By the Rev. Canon Peter DavisonSince 2003 |
|
|
|
by the Rev. Canon Chris Harwood-Jones
September 4th, 2008
In the Anglican Diocese of Kootenay we know that when a small, rural Anglican Church meets for prayer on Sunday morning there is no less need for inspiration and wisdom from the pulpit than there is in a large, urban parish.
Enter Peter Davison. In 2003 Peter, recently retired from my parish, continued to prepare sermon notes for himself every week as a personal spiritual discipline. At my suggestion, then Archbishop David Crawley asked him if he would be willing to share his notes online for the benefit of those parishes in our diocese that did not have the resources of a professional preacher. Perhaps a local preacher might find his reflections useful for their own preparation, or even, if all else failed, just read them out on Sunday morning!
Peter graciously agreed to do so, and I set him up a little section on our diocesan website. We gave it the imaginative title of the "sermon of the week" and informed our people where to find it.
Today I regret only one thing about that decision, which is that I neglected to put a "hit tracker" on Peter's page. For it became clear fairly quickly that Peter's sermons were being read far more widely than what he or I expected! Despite the obscurity of that little corner of our website, Peter has consistently received emails and comments from all over North America since the inception of the project. Indeed, more than one professional of my acquaintance has confessed to reading Peter's thoughts before writing their own sermons, and I suspect that his reflections have influenced many, many pulpits around the world.
It has now been 5 years since that initial conversation with Peter, and he hasn't missed a week. The sermons here collected now represent a formidable accumulation of wisdom on all sorts of topics: spirituality, culture, politics, and of course the Scriptures themselves.
It is with pleasure that I have finally gotten around to setting up the Sermon Of The Week as a website of its own. I hope that Peter's thoughts will continue to reach an ever-widening audience. If you are new, you are in for a treat.
And this time I have a hit tracker.
The Rev. Canon Chris Harwood-Jones
All Saints Anglican Church
Vernon BC
