Memorable Musical

This Sunday, the first of the New Year, is the first in the new era of Ministry Areas in Llandaff Diocese, with the historic pastoral area of the parish merged with neighbouring parishes to be 'managed' with a team of clergy assigned to, but not confined to working where they worked before. There is just the one governing council with a few people from each church represented on it, instead of each parish having its own church council. It's not yet clear how the traditional role of church wardens will be exercised, who will be appointed to it or how. Or what the consequences are of abolishing the office. 

It's creating a situation in which fewer lay people have a say in running their church. While it's true that recruiting a full complement of PCC members is more difficult as churches shrink in numbers, that's no reason to remove the opportunity to participate. There's a risk that when members no longer feel they are stakeholders, it'll mean they are less motivated to volunteer for church duties, and a greater burden of responsibility for running local affairs will fall on the clergy. Let's hope I'm wrong about this. I can't honestly pray for success, but can pray it doesn't lead to decline or to hard working clergy being broken by changes wished on them from above.

At St German's this morning baby Abigail was baptized during the Mass. With her parents was her Nan who flew in for the occasion from Amritsar. The couple are here for studies without family or friends to be here with them. Dad was keen to video parts of the service to send to relatives back home. Given the initial uncertainties surrounding new Ministry Area arrangements, it was a real blessing to welcome a new member into the Body of Christ, especially one whose Christian identity is rooted in the Indian sub-continent. Business as usual, in other words.

Covid restrictions have led to the suspension of after service refreshments for the moment, which was a pity as it meant we couldn't celebrate with Abigail's family before going home. But at least it meant I could reach home for lunch by one after getting soaked in a cloudburst walking from the church back door to my car parked at the front.

Afterwards I walked around Thompson's Park and then down to the Taff, listening again to yesterday's New Year concert in Vienna from the podcast I downloaded to my phone. Rain threatened again, but didn't materialise. The weather is changeable and temperatures dropping after a spell of unseasonable mildness. At the top entrance of Pontcanna Fields I found the first snowdrops of the year and the first tender leaf shoots of emerging daffodils in places where I have photographed them in previous years, so very early in the year.

Before supper, Clare and I sat and listened to Jazz CDs, then in the evening watched the new production of the 1936 American musical comedy 'Anything Goes' filmed in London's Barbican. It was delightful, brilliantly conceived and performed with inspiring dance routines and witty comic dialogue. It reminded me of the film of the stage show, one of many musicals watched on black and white TV as a youngster. Happy memories of going to bed as a kid, with the music continuing to play in my head as I fell asleep. The same thing now too.