On Friday 2 October at 7.30pm, the Lower Wye Valley Building Preservation Trust welcome Rowan Williams to the Monmouth Savoy Theatre for an evening of poetry, reflection and spirituality, hosted by Pele Cox.

Rowan is an iconic Welsh figure. Born in Swansea, he was Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury and later Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is a theologian, philosopher, linguist and poet whose work has been read and discussed around the world. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, alongside many of the people shaping international public life.

Yet what makes Rowan such a compelling speaker is not simply the extraordinary breadth of his knowledge but his ability to take difficult and sometimes intimidating ideas and make them understandable, engaging and relevant. He can move from theology and philosophy to politics, science, poetry or the environment without losing his audience. He has a rare gift for making complex arguments simple without making them simplistic — and for inviting people into a conversation rather than talking down to them.

They have brought Rowan back to Monmouthshire not for a formal lecture, but for an evening of conversation, poetry and ideas. He will reflect on his life and work, read from his own poetry and share some of the poems and writers that have mattered to him.

Their host, Pele Cox, has been Poet in Residence at institutions including Tate, the Royal Academy of Arts and Keats-Shelley House in Rome. Pele has a wonderful gift for making poetry lively, accessible and relevant, exploring the connections between poetry, art and the wider world.

If you would like a taste of Pele's approach beforehand, listen to Pele’s Poetry Podcast, available on YouTube, Apple and Amazon, which she presents with BBC broadcaster Richard Uridge. They explore everything from The Odyssey and A. E. Housman to whether poetry has any purpose and whether it can make us happy.

After an interval there will be an open Q&A which could range from poetry and spirituality to conservation, artificial intelligence and the future of society.

For them, there is an important local purpose too. All profits from the evening will support St Mary’s and the Savoy - two historic buildings being sustained by community-led initiatives. The Savoy is one of Wales’s oldest theatres; St Mary’s is an ancient landmark in one of the most romantic landscapes in the Wye Valley. Both are places where culture, memory and imagination have a chance to flourish. Friday 2 October, 7.30pm, Monmouth Savoy www.monmouth-savoy.co.uk

Their recent Cadw Open Doors tours were fully booked, and they said it was “lovely to meet visitors who missed out last year and came all the way from Swansea!

“We are running an additional tour at 1pm to make up for those who failed to reach us because of Sunday’s M4 accident. Book at www.ticketsource.com/lwvbpt. Tours are free for LWVBPT members.”