Ascension Day

After a couple of hours in the office, I joined the community at St Mike's for the tea-time Eucharist, before going to my Tai Chi class. The Bishop of Swansea and Brecon celebrated and preached (for too long, making me late leaving for class). I remember Bishop John as curate in Chepstow, when we lived there and I worked for USPG. 

The service was bi-lingual, with hymns and readings in Welsh and English, a mix of languages in the prayers, and best of all, a full decently singable Welsh language setting of the Ordinary of the Mass. How I wish the sung parts were done in Welsh more widely in the church. Cathedrals often use Latin settings with English said texts, so why not Welsh? Well, I already know the answer to that. To my shame I let my suggestions to the musicians and congregation at St John's that we should learn a Welsh Mass setting continue to fall on deaf ears over eight years. It always seemed like too much effort. For a few it was 'not what we do here'. Should I have pushed harder, believing in the immense value of this and the prestigious assertion it would convey to international visitors, that cultural diversity begins at the heart of the capital city? Yes, maybe I should. But the longer in ministry I remained the more carefully I had to select what to work on, in order to bind the congregation together, and not stress or divide it. 

However, I reckon that if the Bishops made the challenge to church congregations to learn how to sing a Welsh Mass setting, and cathedral Deans put some effort into setting the example, and using their musical resources to promote the idea across the dioceses they served, it might give substance to the rhetoric about bi-lingualism being a tool for mission. We also need a bi-lingual edition of the best of Emanau'r Eglwys, the Anglican Welsh language hymnbook which contains many traditional texts also available in English translation. It's good that there is an ecumenical bi-lingual hymn book Caneuon Ffydd, but 900 Welsh hymns and 60 English doesn't quite fit the bill. It's not enough to have the vision or the scholarship to make such a publication. It also needs a lot of investment, and positive promotion.