Llanfrynach - this serene sanctuary

Another lovely summer day for my early drive out to St John's Penllyn to celebrate the Eucharist, just one year and two weeks since I was last there, before going to Spain. I received a warm welcome and it seems that the congregation were already aware that I would be working with them again in the months to come. The same too at Ystradowen, my next port of call. How nice it was to see the pub next door once more open for business, and the horrid pink external decoration replaced by traditional white.

I returned after the service to collect Clare from the market, and eat late lunch out in the garden before returning to Cowbridge for a tea time planning session with Fr Derek the Rector, looking ahead to me sharing in the work of ministry development and pastoral care in the Benefice, during the period of change-over between Team Vicars. Then we went out to the thirteenth century Llanfrynach Parish Church for candle-lit Choral Evensong, with music by Orlando Gibbons throughout - a nice touch.

Bright sunshine outside, but the building has no electricity, and the only water available (sometimes) is the stream at the southern edge of the churchyard. There may have been a church here well before the Norman Conquest. Its long chancel suggests that it might have once had a small monastic community, and in its early history it was an outpost of Cistercian Margam Abbey. 

The village to which this church belonged disappeared from the map after the Black Death, no more than a century after it was built. The new settlement of Penllyn is a mile or so uphill, and linked by footpath to the church, punctuated by a series of 'coffin stiles', where funeral processions of old would pause to rest on their journey. The generous grassy churchyard, enclosed by trees still remains in use for burial today. I wonder if originally it was a circular site, since there are a couple of other churchyards in the Benefice with ancient churches located inside a 'llan'. The survival of this marvellous building in a remote field, half a mile up a rough track away from the main road, has been due to enthusiasm this serene sanctuary inspired in benefactors in the nineteenth century. Nowadays Heritage Lottery funding has taken the strain and the building is in a good state of repair. 

 It's a solid rough 'n ready sort of construction, described by Geoffrey Orin in his book on the Vale's mediaeval churches as 'crude workmanship'. But I imagine many churches in ancient times were built to be first and foremost functional places for worship. With the passage of time and increase of prosperity architectural refinement and enhancement would occur. It didn't happen at Llanfrynach because its village died, and although a large building, it was relegated to occasional use as a cemetery chapel. So, in a way it gives us an unfamiliar snapshot of a stage in the development life of an ancient church. It's a treasure, deserving many more visitors and pilgrims. 

There were over fifty people present, twenty of them in the choir. Many people spoke with enthusiasm and affection about the place and the event. Evening worship normally fails to attract Anglicans these days, but summer Evensongs at Llanfrynach are clearly worth making the effort to attend. What sort of message does this convey about 'popular' worship, I wonder?