An Easter to rejoice in

Yesterday evening I walked across Llandaff Fields and joined the congregation at the Cathedral for the Easter Vigil, presided over by Archbishop Barry. The fire was kindled and the Paschal candle lit just outside the west door, as daylight faded, and the first part of the liturgy of the Word, as darkness descended was done by candle light, just as it should be whenever possible. 

The service included confirmation of one teenager and thirteen adults, mostly people of mature years. One of the younger adults was also baptized. I was seated near the font, and was much moved by the gentle inward smile of the candidate as she lifted her head after the water of baptism had been poured over her. It's a look I've seen before when I've baptized adults - there's nothing it can be compared with. It's great to see a group of grown-ups making a commitment of faith, in a ritual that has unintentionally become associated with being an adolescent church graduation and leaving ritual. 

For the most part, the baby boomer generation and those who followed after disengaged from the mainstream church struggling to re-engage pastorally and spiritual as secularism began to overwhelm every aspect of contemporary life. Even a modest return to faith by the older generation will prove influential in the longer term, as dialogue across the age gap is made less awkward by the advent of social media and other boundary changing means to exchange ideas. Much necessary time has been spend engaging with disaffected youth. Equally vital for the future is re- engaging with disaffected older people that have much to offer to the life of the church from their experience.

I appreciated the recent modest changes made to the Vigil and Initiation rites. It's a lengthy service at the best of times, and more complex than a normal Eucharist to execute. The quiet self effacing discipline of the team of servers and officiating ministers made something elaborate feel simple, unfussy, relaxed. It's a great model of teamwork - what you get when everyone believes in and loves what they are doing. A good example for the wider church. I was so glad that I made the effort to go at the end of a busy day.

This morning was bright and sunny, just a little warmer than earlier in the week, blossom in the trees just that bit more advanced than last Sunday, fitting for an Easter Day. I was on duty again with Eucharists at St Michael's Tongwynlais and St James' Taff's Well. There were about seventy at the former and thirty at the latter, and good cheer abounded, a fitting conclusion to my recent spell of locum assignments with the parish. I'll be in Spain when their new priest arrives.

Owain was gigging in Cardiff last night and stopped over for the weekend. He cooked lunch for us, swordfish steaks, spinach, roasted artichokes, spuds and beetroot, with raspberries and cream or yoghourt to follow, washed down with a decent Rioja Joven. We finished in time for me to walk again across the fields to the Cathedral for Solemn Evensong with Handel's Hallelujah Chorus and a Te Deum to conclude. A most enjoyable conclusion to the Easter Triduum.

 

Holy Week - the first half

There was an hilarious April Fool prank on the Diocese in Europe Website this morning. An item about a new EC directive on standardisation of candle sizes to comply with Health and Safety requirements in European churches. It's worth a look. You'll find it here

This week my locum ministry duties lie in the familiar territory of Tongwynlais and Taff's Well. Fortunately, a new priest has already been appointed, Zoe King, moving from the far west of the diocese, but she won't arrive until June. Under the new strategic ministry plan for the diocese this parish is grouped with Radyr, Pentyrch and Groesfaen. It's a suburban district of Cardiff adjacent to the M4 corridor that will see a lot more fresh housing development in the next decade, but which is unlikely to get more than the present number of three clergy when it would be best served by double that number.

Already the existing clergy are starting plan and work together with the future in mind. For the first three days of Holy Week the have invited the congregations of the three Parishes to come together for an evening service in a place of worship belonging to each one in turn. As locum priest, they invited me to join them, taking a turn in preaching, leading worship and sitting in the congregation on the receiving end.

As none of these services were planned as Eucharists, I took myself to Llandaff Cathedral three mornings running for the 9.30am Eucharist, each celebrated by a retired colleague. The numbers attending varied between a dozen and twenty, also mostly retired people. Each of the three evenings there's another Eucharist with address, and I would imagine, no shortage of people to attend. Cathedral attendances are rising here, as in other parts of Britain.

On Monday evening, it rained and there was a very blustery wind for Evening Prayer at St John's Danescourt, yet there were twenty people present. The sound of the wind roaring intermittently through the trees in the churchyard outside sounded like that of waves breaking on the sea shore.

On Tuesday the weather was bright and sunny all day. I drove out to St David's Groesfaen for Compline and Address, graced by the setting sun streaming in through plain glass nave windows in this delightful country church. This time there were three dozen people present.

Tonight we were in St Michael's Tongwynlais for Evening Prayer at the same hour. Quite apart from the return of clouds and light rain, the position of the village at the entrance to the Taff Gorge means that dusk arrived earlier than it did at Groesfaen. Even so, twenty eight people were present. All three occasions, I'd say, were occasions of enouragement, both for the Jenny and Mike, the clergy and to their congregations. Both of them preached very well indeed, and I much enjoyed being on the receiving end.

This morning, Clare had the stitches removed from her wounds, all very healthy and neat. Six days since the operation, and I see progress in her every day. On the way back from the surgery we called into the Apothecary's shop on Llandaff Road, to seek out a herbal remedy to help her dispel side effects of anaesthesia. We returned home with several bags of herbs, seeds and berries for boiling up into a strange tasting concoction to drink. These things have a way of being quite efficaceous, so long as you have the right mixture. No harm in trying it out I guess.

Christmas at home

I was glad to have Tuesday without commitments to do some last minute shopping. This meant Rachel and I could drive over to Bristol to visit Amanda, exchange Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve, and to catch up with her, as I haven't seen her since summer, when she was last in hospital. She fights against growing disability with impressive courage and creativeness, working with her carers on baking and jam-making. All the presents she'd prepared for the rest of the family she'd made herself. Such admirable spirit!

When Amanda's carer arrived, we headed for home, a late lunch, and then for me, completing a sermon for Midnight Mass. Owain arrived for supper and a relaxed evening before I drove out to Tongwynlais on deserted roads, to celebrate for a congregation of three dozen. Last time I was here, I was hearing Phil one of my students, preach. I also did locum duties here during the last interregnum, three years ago. How time flies!

It was good to be back in a familiar place with familiar faces, and hear the scriptures read by people with South Wales accents not too dissimilar from my own. For me, this is a profound part of what it means to celebrate Christmas at home.

It was strange to awaken relatively late this morning, without the excited voices of children discovering their gifts from Santa, but this year Jasmine is with her father. Rachel, Owain, Clare and I went to the Eucharist at Catherine's, and enjoyed a good carol sing together, before preparing Christmas dinner together - well, my share was preparing the sprouts and washing lots of pans and dishes. Owain took the lead, making sauce based on a reduction of red wine with plum jam to accompany roast duck for a change, plus venison sausages with all the usual family veggie delights including nut roast, followed by glorious Christmas pudding.

Before the sun set, we quit the table and walked around Llandaff Fields. One of my presents from last year was a boxed set of 'Superman' movie videos, from Rachel. Sadly, I've never had enough idle time to consider spending three hours watching them, but with no children to feed, play with or put to bed, we could all sit down and watch the first of the series together. It was good fun, and especially for Rachel a reminder of a childhood family outing to watch this particular movie - not that any of us could actually recall the first fifteen minutes of the film describing Superman's origins on planet Krypton.

It's a superbly crafted movie, but it's funny how differently one interprets it, some thirty five years later on, at the time of year when we sing. 'He came down to earth from heaven...' Superman is a heroic saviour figure, powerful, honourable, decent, upholding western democracy against criminal enemies, yet vulnerable (like Samson) to those who know the secret of his weakness. Sometimes he suffers, it's true, but it's never terminal. It's an intriguing fugue on the incarnation/redemption theme, proving how many thoughtful creatives simply don't get the great mystery of the incarnation.