ST RICHARD GWYN

Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in daylight.
And what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed on the housetop.
So few of us dare to proclaim views or our religion in plain sight.
We are ready to give to changing fashion any sop.

St Richard Gwynn, layman, father of six, married he met the storm.
He refused to compromise, his loyalty to Queen as Queen not Head of Church rejected.
Offered freedom again and again if he would merely conform.
Tortured, imprisoned, bullied and finally executed.

One word is all it would have taken.
Even this he was not prepared to do.
His wife supported and comforted him to the end, he was surely not forsaken.
A patriot and a man of principle through and through.

I don’t even have the courage to speak my mind.
But maybe to weakness, my judge will be merciful and kind.