With both the Cowbridge Benefice clergy on leave and another moving house and waiting to start, I have three Sunday services this week and next. I started out for Llansannor in good time, aware that the road closures in town for the 10K Kidney Wales Fun Run in town might have an impact on traffic further out. The car was covered with dew, it's that much cooler at night as the days shorten and the scent of Autumn is in the air. Thankfully, the A48 was as quiet as it usually is early on Sundays, and I was early enough to enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet while people were arriving. The church is a haven of tranquility, being half a mile from the village and three hundred yards from the nearest country lane. Outside, a cockerel crowed briefly as I sat there waiting.
From one of the remotest churches of the Benefice with a congregation of nine this morning, I made my way to Holy Cross Parish Church in the centre of Cowbridge with a congregation of thirty. I was greeted by a church member who announced the death of Canon Stanley Mogford, a few days before his 100th birthday. He'd been a priest for 75 years, and was Rector of Llanbleddian with Cowbridge for many years. The only time I ever met him was when my friend Fr Graham Francis did his first curacy there forty odd years ago and I helped him to arrange his first Mass in Holy Cross.
I returned home for lunch. Clare came back from the market with a bag of early damsons, and was already cooking them into our favourite jam. I drove out to Flemingston to take an evening service for nine people. It's the southernmost church of the Benefice. I was last there fifteen months ago. The village flock of Guinea Fowl still roams the churchyard foraging for food, before going to roost for the night in a nearby tree. They're not wild, they belong to someone locally, but I don't know who. After the service people were fixing the date of their Harvest supper. It's that time of year already.
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