Transfiguration Sunday

From the Vicar : Lent 2014
This first Sunday in March, Transfiguration Sunday, means we are preparing for Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, this week. Once again we will travel through these six weeks towards the events of Holy Week and Easter.

Travelling as a group of people builds relationships, understanding, shared experiences and all are welcome on the journey.

On this particular journey we have the opportunity to be close to the greatest travelling companion of all – Jesus – and so discover more about ourselves, each other and the One who helps us define who we are and where we are.

Weekly worship will reflect our growing together and, of course, the Church is open each day for people to drop in, perhaps light a candle, offer a prayer or simply find some quiet space.

Have a good Lent and so look forward with Jesus to a wonderful Easter.

Michael

“Lord, give us the eyes of faith, to see your presence in the world.
Where fear closes our eyes, help us.
Where tears blind us, heal us.
Where busyness keeps us from noticing, slow us.
Where pride gets in the way, release us.
Set us free to see your love at work in the world.”
Amen

Candlemas

From the Vicar - Candlemas 2014
This note is written at Candlemas, forty days after the birth of Jesus, when we can look back, upon Christmas and Epiphany, and forwards towards Lent and Holy Week.

It is a time to perhaps take breath, reflect upon our own lives - where we have travelled, where we are now, and to remind ourselves that the future is in God’s hands.
For some, travelling with Jesus might mean major life changes, for others it is the fulfillment of a lifetime search, for most people, it is a mixture of both. Candlemas, in one sense, marks the true end of the Christmas / Epiphany Seasons and points us already, towards Lent and Easter.

To remember what old Simeon said, we will bless candles in Church for people, and so provide a focus for prayer.

Some useful information follows, from a contributor to our Newsletter, about Candlemas, which we will celebrate at our Holy Eucharist on 2nd  February.

By the way – how are the New Year Resolutions working out!

Michael

Candlemas

Candlemas (February 2nd) was the most unshadowed, serenely hopeful feast of the pre-reformation church.  Like almost all such feasts, its meaning  goes further back than Christianity. Candles have been symbolic of life and resurrection since ancient times, and therefore closely associated with returning spring and the growth of crops and creatures. In the days of the early Church's Christmastide and of winter, was the time when people's thoughts turned to spring.

From the eleventh century the Church's candles for the coming season were paraded and consecrated at Candlemas. These were always costly real beeswax candles, because tradition held that bees came from Heaven. The procession and blessing of the candles at this time went back to the pagan torch processions which had wound about the fields bringing light to invigorate the soil before the spring sowing.

Being the only form of domestic lighting, the cheaper tallow candles and rush lights had scores of superstitions attached to them. According to the flame's colour or how it flickered, they would foretell who would live, prosper, marry or die during the year. In some places the Yule candle was relit for a family feast on Candlemas Night to mark the dedication of Spring.  In Dorset, a large candle was often a gift, and the family would have cakes and ale or punch by its light until it went out.  Children were allowed to stay up late on this night, if on no other.

But farming folk had to be practical too, February food was lean and February work hard. Thomas Tusser, the great verse recorder of the farming year, pointed out vigorously in his instructions for the months that if a man failed to till and to keep his working stock in good condition, that would impoverish both his land and himself, although marling and manuring were necessary as well. The farmer was to plough and to sow beans and peas to dry against next winter. Mustard was to be sown in new-turned soil, and hemp seed sown to strangle nettles. Vines and osiers should be pruned and replaced if necessary, while land to be left for hay should now be manured. Barley for malt and seed corn should be threshed, except for a small quantity to give the labourers indoor work if the weather turned sour. Land should be fenced with hedges, and standing willows planted to shade the cattle.

Such end-of-winter tasks bring home vividly how closely every family in a society without shops depended on the new springing of seed and the rising of sap in the local fields. They also illustrated how deeply the folk rituals which accompanied them were embedded in the way of life of country folk.

Michael has just received the following email from WaterAid

Dear Reverend Williams, With you, people across the world can celebrate the joy and excitement of having safe water for the first time. Thank you for making this the best year ever. You've helped reach 1.7 million people with water, 11% more than last year, and brought sanitation to 2.2 million people, 15% more than in 2012. With you, families are happier and healthier. Water is the one thing that changes everything – because you're with us many more families have clean, safe water in their lives. You played a huge part in making this possible through your generous support. With you, there is new hope. We've made a special film to show you the inspiring moments you've helped to create this year, moments when safe water brought celebration and hope to the lives of people all over the world, moments made possible by your support. Be proud – you've brought smiles to so many people around the world. Thank you for being so incredible. Angharad McKenzie Head of Supporter Development, WaterAid

“Be Prepared”, the old Scout motto reminds us!

From the Vicar - Advent Sunday 2013

“Be Prepared”, the old Scout motto reminds us!

However, preparation for Christmas these days often can mean baking, shopping, cleaning, decorating, card writing and so many other things which seem to take up most of our time and, if we’re not careful, we can simply end up mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted.

Shop until you drop, with the 25^th December as our deadline, often means that whilst we are ready for Christmas Day, it can be rather an anti climax when it is over.

It seems that whilst we all want to enjoy the holiday, and some time together, we have allowed two of the major issues of our times to drive the agenda - materialism and consumerism, and so rob us of these four short weeks of Advent which can be and should be, true preparation for the birth at Bethlehem and the opportunity for us to prepare our hearts for a personal and shared encounter with Jesus Christ.

  

My hope and prayer is that this Advent will be more prayerful, more spiritual – and dare I say it – more Christian.

Michael

We affirm our faith

From the vicar - November 2013

Our God is the god of all humans,

the God of heaven and earth,

the God of sea and rivers,

the God of sun and moon,

the God of all the heavenly bodies,

the God of the lofty mountains,

the God of the lowly valleys.

God inspires all things,

gives life to all things,

stands above all things,

and stands beneath all things.

God has a Son who is co-eternal with himself;

and similar in all respects to himself;

and neither is the Son younger than the Father,

nor is the Father older than the son;

and the holy Spirit breathes in them.

And the Father and the Son and the holy spirit are inseparable. Amen.

Trinitarian Creed of Tirechan, a 7^th Century Irish Bishop and scholar

This 7^th Century Creed reminds us of all that we believe as Christians, whatever our particular religious tradition. It is a timely reminder that we are all called to work ecumenically so that we can all learn how to be different and yet together in sacred things, “communion in sacris”.

I have included a paper in this Newsletter which provides a background of how we have arrived at where we are on the Ecumenical Scene – the first of two papers.

Please read the paper carefully and prayerfully as an introduction to the proposals set out in the second paper which I will include in the next Newsletter.

Michael

THE GATHERING/ Y CYDGYNULLIA

 Report  presented to the Deanery Conference on Tuesday , September 17^th 2013

A brief resume of how we arrived at where we are on the Ecumenical Scene

Although there are indications in the New Testament  and historical evidence thereafter of division amongst Christians in the Early Church and in the following centuries,  the Church remained officially united for the first 1000 years of its history. The Schism of  1054 brought about the separation of the Church into an Eastern and Western Church, the first centred on Constantinople and the second in Rome, known as the Latin Church which suffered another great schism at the end of the fourteenth century with the election of rival popes. This schism was later resolved.

The Reformation in sixteenth century Europe was a division of the Church to rival that of 1054. The rise of the  nation state meant a different kind of religious reformation in different countries. In England (which by the 1536 Act of Union included Wales) the Anglican Church of England was formed which although part of the Protestant Reformation maintained its threefold ministry of Bishop, Priest and Deacon. It was and remains both Catholic and Reformed. Following the Elizabethan Settlement the Church of England became the Established Church of England and Wales. In Scotland under the leadership of John Knox Presbyterianism had become established and the Presbyterian Church of Scotland (The Kirk) remains the established Church there.

The following centuries saw further breakaway from the Church of England. The growth of Puritanism was very evident and many sought a kind of worship beyond the establishment. The Act of Toleration  in 1689 gave such permission to Baptists, who  rejected Infant Baptism in favour of an adult believer’s Baptism, and Congregationalists who believed in the authority of the local church/congregation as opposed to the central authority of a Bishop. These so called Dissenters were still not permitted to hold political office or enter the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Catholics were deliberately excluded and had to wait until the nineteenth century for their emancipation. The eighteenth century saw the rise of Methodism under the Wesley brothers who never envisaged a breakaway from the  C of E, and neither did the equivalent reformers in Wales such as William Williams, Daniel Rowlands and Howell Harries, whose vision was more of a Calvinistic Methodist Church which was a Presbyterian model rather like Scotland.

So, coming into fairly modern times we have a variety of religious traditions in Britain (I have not included Ireland’s story as this would require much more space!). There was the established C of E, Presbyterianism, Methodism, Baptists and Congregationalists as well as the  un-emancipated Roman Catholic Church. The nineteenth century so the advent of Pentecostalism and The Salvation Army and the rediscovery of its Catholic heritage through the Oxford Movement in the Church of England. In Wales all this mixture was further complicated by language with denominations having English-speaking and Welsh-speaking parts. Generally the Non Conformists were largely Welsh-speaking and the Cof E in Wales largely English-speaking. 

The twentieth century will be seen as a century of ecumenism by historians. A conference in Edinburgh in 1910 began the Ecumenical Movement. The word ecumenical or oecumenical means “of the whole world together” “all-embracing” or “universal” which is also the meaning of “catholic”. The movement sought to bring different traditions closer together and to cooperate in mission. Unfortunately the missionary movements of the 19^th century had exported our Christian divisions to the rest of the world. As the century progressed ecumenical bodies were founded: The World Council of Churches, The British Council of Churches and in 1956 the Council of Churches for Wales. In 1990 the Roman Catholic Church came into membership for the first time in this country with the formation of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, and Cytun in Wales which included now all the main denominations in Wales except the Welsh Baptist Union.

In 1975 five denominations in Wales entered into a Covenant together to work and pray for visible unity. These denominations were:

                                                    The Church in Wales

                                                    The Presbyterian Church of Wales

                                                    The Methodist Church

                                                    The United Reformed Church

                                                    and a number of Baptist Church, mainly in Cardiff                  

                                                    and Newport belong to the Baptist Union of GB.

The United Reformed Church (URC) had come about by a union between English Presbyterians, Congregationalists and the Church of Christ.  Notably the Covenant did not include the Welsh Baptists, the Welsh Congregationalists (Yr Annibynwyr) nor   the Roman Catholic Church.

Since 1975 much has been achieved on the journey to a visible unity and there have been several disappointments. In 1981 a Holy Communion/Cymun Bendigaid service was published and a revised modern version was published in 2012 both of which were highly acclaimed. Several Local Ecumenical Partnerships have been set up. Ministry and our understanding of it is key to progress. Only one of the five (Church in Wales) is an Episcopal Church, the other four being non-Episcopal (no bishops!) A way has to found in crossing this barrier. Attempts were made in 1986 and in 1998 to address this issue but did not succeed. All the while our mission to Wales is impeded by our divisions and every denomination has seen a decline in stipendiary ministers and congregations. On the positive side every denomination has re-discovered the role of the laity in ministry, yet many areas, especially rural ones, bemoan the loss of ordained leadership by full time ministers.

The Gathering/Y Cydgynulliad held in Aberystwyth in October 2012 is the latest attempt to bring us nearer to a uniting Church in the nation of Wales. We have until the middle of 2014 to consider its proposals and our responses will come to another Gathering in 2015.  It is hoped each parish, deanery and diocese in the Church in Wales will give the matter careful thought and prayer, as will the various structures in our partner Churches.