A VICAR’S messages to parishioners in lockdown have just been published in a book.

Rev Kingsley Taylor said he ‘couldn’t just sit here and do nothing’ when church services were suspended under Covid-19 restrictions.

Unable to visit the 15 churches of which he has oversight as Vicar of Whitland, he began sending out emails.

“This became a daily email and more and more people wanted to be added to the list and it soon became global,” he explained.

“Now I have collected all the emails up until the beginning of August and they have just been published.”

When the first lockdown was declared in March, Rev Taylor sent a circular email to someone in each of the 15 churches ‘just to let everyone know I was here if needed’

And this snowballed into a daily missive.

He explained: “From Palm Sunday, I decided to send a circular every day through Holy Week and such was the response it became a daily circular.

“Every few days, more and more people asked to be added to the list and many people sent it on to others as well.

“I was bowled over and humbled by what people told me it meant to them.”

Rev Taylor said that his words were "not so much a diary of the lockdown, but my rambling musings as I reacted to people’s concerns and the events as they developed.

“These are not mini sermons or thoughts for the day - this is just a country vicar on an inner journey reaching out to others.

“I have collected them because I read somewhere that the National Library of Wales thought such things would be useful to future generations in helping them to understand what it was like to live through this.

“Also because some of the recipients thought they were so good they suggested I put them into a book.

“The emails are messages of hope, very often responding to the worries and concerns of those who emailed me back.

“They are also about my inner journey as I grapple with the questions surrounding why the pandemic happened.

"It is not the answer. because I freely admit I do not know.

“But I have tried to encourage people through this difficult time, sometimes with humour too.”

*Reflections, Circular Emails of a Country Vicar under Lockdown is on sale at Waterstones in Carmarthen and is also available online.