Christmas and New Year have come and gone and it has been a delight to share our first Christmas with you all. The New Year brings with it a new beginning as we give thanks to God for the year that has ended and look forward to 2015. The start of 2015 invites us to examine where we have been, so that we may look with confidence to the future. God has called us to this place at this time and the people with whom we live, work and share our community, are God’s blessing to each one of us.
I wonder did you make a New Year’s resolution and if you did how are you getting on? Often we fail to keep our resolutions because we make them in the comfort of our warm sitting room on a winter’s evening and all too often that is where they stay!
The Christmas period brought with it the first really cold weather and how beautiful the hills looked capped in snow. We are very blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the Vale of Clwyd and as the days will soon begin to lengthen, if only slightly, we can look forward to exploring the countryside around us. Maybe this is one of the New Year resolutions you have made this year, to get out into the fresh air and take up some exercise. But all new things require a period of preparation, it’s no good climbing Snowdon without taking a daily walk to strengthen the muscles in preparation.
We hear very little in the bible about Jesus’ childhood but we know it was a time of preparation for all that will follow. In January our readings in Church look to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry here on earth, beginning with his Baptism. Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist as an adult. Many of us were baptised as a baby but for all of us our baptism represents a new beginning as members of the family of God. God calls us to love our neighbours as ourselves, a wonderful resolution to make as we look to the New Year. The New Year brings fresh opportunities and we look forward to all God has in store for us as individuals, a Parish and a community.
With Every Blessing for 2015,
Rev’d. Val Rowlands
Monday, 12 January 2015
Friday, 21 November 2014
£900 raised at Autumn Craft Fair
We tried something a bit different for this year's Autumn Fair. All the old favourites were there - the cake stall, the plant stall, a Lucky Dip, Olive's raffle - but we also invited a number of new organisations to take part, so visitors were able to browse around bags and scarves, hand-made cards, embroidery, vintage clothing, Aloe Vera products, beeswax candles and drawings of local scenes. Refreshments were available all day, and the King's Head opposite offered a special £5 lunch menu for the event. Entertainment was also on offer for our younger visitors - face-painting proved very popular, and "Bat the Rat" provided a definite challenge! (Only two came away with badges proclaiming that they'd "batted the rat"!)
A total of over £900 was raised for the church, which is a splendid result. Many thanks to all who helped.
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| After a visit to "Little Dragons" face-painters! |
We thoroughly enjoyed it and are please with the amount raised. Thumbs up for next year! Little Dragons Face Painters
Well done for an excellent fair, very well organised and a
very enjoyable occasion. One of the best fairs I have been
to. It was a very profitable fair for me, but not only that the people
were so friendly and a very beautiful church to be in. I hope to be
invited next time. Liz Place (Femme Fatale)
Tuesday, 29 July 2014
2014 Flower Festival
Here are the splendid arrangements which formed this year's Flower Festival. Click on any image for a larger version.
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| 1. Welcome to this Wonderful World Sylvia Jones |
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| 2. Green and pleasant land Jesse Craft |
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| 3. In the beginning there was earth, sea and sky ... Judith Mitchell |
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| detail from In the Beginning |
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| 4. The Garden of Eden Dorothy Roberts |
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| 5. And the stars up above shine down upon all creatures great and small Doris Roberts |
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| 6. East is East Doris Roberts |
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| 7. Priesthood Maggie Watkins |
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| 8. Dawn Chorus in the Spring Camilla Cheshire |
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| detail from Dawn Chorus |
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| 9. In Pastures Green He Leadeth Me Beryl Fowler & Jane Hocking |
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| 10. The Quiet Waters By Dorothy Roberts |
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| 11. Mount Etna Angela Williams |
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| 12. The Star in the East Angela Williams |
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| 13. Consider the lilies of the field, they sow not, neither do they reap Mary Davies |
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| 14. Sunrise - the Light of the World Glenys Jones |
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| 15. Out of Africa Betty Parker & Carol Leak |
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| detail from Out of Africa |
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| 16. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands Betty Parker |
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| 17. Mount Everest Freda Price |
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| detail from Mount Everest |
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| 18. St Dyfnog's Well Marion Beaumont & Susanne Owen |
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| 19. All good gifts around us are sent from Heaven above Julia Jones |
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| 20. The Stately Homes - our heritage Margherite Jones |
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| 21. The Great Barrier Reef Eleanor Roberts |
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| 22. Let All the World in Every Corner Sing Camilla Cheshire |
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
Ordinary Time 2014
From the Vicar
Following Pentecost, the church enters the period of Ordinary Time, which will last over the Summer and into Autumn. However, the word “Ordinary” does not mean “usual or average”, but simply that it lies outside the seasons of Lent / Easter and Advent / Christmas.
Ordinary time provides a period during the Liturgical Year for us to deepen our faith and understanding in order to learn how to live out our Christian faith in our daily lives, and how we each play our part in taking the Church in this area forward in the years to come.
As the Church in Wales approaches the centenary of its disestablishment in 1920, we should remain confident about the future as we develop our thinking about its nature and vocation. We must be a changing church witnessing in a changing society – people who increasingly recognise that the mission of the Church in Wales belongs to all members of the Church and not just the clergy.
Bishop Gregory, at his visitation to our Deanery earlier this month, reminded us of the need for us all to prepare to take the Anglican Church in the Diocese of St Asaph forward in the years to come. As part of the process each Deanery has been sent a document which outlines its current ministry and finance, with the thought that Deanery Conferences can realistically discuss the future of their group of parishes. This process will enable Deaneries or Mission Areas or Ministry Areas to plan strategically for the future, using their local knowledge and skills, to take the Church forward.
Here in Denbigh Deanery the process is well underway, via our Deanery Plan, and reorganisation of the Parishes of Llanrhaeadr, Nantglyn, Llandyrnog with Llangwyfan under one Incumbent from October, as Bernard Thomas and myself take our retirement from full time stipendiary parish ministry. These changes will be an important part of the process.
So – no Ordinary Time, in the sense of “usual or average”, in the near future but plenty of challenge and opportunity – as is always the Christian way.
Michael
Following Pentecost, the church enters the period of Ordinary Time, which will last over the Summer and into Autumn. However, the word “Ordinary” does not mean “usual or average”, but simply that it lies outside the seasons of Lent / Easter and Advent / Christmas.
Ordinary time provides a period during the Liturgical Year for us to deepen our faith and understanding in order to learn how to live out our Christian faith in our daily lives, and how we each play our part in taking the Church in this area forward in the years to come.
As the Church in Wales approaches the centenary of its disestablishment in 1920, we should remain confident about the future as we develop our thinking about its nature and vocation. We must be a changing church witnessing in a changing society – people who increasingly recognise that the mission of the Church in Wales belongs to all members of the Church and not just the clergy.
Bishop Gregory, at his visitation to our Deanery earlier this month, reminded us of the need for us all to prepare to take the Anglican Church in the Diocese of St Asaph forward in the years to come. As part of the process each Deanery has been sent a document which outlines its current ministry and finance, with the thought that Deanery Conferences can realistically discuss the future of their group of parishes. This process will enable Deaneries or Mission Areas or Ministry Areas to plan strategically for the future, using their local knowledge and skills, to take the Church forward.
Here in Denbigh Deanery the process is well underway, via our Deanery Plan, and reorganisation of the Parishes of Llanrhaeadr, Nantglyn, Llandyrnog with Llangwyfan under one Incumbent from October, as Bernard Thomas and myself take our retirement from full time stipendiary parish ministry. These changes will be an important part of the process.
So – no Ordinary Time, in the sense of “usual or average”, in the near future but plenty of challenge and opportunity – as is always the Christian way.
Michael
Thursday, 5 June 2014
Pentecost
From the Vicar
Have you ever tried to assemble a piece of furniture which comes to you packed up in a couple of boxes? It can be rather worrying and daunting at first sight! There is a list of instructions in all sorts of different languages, lots of nuts and bolts of different sizes, and usually a few odd-looking tools, which simply look as if they won’t be up to the job, and then one feels lost, confused and helpless!
The disciples together in that upper room between Ascension and Pentecost must have felt lost, confused, helpless, and certainly not up to the job ahead of them, but then something extraordinary happened to them! Suddenly they were set on fire with confidence and pushed out of the comfort and safety of that upper room and into the streets, by that energy of God’s presence. Now the Church was really on the move!
Those disciples, just like ourselves, were learning that the Holy Spirit had been given to the Church to enable it to be the Church for people and places everywhere, no longer closed in within an upper room.
The Holy Spirit pushes us beyond ourselves, our abilities, expectations and safety levels. So, at Pentecost especially we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit”.
Come Holy Spirit, Wind of God
Breath of God, wind of God,
whose source we only vaguely comprehend
and of whose destination we have no knowledge,
disturb us with your power,
ruffle our complacency with your unseen movement,
blow the dust from our beliefs
and the cobwebs from our prejudices
so that we may have such a clearer, fresher faith
that the storms of this world may fail to shake it.
Amen
Michael
Have you ever tried to assemble a piece of furniture which comes to you packed up in a couple of boxes? It can be rather worrying and daunting at first sight! There is a list of instructions in all sorts of different languages, lots of nuts and bolts of different sizes, and usually a few odd-looking tools, which simply look as if they won’t be up to the job, and then one feels lost, confused and helpless!
The disciples together in that upper room between Ascension and Pentecost must have felt lost, confused, helpless, and certainly not up to the job ahead of them, but then something extraordinary happened to them! Suddenly they were set on fire with confidence and pushed out of the comfort and safety of that upper room and into the streets, by that energy of God’s presence. Now the Church was really on the move!
Those disciples, just like ourselves, were learning that the Holy Spirit had been given to the Church to enable it to be the Church for people and places everywhere, no longer closed in within an upper room.
The Holy Spirit pushes us beyond ourselves, our abilities, expectations and safety levels. So, at Pentecost especially we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit”.
Come Holy Spirit, Wind of God
Breath of God, wind of God,
whose source we only vaguely comprehend
and of whose destination we have no knowledge,
disturb us with your power,
ruffle our complacency with your unseen movement,
blow the dust from our beliefs
and the cobwebs from our prejudices
so that we may have such a clearer, fresher faith
that the storms of this world may fail to shake it.
Amen
Michael
Computer tips for later beginners
Initial session will be at the vicarage on Wednesday June 11th at 6.00pm - we anticipate it will last for about an hour, to an hour and a half. Only a couple of people have suggested topics they’d like to know more about, so I will try to deal briefly with a fairly broad range, then identify those that you’d like to go into in more detail on a future occasion.
We do need to know how many are coming - please can you telephone, text or email me, or catch up with me in church, to confirm that you’ll be there; it would also be useful to know which version of Windows you’re using.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Kath Mitchell-Dawson
tel: 01745 550488 • mobile: 07711 675076
email: kath-b@btconnect.com
We do need to know how many are coming - please can you telephone, text or email me, or catch up with me in church, to confirm that you’ll be there; it would also be useful to know which version of Windows you’re using.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Kath Mitchell-Dawson
tel: 01745 550488 • mobile: 07711 675076
email: kath-b@btconnect.com
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
Book & Plant Fair
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| Getting ready for all the visitors |
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| "Don't let anyone leave without buying at least ten books ..." |
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| Tea ladies! |
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| Lots of customers ... |
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| Taking a break. I don't think Shirley was about to hit someone ... |
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| Not quite ten books each, but not bad! |
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| Plant sales outside the church |
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| Service with a smile! |
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