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A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Mark Clavier, Residentiary Canon of Brecon Cathedral.

Good Morning. One of the most remarkable meetings in British history happened in the year 597 when St Augustine of Canterbury met King Æthelberht of Kent. Augustine, who’d been sent to convert the English, came from a Mediterranean world shaped by Christianity and Roman civilization. King Æthelberht lived within a Germanic landscape inhabited by gods like Woden and Thor. From the perspective of the Catholic world, Augustine was a missionary-monk; from that of the Anglo-Saxon world, he was a dangerous magician—each perspective was, on its own terms, correct.

For Augustine to be successful, he had to bridge the wide gap that divided their two worlds. The only feasible way of doing this was by engaging the English at the level of their imagination by addressing their culture, stories, and homes. He did this not by abolishing those things but by baptizing them, allowing their shrines to become churches and their festivals Christian holidays. Within a few generations, all distinction between the two worlds had vanished. All shared a worldview – still thoroughly English, only now populated by the Christian faith, as can be seen in their Christianized stories like Beowulf. From that fusion emerged one of the richest cultures our island has ever known.

Therein lies a lesson for us today, Augustine’s feast day. It’s often by seeing and accepting the good in other worldviews that we discover how best to thrive together.

O Lord our God, who called Augustine to these Isles to preach the Gospel, entwine our stories with those of our neighbours as you convert both by your truth that together we may flourish and abound. Amen.