The Church’s ministry is varied, and reaches out to all generations including those who are elderly. Each month, we enjoy a visit to Bella Vista Nursing Home in Cardiff Bay for a short time of worship with some of the residents.
“You’ve got a nice face,” she said. She repeated it a few times. Perhaps she said it to everyone, or maybe just seeing a different face made her happy. Possibly, she felt comfortable when people smiled, or a nice face is simply a face that smiles.
Whatever the reason, when she said it, she smiled too. It made her happy and, in that moment, she also had, to use her own words, a nice face.
I didn’t notice her singing today, although I know she enjoys singing. At some point in her long life, she had been a professional singer, and often raises her voice in song. But not today. Today, she just smiled.
I’m in Bella Vista Nursing Home in the south of Butetown, a Dementia friendly, purpose built home surrounded by houses in tight streets, close to the sea and looking across Cardiff Bay. There are 62 en-suite bedrooms here, three dining rooms, and lots of facilities and activities.
Many of these activities are orchestrated by Abi, the Activities Coordinator. There is Wheelchair Zumba and meals out, knitting and gardening, bingo and board games, pet therapy, and arts and crafts. Slotted into this rich menu is the monthly ‘Church Service.’ Today, about a dozen have gathered, although we’re missing a few familiar faces. Often, like today, the visit of a family member or friend coincides with the Service.
We’re in one of the six lounges, upstairs on the second floor, with its large flat screen TV on the wall for which I’m grateful. It means we can share clips of BBC’s Songs of Praise, which gives us a congregational boost and, most importantly, not have to rely on my own ‘out of pitch’ attempts to sing.
It’s the songs and the music which connect with many of them. Each participates in their own way, some louder than others, some simply mouthing the words, and most not needing the subtitled words to be able to sing along. They remember the words when perhaps other things evade them. The tunes connect with them, stir a memory, move them to pray. Some just sit, are silent, and connect in their own way.
We are blessed in our churches with people of all ages, each as important as the other. Some have been constant features for every decade of their life, their faithfulness an inspiration to those of us who are yet to catch up, their experience a rich wellspring of stories, some going back a hundred years.
Today, four hymns are drawn from the archives of our faith. Blessed Assurance and Amazing Grace, The Lord’s my Shepherd and Cwm Rhondda. Sometimes I ask for suggestions, and we flick through Youtube trying to find what they want to sing.
Familiar prayers are shared. The ‘Our Father,’ ‘Make me a channel of your peace’ and ‘God be in my head and in my understanding,’ They are prayers I remember from my own Sunday School days, and I sometimes forget that I know them by heart.
Tea and biscuits follow before I’m guided to the room of someone who didn’t quite feel up to joining us today. I show him the Blessed Sacrament. He holds out his hand.
“The Body of Christ.”
“Amen,” he replies, and then he tells me he’s looking forward to next month, will join us next time we gather on the second floor.
I smile, he smiles.
He’s got a nice face.
South Cardiff Ministry Area 
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