Greetings / Cyfarchion…
21st January 2014
Let me introduce myself. I am currently the Rector of Bala
and as I write this, the removals team are busy packing away all my personal
belongings and storing them in 2 wagons. I am on my way to pastures new!
(John Pugh, Christ Church’s architect captured the day well
from the top of the scaffolding which currently reaches to the very top of the
spire).
I have been asked by the Church in Wales to record my story…
the experience of the new adventure that is about to begin. I have never
blogged before… and so here goes with my first ever blogg…
For the last 10 years I have been ministering in the Parish
of Bala in the Diocese of St Asaph in North Wales – a very beautiful part of
the world. With a committed team we have worked hard and achieved much.
Following the closure of 3 Churches the main Church – Christ Church – underwent
a major reordering project in 2007. It is an amazingly beautiful building which
offers itself to worship and community events. The congregation has increased
and has a good cross-section of ages including children and youth. Yes, I am
sad to leave and I have shed more than plenty of tears… and I am still shedding
them! But God I know, is calling on me to move on… and so moving on is what I
am about to do…
I am soon to join a new Church family. On the 30th
January I shall be Inducted and Collated as the Rector of the Parishes of
Llanllwchaiarn and Newtown with Aberhafesp (in the Diocese of St Asaph), by
Bishop Gregory and Archdeacon Peter, and Commissioned as Mission Area Leader of
the Cedewain Mission Area. The service will take place at All Saint’s Church,
Newtown at 7-00pm. You are all welcome to attend this service and if you can
make it I will be pleased to see you. However, Newtown will be quite a distance
for some of you and so I will understand if you decide not to come.
This move will be a new beginning and adventure for both Wyn
and I. Wyn, my husband and best friend ever, has always lived in the Bala area
and so this will be a major move for him. Close contact will be maintained with
Bala for this reason and also due to the fact that his elderly brother, Jack,
lives in Bala.
And for me… well, a new ministry in a new Parish and new a
Mission Area (Deanery), a new challenge and hopefully another new exciting
adventure. And the adventure has already begun… with an email informing me that
a major leak has occurred at All Saint’s Church creating some havoc! With the
intervention of Brian, the Clerk of Works, the leak has been fixed and all is
in order for Sunday’s service and for the Induction.
It is also a new beginning and adventure in the life of many
of the Parishes in the Mission Area. My predecessor, his curate and a colleague
all left in the last 6 months… thus leaving a huge gap and a period of
interregnum. I shall be joining Terry
(house for duty cleric) and a committed team of retired clerics, Worship
Leaders, Pastoral Assistants and many other hard workers… and we shall soon be
joined by Alex, who will be Inducted to the Kerry group of Parishes on 27th
February. She is very excited and looking forwards to starting in her new role.
This is to be her first incumbency and so I ask you to keep her in your
prayers.
Ok… the removals team are now asking… please can they clear
the study… I am about to be disconnected from the world!!! Off goes my internet
connection…
22nd January 2014
… back with you. I am now writing in the car on my journey
to the Rectory in Newtown. All my personal belongings having been stored in the
Wirral overnight will hopefully join me at 9-30am. If not….!
Wyn and I stayed with Jack, his brother, last night. The
farewell wasn’t easy…
25th January 2014
Cyfarchion… Dwi yn ôl… / Greetings, I am back…
Mae hi wedi bod yn andros o brysur arna ni ein dau ond bellach
mae’r tŷ mewn trefn a phopeth yn ei le. Allai ddim goddef llanast felly rhaid
gwagio pob bocs a chal trefn gynted ag y bo modd.
No blogging for a few days… Yes, you guessed correctly,
there hasn’t been a free moment until now. Four days of unpacking and sorting
out all our belongings has been a task and a half but as I sit here in the
lounge I am pleased to say that every box has been emptied and everything is in
it’s place. Even the garage is neat and tidy. Wyn and I find ourselves
searching for things, not quite remembering where we kept certain items. I have
to have things in order – at home and at work. The Parishioners of Bala knew
this very well and my new Church family are soon to find this out.
The Rectory is larger than our previous home in Bala… it provides
good exercise to walk from one end to the other.
Over the last few days cards have arrived with good wishes,
meals and cakes have arrived by kind parishioners – I wonder if they have
learnt that I am no cook!
Today I met many of the PCC members at All Saint’s to plan
for the Induction and Commissioning service next Thursday. It was good to meet
more members of our new Church family. It was also good to learn more about the
Parishes and to begin to get a grasp as to how things work here i.e. funerals,
baptisms, weddings… and what goes on during the week. It is strange to leave a
Parish where everything was at the tip of my fingers and to begin in a new
Parish where I know very little about anything. Hopefully, I will soon learn.
And I have much to learn… not only about the Parishes where I shall serve as
the Rector, but also I need to learn about the other Parishes of the Mission
Area.
We had a good meeting and we are all set for our rehearsal
for the Induction Service. Many have been working hard with all the
arrangements. They are all out to offer a warm welcome to all who will attend
the service.
The Bishop has asked Archdeacon Peter and myself to give
thought to ensuring that the service reflects the fact that I am being inducted
to a group of Parishes and also being Commissioned to be a Mission Area Leader.
And so attention was given to this at the meeting as there will be some
amendments to the Diocesan order of service for Inducting a new Parish Priest.
The Bishop is keen for the Mission Area to be profiled in the service as his
hope is that I will work to develop the Mission Area in new and innovative
ways. Parishes in the Diocese are no longer to be parochial, they are to be
encouraged to be interdependent, to work closely with the other Churches in the
Mission Area – for clerics and all assistants and indeed all parishioners to
work together, to worship together and to be supportive of each other. For the
last 10 years I have been working in a Parish and Deanery where there was not a
great deal of working collaboratively. Clergy supported one another but the
group of Parishes tended to work independently, although there were some
wonderful occasions of sharing and unity.
Helping and encouraging the development of the Mission Area
will be a new experience for me and I will need the guidance, support and
encouragement of colleagues, Archdeacon Peter, Bishop Gregory, staff at the
Diocesan Office… and of course the Parishioners. And I am never afraid of
asking for help… I think I will be continually asking for help!
Time to say goodbye for today. Tomorrow is Sunday. I shall
miss very much not being at Christ Church, Bala!
26th January 2014
Mae hi yn Ddydd Sul a tydw I ddim yn yr Eglwys dwi wedi
arfer bod ynddi pob Sul bron ers 10 mlynedd. Di yn llawn hiraeth!
Wyn and I didn’t make it to a Church service today. Our plan
was to attend the service at Berriew. But Wyn has developed a cold and I felt
too tender to attend a Church that I wasn’t familiar with. And so Wyn is dozing
himself with lemsip so that he will be 100% for Thursday and I intend to have
some quiet room in a prayer room I have prepared at the Rectory.
Christ Church is very much in my mind today!
I am hoping to send this blogg out today at long last… if I
make it for coffee and free wi-fi at McDonalds. I am without internet
connection until Friday. Once up and running you will receive regular updates.
Well... this is the plan. I hope that I won’t be too busy to spend time
reflecting upon the day and sharing some of the news and developments with you
on a regular basis.
Great to be able to keep up with you! I wish the boxes that have been stored in our garage for 7 years had been unpacked! I should have asked you for help before you left....much love to you both
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