Spencer Reece visit: Poetry, talks, and a Quiet Day

Fr Spencer Reece, Rector of St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wickford, Rhode Island, and an internationally acclaimed poet, is visiting the Parish of Wickford and Runwell. His dream, prayer, and ultimate goal for his time with St. Paul’s Church is to continue the ongoing work of the parish in spreading Jesus’ radical love. “Let kindness be our legacy,” he has said.

To date, in his vist, Spencer has attended the Midweek Eucharist at St Andrew’s Wickford (see https://www.facebook.com/WickfordandRunwellCofE/videos/1515721926738775), spoken in the Bread for the World Service at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London where he shared a reflection on the Road to Emmaus (see https://www.facebook.com/stmartininthefields/videos/1493930282252761), and giving a talk, 'The Broken Altar’, on George Herbert at St Andrew’s Lower Bemerton. This talk was given at the invitation of the George Herbert in Bemerton group (https://www.georgeherbert.org.uk/about/ghb_group.html).

Upcoming events include:

10 April – Unveiled: Poetry Reading, 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Wickford. Hear this internationally acclaimed poet read poems from his future collection Farewell Symphony.

11 April – Quiet Day: Poetry & Prayer, 10.30 am - 3.30 pm, St Mary’s Runwell (Fr Spencer will share poems and reflections on George Herbert)

12 April – Eucharist, 9.30 am, St Mary’s Runwell and Eucharist, 11.00 am, St Catherine’s Wickford (Fr Spencer will preach at both of these services); 4.00 pm, Showing of Voices Beyond the Wall, St Andrew’s Wickford (Specer's project teaching poetry to abandoned girls at the Our Little Roses orphanage in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, was made into an award-winning film, Voices Beyond the Wall: 12 Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World). 

SPENCER REECE, 36th rector of St. Paul's Wickford, Rhode Island, is a Guggenheim Fellow and Whiting Fellow. Reece’s first book, The Clerk’s Tale, was selected for the Bakeless Prize by Nobel Laureate Louise Glück. Reece was ordained in Madrid, Spain, in 2011. Awarded a Fulbright, he taught poetry at Our Little Roses in San Pedro, Honduras, where he lived with the rescued girls at the home. The work was made into an award-winning film, Voices Beyond the Wall: 12 Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World. The poems by the girls were made into an anthology edited by Reece, entitled Counting Time Like People Count Stars. In 2014 he published The Road to Emmaus which was a longlist nominee for the National Book Award and short-listed for the Griffin Prize. He moved to Madrid and assisted the Episcopal Bishop of Spain for a decade. During this time, he created The Unamuno Author Series, culminating in the first-ever anglophone literary festival in Madrid in 2019. In 2022, he published The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Poet’s Memoir and All The Beauty Still Left: A Poets’ Painted Book of Hours. Acts, a third book of poems, appeared in 2024. At St. Paul’s, he created the 14 Gold Street Author Series. In 2025, he was awarded the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the “elegant standards” of his contribution to the literary arts. Farewell Symphony his fourth collection of poems will be published in 2028. In 2034, Love IV: Collected Poems is scheduled to appear.

http://wickfordandrunwellparish.org.uk/

https://www.stpaulswickford.org/

https://www.spencerreece.org/

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Joseph Archer - There But For The Grace Of God.