Church News for April

News for April

Please allow me to start on a personal note. I have just watched the wonderful Mothering Sunday Service from St. Mary’s on Facebook. It was a most uplifting time for those who had joined in and it is a privilege to be a part of the wonderful family of our three churches. Diolch yn fawr

Now to Church News…

March 23rd was kept as a DAY OF RELECTION marking one year since the first “lockdown” in the country due to COVID-19. A year in which many have died, many have contracted the virus and recovered, and how thankful we are for the NHS who looked after their patients in the most difficult and worrying of circumstances. The Archbishop of Wales asked us to REFLECT, TO HAVE HOPE AND TO SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER, this has to be done carefully, thoughtfully and hopefully as we come out of the many restrictions imposed on us to keep us safe during the darkest days of the Winter now coming to an end. A sure sign of this was the re-opening of our churches on March 21st, for Eucharistic worship, once again under strict conditions of hand cleansing, mask wearing, no singing, no loitering and keeping a social distance from each other. As before, attendance had to be booked in advance and seating allocated within the church, but it was good to be getting together. Mothering Sunday was an online service featuring the children of our Pebbles group and young musicians from Sully. Wonderful and a big THANK YOU. Also to hear Jon’s Mum reading from St Paul to the Colossians was truly amazing. Daffodils were freely available outside our churches to give to Mums, Grandmothers and Godmothers, as a token of the love we have for all they have done for us.

The Easter issue of the parish magazine “Connections” was printed and posted to all church members and included a Palm Cross in time for Palm Sunday and Holy Week (see Jon’s letter for details of services). We have had to suspend our usual practice of providing lilies in remembrance of loved ones this year, but we ask for names of loved ones to be remembered at the altar with a lit candle; names to the Church wardens please. We invite all who wish a family member or friend to submit their names, for you are all part of God’s family whether you are a church member or not. The churchyard cross will be decorated as last year, thanks to Mike, Sandra and Brian. The children from Wenvoe School are decorating pebbles to go around the base, and this together with the Easter Garden in the porch will make for an interesting visit.

During the month there has been work ongoing at St. Mary’s. You could not fail to notice the security tape barrier around the base of the tower. During the severe frost, mortar has been falling from the masonry. Steeplejacks have been up the tower to report on the likely cause and report on how to put things right. At long last after a battle with the Royal Mail we have finally been allocated a postcode for the church and the church hall. We needed this to get a BT landline into the church to assist in streaming our services on the internet. We have installed secure post boxes in the church hall porch and the church porch to receive mail and also for the community to use should they wish, to contact the church authorities. The notice boards in the porch have been refurbished with user friendly panels of cork, to make the insertion of drawing pins etc much easier, so no more damaged fingers, we hope.

The Church Hall together with the adjoining Wheelwrights Shop have been surveyed by our church architect and his report is awaited, with some trepidation, for we know it will not make welcome reading. However, work will be required to make it fit for purpose, so watch this space.

Easter Greetings to all. Continue to keep safe and look forward with hopefulness to better times ahead.

Parry Edwards