Last night I went up road, found a phone signal and got on to the internet with the Blackberry to look up local church service times. Annoyingly, the Church in Wales web server was down. The one place where information of this kind is on offer, was out of action on the day in the week most likely to receive enquiries of this kind. So, this morning after breakfast we headed out in search of a place to worship, early enough for a ten o'clock, should one exist. Forty years ago, the village of Moylegrove had its own Vicar. Now its church is closed.
The next village on from here is St Dogmael's to the north and Nevern to the south. Both were parishes with their own incumbent when I visited here working for USPG twenty five years ago. St Dogmael's and Nevern and several other churches are now served by one incumbent, or would be if one could be found. The Parish has been in an interregnum for more than a year. St David's diocese is short of clergy. Re-grouping rural churches is a work in progress hindered by this shortage. Communities in the area we've chosen for our holiday are caught up in this situation. Without the help of retired clergy, the ordinary worship life of the church would grind to a halt.
We arrived in St Dogmael's just before ten and discovered that there'd be a Eucharist at eleven fifteen, so parked outside the Abbey ruins and went for a stroll around the village. Yesterday evening that had been an open air production of 'Midsummer Night's Dream' in the Abbey grounds, hardly bothered by the rain. This morning however, the stage set was being struck in light rain. Some of those taking part in the performance had camped out in the Abbey grounds overnight and were packing wet tents before their departure.
On our stroll we found cucumbers and blackcurrants for sale with an honesty box, outside someone's house and courgettes outside another. We bought two pounds of blackcurrants, and since the Mill shop had just opened, bought a kilo of organic stoneground wheat flour on our way to church. Clare brought the yeast but had forgotten to bring flour. How good it will be to bake bread with such locally sourced ingredients, when we finish the load we brought with us.
St Dogmael's Parish church was a-buzz with activity when we arrived. People come early for coffee and catch-up before the service begins rather than staying on afterwards. I daresay the Vicar usually comes from an earlier service somewhere else, so his arrival is the cue to stop socialising and take places to get started. The locum priest who celebrated, Fr Geoffrey Asson, was a Llandaff ordinand ten years before I was, and still going strong. Having spent most of his ministry in England, he and his wife retired locally, and clearly enjoy being part of the community here.
The last time I worshipped in this church was about twenty five years ago, when I preached on behalf of USPG. The Vicar at the time had introduced social refreshments after the service, but wouldn't serve inferior instant coffee. He insisted on the fresh percolated kind, and the aroma filled the church like incense during the latter half of the service. In those days it was prepared on a folding table at the back of the nave. Nowadays there are purpose built kitchen and toilets at the back of church, and an area cleared of pews to contain several round tables with chairs, cafe style. It seems well used and is much appreciated.
We had a snack lunch in the Abbey visitor centre restaurant, then despite the rain we drove down to Poppit Sands and walked along the sea shore for an hour. The rain stopped and the sun struggled to peek through the clouds, so we drove back into Cardigan/Aberteifi to stroll the streets and visit the (locked) Parish Church of St Mary, close to the banks of the Teifi before heading back to Pengwern to cook a lassagne together for supper. I was happy to let Clare take half of the blackcurrants and crown them with a perfect crumble using the flour we'd bought from the Abbey mill. Who could ask for more?
Well, we had a laugh before bed. Staring at the packet of stoneground flour sitting on the kitchen workshop I noticed the legend at the top of the packet read "St Dogmael's" but at the bottom was printed "St Dogmeal's"
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