“Stations to the Untenanted Cross”
Susan Fogarty 19:30 – 20:30 £7
St Hywyn’s Church LL53 8BE
Limit:15 people
A poetry meditation by candlelight, rooted in the Easter tradition. Moving from place to place within the church, connecting the words of Thomas’s poems with the iconical features inside the medieval pilgrim church.

Poetry Writing Workshop “Poetry & Spirituality”
Hilary Davies 10:00 – 15:30 £60
Limit:10 people
Sarn y Plas Cottage, Y Rhiw The writing workshop, in Sarn y Plas, the Thomases’ cottage, will first look at how different poets in the Christian tradition have encountered the question of personal faith down the centuries; we will then reflect upon how poetry may express spiritual experience, and upon which aspects we wish to focus before working on our own poetic approaches to this subject.

Spiritual Works of Art by M.E. Eldridge
Susan Fogarty
10:30 – 11:30 £7
St Hywyn’s Church Aberdaron
Limit: 30 people
Using 10 reproductions of Elsie Eldridge’s works of art, on display in the church, this talk will show the creative imagination and flexibility of style that Elsie employed, demonstrating her skill as an artist, illustrator, and stained-glass window designer.

“Ann heard Him speak, and Pantycelyn” – Anglican Ancestors in the work of R. S. Thomas.
Nathan Munday 14:00 – 15:15 £7
Sailing Club, Aberdaron LL53 8BE
Limit: 45 people
“Listening to the sound of the river at night, I often thought of the many rectors before me who had done the same, because Manafon was an old parish.” In Y Llwybrau Gynt, R. S. muses on Gwallter Mechain, a priest-poet who had preceded him at Manafon. Gwallter, William Morgan, Ann Griffiths, and Pantycelyn – this paper explores these spiritual spectres that re-appear in R. S. Thomas’s oeuvre. Most are Anglican; some are unexpected.
Please note this venue is upstairs without a lift.

Collectors Book Sale
Ysgol Crud y Werin School Hall.
18:30 – 19:30
Collections of Thomas’ poetry, writers on Thomas, edited collections that include works by Thomas

“The Vessel Dances in Her Disciplines”
Hilary Davies
19:30 – 20:30pm £7
Ysgol Crud y Werin School Hall
Aberdaron LL53 8BP
Limit:60 people
Reading and discussing four of her poetic sequences that explore, in differing ways, the nature of personal faith and its intersection with spiritual and theological time and space. Set in the contexts of pilgrimage; the divine office; four church buildings as points of a spiritual compass and liturgical time of the mass.

R.S. Thomas: Poet & Spiritual Guide
Rev Dr Mark Pryce
10:30 – 11:45 £10
Limit: 60 people
The Christian tradition celebrates poetry as a vital source of spiritual inspiration and nourishment. Mark Pryce traces some key spiritual themes of RS Thomas’s poetry and locates him as a pre-eminent voice in twentieth century British Anglican spirituality.

Jim Cotter Memorial Lecture: (W)riting and Living a Sexual Spirituality: Prof. Nicola Slee
13:30 – 14:45 £10
Limit: 60 people
Jim Cotter lived, prayed, and wrote out of a desire to integrate his own gay sexuality with his vocation as a priest, pastor, and teacher, as well as to challenge the church to be real about the sexual nature of faith. Nicola Slee will explore how his sexuality and spirituality interwove with each other, in his life and in his writing, and how his location on the edges of the church contributed to his distinctive vocation.

Edwin Muir & R. S. Thomas: Spiritual Endurance
Prof. Daniel Westover
15:00 -16:15 £10
Limit: 60 people
Muir and Thomas were nationalists who saw their countries as having lost essential identity and spiritual essence under the crush of industry, mechanization, and capitalism. Both sought to awaken their countries from somnambulance and spiritual apathy, both championed endurance and survival, locating resilient spiritual identities within imagined landscapes. Critics have often discussed Thomas’s engagements with the Scottish Renaissance, but Muir’s specific influence, heretofore neglected, deserves attention.

Through the Keyhole: Look Inside Sarn Plas,
Rhiw LL53 8AA
12:00 – 13:00 £Free
Limit: 10 people
An opportunity to look around Sarn Plas cottage and garden, the retirement home of RS Thomas and ME Eldridge. In 1964 the Keating sisters gifted a lease to the Thomas family, ending in 2016 with the death of their son Gwydion. The cottage has now returned to the stewardship of the National Trust

Collectors Book Sale
Ysgol Crud y Werin School Hall.
Collections of Thomas’ poetry, writers on Thomas, plus edited collections that include his poems.

Côr yr Heli & Gwenan Gibbard
“Poems from the Soul: Twelve of the Great Hymns of Wales” with author M Wynn Thomas
19:30 – 20:30 £9
St Hywyn’s Church
Limit: 100 people

Bilingual Eucharist Service St Hywyn’s Church
Archbishop of Wales Most Revd Andrew John
Preacher: Prof. Nicola Slee
10:30 – 11:30
Limit: 100 people
Register for refreshments.

RS Thomas & ME Eldridge Society Members Sunday Lunch
12:30 – 13:30 £20
Limit: 30 people
The Ship Hotel Dining Room Exclusive to the Festival.
A convivial cooked lunch with some of the Festival Presenters, Members and Advisory Board. Choice of Seasoned Chicken or Nut Roast with roast potatoes and vegetables. Membership of the RS Thomas & ME Eldridge Society is a pre-requisite.

Walking in the Footsteps of RS Thomas
Susan Fogarty
13:30 – 15:30 £10
Limit: 15 people
Starting at St Hywyn’s Church, this 3-mile walk, over uneven paths alongside the Daron river leads to the old vicarage through the hidden valley that RS Thomas would have walked, there will be stops along the way for readings of his poems.

Through the Keyhole: Look Inside Sarn Plas
Rhiw LL53 8AA 13:30 – 14:30 £Free
Limit: 10 people

An opportunity to look around Sarn Plas cottage and garden, the retirement home of RS Thomas and ME Eldridge. In 1964 the Keating sisters gifted a lease to the Thomas family, ending in 2016 with the death of their son Gwydion. The cottage has now returned to the stewardship of the National Trust.