Vale locum

We went to the Parish Eucharist at St John's Canton this morning. Fr Martin Colton announced at the end of the service that he and Chris had become grandparents this week, which generated a nice round of applause and smiles all round. We then walked under a blue sky to the outdoor market to get our organic veggies for the week. The footpath along the Pontcanna side bank of the Taff is flanked by tens of thousands of daffodils of several varieties, such a delight to behold, and well worth a photograph.

Yesterday I had a call from Fr Derek Belcher, Team Rector of the Cowbridge Benefice with its twelve historic churches, to ask if I could stand in for him at an evening Eucharist at St Michael's Flemingston, a small village overlooking from the north side RAF St Athan air station in the Vale of Glamorgan. I set out in good time to arrive for six thirty. However, the first five minutes of my journey became twenty five, as the back streets taking me to the westbound A48 were to my surprise congested by traffic returning from parks or shopping in town. A48 traffic was flowing normally all the way to Cowbridge, so I had no further problems and arrived on time. The only annoying thing was that there wasn't enough  time to walk around the churchyard and take a few photos of the beautiful little 14th century church in its immaculate setting, with manor house next door, bathed in evening sunlight. If I'm asked again I shall be sure to leave even earlier.

There was a congregation of eight in a church so small that each pew held just three people, in all there was enough room to seat around fifty. In the floor of the vestry is the charming effigy of a noble lady wearing a wimple and a long gown, Joan Le Fleming, one of the 13th century Norman settlers who made their home here after the Conquest. So sad to see a notice in the church porch stating that it is kept closed outside of services to prevent vandalism. Maintaining such historical cultural treasures with so few people available or interested is one of the most difficult issues for the contemporary church to deal with, when is is short of support as well as short staffed. Will things change I wonder? 

I was impressed last night with a programme presented by Melvyn Bragg on the King James Bible making a vigorous case for its importance not only to religion and literature, but to politics and science, questioning the accepted assertion that politics and science are children of the secular Enlightenment, by making a case for the overarching influence of biblical language on all intellectual discourse, in addition to everyday vernacular. I tend to think of Bragg as an informed skeptic rather than a man of faith, but he is quite forthcoming about the indebtedness we all share to the translators of scripture into English. It was good to see Astronomer Royal Prof Martin Rees, interviewed and lending a degree of support to Bragg's case. Programmes like this can help quietly challenge the arrogance of modern despisers of religion and hopefully nurture a re-valuation of the contribution Christian faith can make to everyone's lives today.