St Mary's Billingsley

St Mary's Billingsley St Mary's Church Billingsley is a 12th Century church in the Diocese of Hereford.

The Church is located in the village of Billingsley in Shropshire near Bridgnorth. Please have a look at our website at http://www.stmarys-billingsley.org.uk/history.html

05/06/2026

Thought for the week, 6th June
The Green Man
By David Poyner

High in the roof of Highley Church is a wooden carving of a face of a bearded man, his mouth open. He is the nearest we have in any of our local churches to a representation of the "Green Man", a symbol that was very popular in Medieval times and who has recently undergone something of a revival. In classic carvings, the individual has leafy stems growing out of his mouth, leading to the idea that he was a representation of the spirit of the forest or, more generally, of nature itself. Today the Green Man has been adopted by many as a symbol of the "Green movement". Some have seen him as a survivor of pre-Christian religion, venerated by country people when the local priest or Bishop was not watching. This idea has particular appeal to modern pagans. There are some problems with this version of events. The surviving carvings are largely in churches; not only is it necessary to assume the local priest did not see them, but neither did the higher clergy who regularly inspected all churches to ensure that they were in order. As far as I know, there is not a single case in a church court about a Green Man. I suspect the carvings were regarded simply as the medieval equivalent of wall-paper, decoration with no pagan associations. And finally, the penny seems to be dropping amongst the modern equivalent of the medieval church courts. The Chancellor (the chief judge) of the Diocese of Gloucester has accepted that the Green Man is not a pagan symbol and can be used on memorials in his diocese. Perhaps it is time to knock the cobwebs of our local Green Man.

Local History Werkend, 13-14th June 2026
02/06/2026

Local History Werkend, 13-14th June 2026

Upcoming events in June …
02/06/2026

Upcoming events in June …

31/05/2026

Thought for the week, 30th May
Science and God
By David Poyner

I am sometimes greeted with surprise when people find that I am a vicar and also a scientist. Around 20 years ago, some prominent scientists did try to take on religion but their arguments soon faded, not least because they often attacked ideas of God that few people of faith hold. When I attend scientific meetings to give talks or present data, I always wear my clerical collar. I rarely get a second glance, although some people have thanked me for openly displaying my faith, most recently at a meeting where I spoke in Zurich. Science and faith should not be in conflict if they remember they are asking different questions. Science is a way of looking at the natural world and understanding how it works. It cannot say much useful about the existence and nature of God, because God is above and beyond the natural world. Scientific methods do not work when we encounter the spiritual; that is when we must listen to our souls as they respond to mystery.

22/05/2026

Thought for the week, 23rd May
The agony and the ecstasy
By David Poyner

And so another football season draws to a close, this Sunday (24th) with the last round of games of the Premiership. Some matters have been decided, but not all; glory or dejection still await the supporters of Spurs and West Ham, Bournemouth and Brighton. I am basking in Manchester Utd finishing 3rd and qualifying for the Champion's League (despite playing awful football until the manager was replaced); Aston Villa finally wining a trophy after a 30 year hiatus, Kidderminster Harriers getting promotion. Who knows what glory awaits with World Cup in June/July? And yet, come August, none of it will matter as a new season starts with probable misery and dejection at the end. That is the glory of sport; it can uplift, it can give memories that will not fade, but ultimately, none of the results actually matter. It is all a game and there will always be another coming up. But for followers of sport such as myself, what does matter is the camaraderie and the spirit, the ability to applaud excellence whenever I see it. Perhaps in this there is something close to the generous spirit of the Kingdom of God?

15/05/2026

Thought for the week, 16th May
Betrayal
By David Poyner

Today (Friday) is St Matthias's Day. Who?.... He is one of the many one-hit wonders of the Bible; elected by the remaining disciples to take the place of Judas who betrayed Jesus, never mentioned again. For obvious reasons, the Church does not have a St Judas's Day, but Judas features as much in this day as Matthias. He is described as the "betrayer Judas" in the prayer used by the Church of England for today as we ask God to preserve us from "false apostles". He gets short shrift in the Gospels; he was in charge of the money for the disciples but is accused of being a thief by John. It is undeniable that he was the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Although he took money for his services to the authorities, Judas was then overcome with remorse; Matthew preserves a tradition that he hung himself. It is hard to know what Jesus made of him; the Gospel writers had to rely on the memories of his other disciples, whose recollections would have been coloured by the act of betrayal and its consequences. Jesus was well aware of what Judas intended to do and did not stop him. I can only speculate as to what his feelings might have been, but perhaps there was some understanding of the confused, even tortured, workings of Judas's mind. At the point of betrayal, Jesus called Judas "comrade"; the Greek word can mean a friend but could also be ironic. Be that as it may, he did not call him "betrayer". Orthodox belief has Jesus descending to Hell after his death, to release those who had died before he came but now would chose to follow him. I am one of those who like to think that, during that time, Jesus particularly sought out his tormented friend Judas, to bring him redemption.

15/05/2026

Thought for the week, 9th May
David Attenborough, Nature and God
By David Poyner

It is unlikely that you will have missed that Sir David Attenborough is now 100; the BBC have been celebrating this for the last month. He has combined his passion of natural history and his skills as a TV presenter to shape the way nature documentaries are shown on the television. He has very largely shaped the national conversation on the environment and polls consistently show him as one of the most trusted figures.

Some look at the natural world and see in it evidence for a loving, creator God. Attenborough is not one of these. He often speaks of the examples of parasitic worms, that debilitate their (sometimes human) hosts in order to live; he can see little evidence from these of a loving creator . From my perspective as a professional biologist, I admire the beauty of the natural world; I know this from staring at cells through a microscope. I can praise God for the beauty. However, I am aware that this is a consequence of evolution by natural selection, driven by random changes to our genes. This process does not need an intelligent creator to drive it; indeed it relies on chance and does lead to suffering as well as progress. But I would agree with those who say that this shows that if God has chosen to "create" through natural selection, then this is inevitable. If God has given the universe the freedom to progress by this mechanism, their must be pain. But the glory and the love are shown in what God knew all along; the wonder of nature that Sir David has spent his life revealing.

15/05/2026

Thought for the week, 2nd May
Thick and Thin Places
By David Poyner

By the time you read this, I will be coming to the end of a week's holiday on the Shetland Isles. For over 30 years I have had an annual trip to a Scottish island with a group of friends. When we started, we would think nothing of stopping off en-route to climb a Munro; the name given to a Scottish hill over 3000 feet. These days we have learnt to savour the delights of 500 feet elevations on the coast. The islands have a mystical quality; I enjoy visiting the numerous sacred sites on them, where Celts, Picts and Norse have worshipped God. Although there may be little left now other than a few stones, these places remain holy. They are often called "thin places", where the barriers between earth and heaven break down. Except, for me, it is not quite as simple as that. When I visit these places, I am fascinated by the history; my brain is active trying to make sense of how the stones were once buildings. I have archaeological experiences at them, but usually not spiritual ones. I am not alone; I recently read an article by Dr Catherine Fox, a writer who has had the same experience as myself. To her, these are actually thick places; so much is going on in her head, she loses sight of God. But, like myself, she perseveres. I do this because I know that the memory of these places will return to me, when my mind is less busy. Then I will not be trying to work out the shape of the church; all I will remember is that on this site, God was present to people. And in that memory, God becomes present to me; it turns my living room into a thin place.

24/04/2026

Hardness of Heart
By David Poyner

Yesterday, I was talking to some friends; amongst other topics, we reflected on the news and the tens of thousands killed in recent conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere. One made the point that when major charities make their appeals, they focus on one or two individuals at most to illustrate the suffering. If they did any more, we would not be able to take it in. Our capacity for empathy is easily overwhelmed.

There is nothing new in this. In the First World War, Edward Shillito, a poet and Congregationalist minister in London reflected on how people had grown immune to the daily lists of dead and missing soldiers. In his poem, "Hardness of Heart" he complains that the deaths "are too many now" for anyone to comprehend. Only God understands and grieves each loss; our tears are no more.

In the first watch no death but made us mourn;
Now tearless eyes run down the daily roll,
Whose names are written in the book of death;
For sealed are now the springs of tears, as when
The tropic sun makes dry the torrent's course
After the rains. They are too many now
For mortal eyes to weep, and none can see
But God alone the Thing itself and live.
We look to seaward, and behold a cry!
To skyward, and they fall as stricken birds
On autumn fields; and earth cries out its toll,
From the Great River to the world's end—toll
Of dead, and maimed and lost; we dare not stay;
Tears are not endless and we have no more.

17/04/2026

Thought for the week, 18th April
God and Politics, Again
By David Poyner

It may not have escaped peoples' notice that there has been recently been an exchange of views between two prominent Americans; the US President, Donald Trump and the Pope, Leo XIV. It began with the Pope pointedly saying the Christ rejected the prayers of war mongers; the President responded by accusing Leo of being weak on crime and foreign policy and Leo in turn refuses to debate politics with Mr Trump. Christianity and the world of politics have always had an uneasy relationship. At one level the Bible has much to say about justice and peace; particularly in the Old Testament the prophets were vocal in their views on the rulers of Israel and Judah. Jesus followed in the line of prophets by speaking out on social justice and promoted a vision of how the world would be organised in the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, the Old Testament notably failed to identify any obviously successful way of governing a nation state; rule by "judges", kings and priests all were tried at various times. Sometimes they seemed to work, more often they did not. And Jesus, whilst clear on the direction of travel, did not endorse any specific political manifesto, at least as far as I can see. For what it is worth, my own view is that as a Christian, I must be an active citizen, doing what I can to promote a Godly society. I also must recognise that there is no simple political philosophy on the left or right that will exclusively lead in that direction, albeit there are some that deny our common humanity that do not seem compatible with Biblical teachings. I pray for justice and the coming of God's kingdom, I pray for all our political leaders, I may highlight issues but I hope I do not tell people how to vote. That is between themselves and God.

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Church Lane, Billingsley
Bridgnorth
WV166PH

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