The road from the M4 into the Rhondda via Llantrisant is not one I've used much in the years since then. It's been improved vastly, and the valley sides stripped of virtually all evidence of its industrial past. The coal mines and the coke oven plant on the approach to Tonyrefail have long gone and a vista of green and wooded hills again pleases the eye. Dirty scars in the landscape have healed faster than wounds in the community and the workforce, as the sight of shops closed, chapels derelict or converted to other uses suggests. It's not that poverty is obvious or even dire. Valleys communities haven't stood still by any means. They aren't locked in their past industrial glory, but compared to the suburbs of Cardiff they aren't as prosperous.
We drove up to Tonyrefail to take part in the local Ignatian mediation group this lunchtime, hosted on this occasion by Ruth Moverley at the Vicarage. The last time I'd set foot in that house was 25 years ago when I was local USPG representative, invited to preach at special services for Holy Week. Ruth and her curate look after both Tonyrefail and neighbouring Gilfach Goch parish up a side valley - three churches between them. Ruth worked them single handed until her curate arrived two years ago. There are fewer clergy now serving village communities and their remaining churches throughout the former mining valleys, just as in rural areas. Distances to travel are not as great, but the pastoral demands can be very heavy indeed, especially where fewer than ever professionals who serve these communities opt to live in them.
Valleys people are kind and supportive, full of good humour and traditionally resilient in the face of adversity. I wonder how they are faring in the face of one economic recession after another?
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