[4] Although himself an Anglo-Catholic in formation and in churchmanship, his early association with the Church in Wales Catholic wing seems to have become modified during his subsequent career in the Church of England, and he became a friend and associate of Honest to God author John AT Robinson during that prelate's time as Bishop of Woolwich.
Indeed, Davies is credited with doing much to develop initiatives in pastoral care of the sick - and in modernising approaches to spiritual counselling, measures that would later be taken up by Robinson and others in due course.
Shortly after his retirement, he summed up the Stockwood and Robinson period in a way that also cast light on his own approach to ministry.
John (Robinson) and Mervyn (Stockwood) were a duo of the same creative mould, and under their combined leadership the Diocese (of Southwark) experienced one of the most constructive periods of its life.
For instance, I introduced into the diocese seminars on Clinical Theology and Pastoral Counselling...He took the initiative of appointing a specialist to be full time in promoting this field of ministry.