Death sometimes comes unannounced

With the service at St Illtud's Oxwich at ten this morning, I arranged to take the cooked breakfast offered by Oxwich Bay Hotel as part of the holiday booking at nine rather than nine thirty, to ensure I had time to be punctual. It was nne twenty by the time I was served, and twenty to ten by the time I left to walk to church, just as the rest of the family arrived for breakfast.

There were sixteen of us, plus Sue the newly ordained voluntary priest serving the West Gower group of churches. We started outside, singing 'Morning has broken', as we can't yet sing inside a small church - St Illtud's seats about seventy, in effect twenty under current social distancing regime. After Communion we went outside for to sing a final hymn (a version of Psalm 23), and be dismissed with a blessing. Then coffee was served outdoors for the first time. It was lovely to be welcomed back again, to join this small group of villagers who love their church and enjoy sharing life together in this open hearted community of faith.

When I came out of church I received a text message from my friend Martin to tell me about the sudden and unexpected death at 55 of Archdeacon Sue Pinnington in Monmouth. She and Frances our Rector, are in a Civil Partnership, and Martin knew this would be bound to have an impact on our parish life, as indeed it did. Frances announced Sue death on the Parish Whatsapp group at midday and since then a steady stream of parishioners have posted messages of sympathy, and Fr Rhys has organised changes to the ministry rota to cover her absence on bereavement leave. Although I'm on holiday, it meant that I've had to keep an eye on the exchange of messages all day, and contribute to it, as I am able to. Although Sue's job has been in our neighbouring diocese, she has occasionally contributed to the life of our Parish, notably by being the guest Holy Week preacher this year. It's been truly amazing to witness parishioners rallying around their priest in grief and shock today, I daresay it will be quite a while before things get back to normal.

When I rejoined the family, a picnic lunch was being prepared for a walk along the shore in the direction of Three Cliffs Bay. We stopped about two thirds of the way there to eat our sandwiches. Neither Clare Owain or I were sure we could make it all the way and back, and left Kath and Anto to continue to the destination and send us photos.

It was a gloriously hot day, and as evening approached, we gathered again down on the beach to build a fire and make a barbecue supper. Owain Kath and Anto did well to cook veggie and meat variations on three instant barbecue tinfoil trays purchased from different supermarkets. Clare and I were happy to let them get on with it and enjoy the fruit of the labours. My contribution was to forage for driftwood and feed the real proper fire we made. There was a beautiful sunset, then Clare and I headed back to base and left the others sitting around the fire and enjoying the night air. For is two, it was time for bed.