大象传媒

Delyth Liddell follows in St David's footsteps to Glastonbury, one of the most spiritually diverse places in Britain, and a community which David is said to have founded in the sixth century. David famously preached against heresy (the heresy of Pelagianism), so what what would he have made of a community that these days is home to 78 different spiritualities ... and what would they have made of him?

Delyth visits the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, accompanied by an Anglo-Saxon guide - Edgar the Anglo-Saxon - and in the beautiful surviving chapel of St Patrick speaks to the Vicar of Glastonbury, Prebendary David McKeogh. That the once magnificent abbey now stands in ruins is a vivid demonstration of what happens when one orthodoxy is replaced by another, as the Reformation made heretics of former loyal Catholics, and dismissed the wonders of saintly cults such as the cult of St David. Dr Sarah White explains the nature of heresy past and present.

Nowadays, Glastonbury is a more tolerant, inclusive society - Delyth visits not only a Catholic Shrine but also a pagan healing centre. Far from condemning modern pagans, many mainstream Christian denominations in the town are prepared to work alongside people who hold quite different views to their own - Vicar David McGeogh recalls fondly the occasion when he organised a funeral for an artist, and elves, pixies and druids all joined in to say the Lord's Prayer. As Methodist minister Tina Swire explains, 'Glastonbury is a place of seekers...and we are all seeking something'.