Uncertain future

This morning, I sang the Solemn Mass at St German's, for the first interregnum Sunday there, and Archdeacon Peggy preached very well on St Thomas the Apostle. It will be the first of many visits to St German's in the coming months, before Fr Dean Atkins is licensed to the combined charge of the Parishes of Splott St Saviour and Adamsdown St German's. In its heyday between the wars, the parishes of of this urban priority area, had as many as half a dozen clergy. It will now have just one full timer, serving a total population of 19,000 in the two electoral Wards. While there are a dozen or more other churches, mosques, temples etc catering for the pastoral needs of the area, if no preference is expressed by a bereaved family, usually it's the Anglican Parish priest who is called upon to officiate at funerals. With an ageing population, this call of duty alone can keep a full time cleric very busy.

At Fr Roy's retirement do on Wednesday last it was reported that he'd done 399 baptisms in fifteen years as Vicar. That's roughly one a fortnight throughout. The number of weddings will certainly have fallen to a few dozen in those years, but baptisms and funerals in church still feature as part of community life. Fr Dean will be adding this to the work he already does in Splott, which is twice the population of Adamsdown. Both Parishes have been developing lay ministries in an encouraging way. However, many lay people have full lives and limited availability when it comes to sharing the pastoral load, and freeing the priest to take missionary initiatives in the locality. The drastic reduction of numbers of full time serving clerics that's been happening this past decade offers a special challenge to the church in urban working class areas where vestiges of traditional community life that still touch upon the church can make a difference when it comes to community renewal. This is true up in the Valleys communities too. A this stage it's not easy to envisage what the future will be for both Parish churches and the area they serve.

Yesterday evening, my Swedish friend Sara, whom I met in Geneva not long before we left there arrived this evening with her husband Gunnar and three children at the start of a week's holiday touring around Wales. It's her first trip back to Britain since before she got married five years ago, our first opportunity to meet with  Gunnar and the children. We shared a meal and briefed them about some of the local visitor opportuunities before they went off to find their B&B on the embankment opposite the Millennium Stadium. They came back for supper again this evening following a somewhat unsuccessful expedition to find Barry's best beaches. I forgot to register 'Barry Island' in their consciousness, and the quality of the tourism signs in the vicinity of the town leaves something to be desired by way of information which publicises the town's best family asset. Tomorrow they are off to the Gower, much better briefed.