On Tuesday it was March 1, St. David’s Day. That may well have gone unnoticed by you but as a Welsh man I like to wear a daffodil on that day, which I prefer to wearing a leek.
When I was growing up in Wales, St David’s day was a big day in school – a day when we did not follow normal lessons.
In the secondary school we had an all-day eisteddfod, with singing and competitions between the different houses. I once wrote a poem … but it came last.
But, what is a saint?
Well, the early churches of the second and third centuries used the word to describe special Christians, those who had achieved a lot or who had martyred: St Peter, St Stephen, S. Paul etc., and in modern day terms maybe Mother Theresa and Billy Graham.
In that case, I am not a saint … and I suspect neither or you.
However, that was not the way the word was used in the New Testament.
It was the word used to describe anyone who believed in Jesus; that is, ordinary, everyday Christians.
They were all saints, so … in that case, I am a saint. Are you?
Michael Penny, Chair of Churches Together in Reading and Berkshire, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Reading
