Plygain revival

Another bright cold day, with the temperature just above freezing. Interesting that I didn't need an extra blanket in the night to keep warm, an indication that the humidity level is low. I went to the Eucharist in the Cathedral at eleven. The rugby pitches on Llandaff Fields were all busy with junior matches, if not training sessions, attracting more youngsters and parents than Sunday School. The worship of sporting success and prowess overtook churchgoing as a major Sunday activity decades ago. Most of the hundred and forty worshippers in church were over fifty. 

The readings for Epiphany Sunday including the Three Kings were used, rather than the ones for the Baptism of Christ set in the Church in Wales Lectionary for the first Sunday after Epiphany. I think that it was an appropriate choice when the Feast of the Epiphany was only yesterday. The Baptism of Christ is also a key Epiphany story, but it's widely done in the Catholic and other churches nowadays, to transfer Three Kings day to the nearest Sunday, then have the Baptism of Christ the following week. Why the Church in Wales should ignore this trend is a mystery to me. 

Canon theologian Ryan Green celebrated and preached with Archdeacon Mike Komor assisting him. It's Mike's farewell service at Choral Evensong this afternoon. Sitting as I usually do near the front of the nave he spotted me and sought me out at the Peace to exchange greetings, asking me if retirement could be rated as one of the best jobs in the world. All I could think to say was yes, as it gives you freedom to choose what you say 'yes' or 'no' to. Not so easy when then decline in congregation numbers and ministers haunts you with the thought of the still faithful remnant who are 'like sheep without a shepherd'.

I was conscious throughout the service of continuous background noise emitting from a large industrial hot air blower lodged in an doorway on the north side. I guess the regular heating system must be broken. At the end of the service it was switched off, and the temperature indoors plummeted which I listened to a Bach organ prelude being played. Not even a brisk walk back through the park on the way home could warm me up. There can't be many churches in use that aren't expensive to heat. Because their volume and inadequate insulation their carbon footprint is bound to be high, churchgoers are challenged on both counts to think hard about what a sustainable future looks like.

I was home in time for lunch at one. Clare went off to Aberdare with her Plygain group for a special Welsh language service at St Fagan's church. I went for a walk in the park, testing a long winter fleece lined long coat I bought some months ago against the 3C chill. It was heavier than I realised, and not quite as effective as my ancient padded ski jacket. It's time I tried it out in on a really rainy day. There are more patches of snowdrops emerging on the side of the road through Pontcanna Fields, and a clump of three daffodil buds in an area where there are a dozen or so daffodil shoots about six inches high. It's the same as I observed last year. a few select plants - snowdrop, crocus daffodil - emerging in advance of all the others, a week or more ahead. I wonder what the reason is for this?

I had a long catch-up phone chat with Martin, and a shorter one with my sister, then after supper with nothing better to do I watched three more episodes of 'Bones'. Clare returned from Aberdare, reporting that the Plygain service had attracted about 200 people. An impressive turnout for a revived traditional winter evening event. It's going to be a frosty night tonight.