral Evensong.
That's a neat statue in the final picture, with the bird perched on St. David's shoulder. Have you seen the same thing depicted in the stained glass showing St. David back in Roswell?
ReplyDeleteAnd I love that hundreds of millions of Christians all around the globe yesterday heard the same Gospel lesson that you heard, John 21:1-19. That's the beauty of a common lectionary shared by The Episcopal Church, Church of Wales, Church of England, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and others.