Our Annual Vestry Meeting is a time to reflect on the past year, to celebrate and give thanks for all that has been achieved. It also gives us a springboard to the future as we look forward to the year to come.
We are grateful to all who have served the Ministry Area over the last year during which we have achieved so much with our vision to be a creatful and resourceful church which is Welcoming, Faithful and Just.
During the meeting we will elect members for the Ministry Area Council for the next twelve months, as well as a People’s Warden. Nomination forms are available in each church.
Sub wardens may also be elected for each church.
You can read the Annual Report here and the Annual Accounts here:
Connecting you with the churches of South Cardiff Ministry Area in Butetown, Grangetown and Splott. (If you’d like to receive posts in your inbox then add your email address at the bottom of the page!)
We’re getting closer to our celebration of Refugee Week, the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
Discover more about our celebrations which also include Windrush Day and the “The Great Get Together.” This year’s theme is “Our Home” and we’ll begin our celebrations on Sunday 16 June.
If you’d like to volunteer during the week, then please get in touch.
Our celebrations for Refugee Week begin on Sunday 16 June with Ice Cream Sunday! After Mass at St Mary’s we make our way into the gardens at 12 noon. All welcome.
St Paul’s School Mass
During Refugee Week on Wednesday 19 June at 10am the School Mass will be for the whole school community of St Paul’s. All are welcome to join us! There’s also the usual 11 am School Mass at St Mary’s which also celebrates Refugee Week!
Corpus Christi
Watch our video from the Corpus Christi celebrations in St Theodore’s Church, Port Talbot last Sunday evening
General Election
Cardiff Citizens General Election Accountability Assembly will take place on 20th June 5pm-6:15pm at Church od Resurrection in Ely.
Food will be served for children and adults from 4:30pm. Transport costs from other parts of the city can be covered.
Please register yourself and invite others to join here
The Great Get Together Barbecue on Sunday 23 June at 12 noon brings our Refugee Week celebrations to a close
A look back at 2023
Our Annual Vestry Meeting is scheduled for Monday June 24 at 7.30 pm at Ss Dyfrig and Samson. This is a time to accept the Annual Report and Financial Report, and to plan for the year ahead with the election of our Ministry Area Council and Churchwardens. Election forms are available in each of the churches from Sunday. You can read the report below. The Financial Accounts will be available soon.
We celebrate the Mass of the Sick with Laying on of Hands and anointing with Holy Oil at St Saviour’s Church on Tuesday 11th June at 10am
Mass on Thursday
Please note that, from this week, the Thursday Mass at St Mary’s at 10am has been discontinued (although there will be a 1230am Mass on Thursday during Regugee Week). The 930am at St Dyfrig and St Samson, and the 5.45pm Mass at St Saviour’s continues
Summer Praise & Strawberry Tea
Come and sing your favourite hymns (let us know before he day who you would like to sing!) and enjoy a Strawberry Tea afterwards on Sunday 11 July at 4pm at Ss Dyfrig and Samson.
St Paul’s Coffee Morning
The next Coffee morning will be on Saturday June 22 in aid of St Paul’s Church funds
Glastonbury Pilgrimage
The Glastonbury Pilgrimage is 100 years old! If you’d like a seat on the coach leaving from Cardiff then either add your name to the list in church or get in touch with us. A £10 payment is required. You can find out more about the pilgrimage here:
Mass is celebrated each day across our churches. Heres our pattern of prayer for the week beginning Sunday 5 May
Sunday 9 June 8.00am: Said Mass at St Paul's 9.15am: Sung Mass at Ss Dyfrig & Samson 9.30am: Sung Mass at St Saviour’s 10.30am: Sung Mass at St Paul's 11.00am: Solemn Mass at St Mary's
Monday 10 June 6.00pm Mass at St Mary's 7.00pm: Mass at Ss Dyfrig & Samson
Tuesday 11June 10.00am: Mass of the Sick at St Saviour's 7.00pm: Mass at St Mary’s
Wednesday 12 June 10.00am: Mass at St Paul's 11.00am: Mass at St Mary's
Thursday 13 June 9.30am: Mass at Ss Dyfrig & St Samson 5.45pm: Mass at St Saviour's
Friday 14 June 10.00am: Mass at St Mary's
Saturday 15 June 11.00am: Morning Prayer & Rosary at St Mary's 11.30am Mass at St Mary's
You can discover more about our regular pattern of worship through the week at
We pray for our plans for Refugee Week, Windrush Day and the Great Get Together
We pray for all involved in the General Election campaigns, and for Citizen Cymru’s Accountability Assembly.
We pray for the Deanery of Cardiff as it meets this week to discuss the Common Share, and for all who have special concern for finances and giving in our churches.
For more prayer resources, check out our ‘Day by Day’ pages which includes prayers for various times and occasions.
Friday 28th June 10.30 am (John Ryan) followed by Committal at Thornhill at 12.30pm. (John’s body will be received into Church on the Thursday 27th at 3.30pm)
“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.”
You can find out more about the funeral service on our ‘Funerals’ page which also includes prayers for the bereaved and the departed.
Connecting you with the churches of South Cardiff Ministry Area in Butetown, Grangetown and Splott. (If you’d like to receive posts in your inbox then add your email address at the bottom of the page!)
We’ve launched our programme for Refugee Week, the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
Discover more about our celebrations which also include Windrush Day and the “The Great Get Together.” This year’s theme is “Our Home” and we’ll begin our celebrations on Sunday 16 June.
If you’d like to volunteer during the week, then please get in touch.
On Sunday, we celebrate Corpus Christi Sunday with Mass at the usual times. In the evening, we’re invited to St Theodore’s Church, Port Talbot for Vespers, Procession and Benediction. You can find out more about the Feast below:
Our Walsingham Cell meets on Saturday 8 June with Mass at 1130am followed by lunch (please bring your own packed lunch) and then Sprinkling with Water from the Holy Well There’s also Rosary from 11am. All are welcome.
Our Annual Vestry Meeting is scheduled for Monday June 30 at 7.30 pm at Ss Dyfrig and Samson. This is a time to accept the Annual Report and Financial Report, and to plan for the year ahead with the election of our Ministry Area Council and Churchwardens. Election forms are available in each of the churches from Sunday. You can read the report below. The Financial Accounts will be available soon.
We celebrate Mass with Laying on of Hands and anointing with Holy Oil at St Mary’s Church on Tuesday 4th June at 7pm
Bella Vista Nursing Home
Next Thursday 6th June, it’s our monthly celebration at Bella Vista Nursing Home at 11am. Members of family of residents are also welcome to join us. You can read a reflection from last month about the importance of this time together below..
The Glastonbury Pilgrimage is 100 years old! If you’d like a seat on the coach leaving from Cardiff then either add your name to the list in church or get in touch with us. A £10 payment is required. You can find out more about the pilgrimage here:
St Saviour’s Church runs two Foodbank Distribution sessions on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening, as well as receiving the food deliveries on Tuesday morning. It’s run by volunteers. If you would like to consider joining the team, then please get in touch to explore all the different roles. You can speak to Glyn Perryman, Liz Norman or Fr Dean to find out more.
Welcome Home
The housing crisis in Cardiff and across the UK means that many families are living in unsuitable accommodation. We’re giving a welcome gift to new families in housing need who will be living in our community of Butetown when Cargo House is reopened. You can discover more about it here, and how you can be involved!
Mass is celebrated each day across our churches. Heres our pattern of prayer for the week beginning Sunday 5 May
Sunday 2 June 8.00am: Said Mass at St Paul's 9.15am: Sung Mass at Ss Dyfrig & Samson 9.30am: Sung Mass at St Saviour’s 10.30am: Sung Mass at St Paul's 11.00am: Solemn Mass at St Mary's
Monday 3 June 6.00pm Mass at St Mary's 7.00pm: Mass at Ss Dyfrig & Samson
Tuesday 4June 10.00am: Mass at St Saviour's 7.00pm: Mass at St Mary’s
Wednesday 5 June 10.00am: Mass at St Paul's 11.00am: Mass at St Mary's
Thursday 6 June 9.30am: Mass at Ss Dyfrig & St Samson 10.00am: Mass at St Mary’s 5.45pm: Mass at St Saviour's
Friday 7 June 10.00am: Mass at St Mary's
Saturday 8 June 11.00am: Morning Prayer & Rosary at St Mary's 11.30am Mass at St Mary's
You can discover more about our regular pattern of worship through the week at
The next meeting of the Cell of Our Lady of Walsingham takes place on June 8th at St Mary’s Church
O holy house of Walsingham! Here would we ever dwell but Jesus calls us to the strife and tumults of our daily life Our Lady’s Shrine, “Farewell”
We sing those words at the end of a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham as we look to the image of Mary and Jesus huddled in the Holy House.
They are words of deep affection and desire. How we would love to stay, just a little while longer, just one day more. But, alas, all good things come to an end and we have to return to the norm, the everyday, the tumults, the strife, our daily life.
We’ve all had that feeling at times.
Meanwhile, when we arrive home, we look back at the benefits and blessings we received on pilgrimage, share memories, and maybe plan and look forward to the next pilgrimage.
Throughout the country (and indeed in many countries around the world) local ‘Cells’ of Our Lady of Walsingham offer pilgrims an opportunity to strengthen and renew the spiritual benefits of their pilgrimage.
The Shrine Church at Walsingham
The Cell is a focus of prayer for all, and can also serve to encourage others to push out on pilgrimage.
Here, in South Cardiff Ministry Area, the next meeting our Walsingham Cell takes place on Saturday June 8 at St Mary’s Church in Butetown.
Mass will be celebrated at 1130am, but you’re also invited to come along a little earlier for the Rosary which we pray from 11am. After Mass it’s time for coffee and then the Rite of Sprinkling with water from Walsingham’s holy well.
Whether you’re a Walsingham pilgrim or not, you’re welcome to join us for a few hours of prayer and fellowship, as we honour Mary, pray for the Shrine, and seek to live a holy life through prayer, scripture and sacrament.
Connecting you with the churches of South Cardiff Ministry Area in Butetown, Grangetown and Splott. This week we launched our programme for Refugee Week and The Great Get Together. Read on.
This week, we launched our programme for Refugee Week. It’s the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. During the week we also celebrate Windrush Day and the “The Great Get Together.” This year’s theme is “Our Home” and we’ll begin our celebrations on Sunday 16 June so make sure you put the week in your diary! Find out more here:
Last Saturday, on the Eve of Pentecost, Churches Together took to the streets and walked from church to church beginning at St Paul’s Church and ending at Eglwys Dewi Sant. Check out our video highlights.
Faithful Butetown
This week, we welcomed an amazing group of school children from Pembrokeshire. During Refugee Week, we will welcome a further 240 children to participate in our Faithful Butetown Discovery Days. Check out what they have in store with this web resource for visiting schools.
We had great celebrations across the churches of the Ministry Area last week for the Feast of Pentecost. Check out something of the celebrations at St Saviour’s in this video!
Bring and Share
Fr Dean reviews a book by Martyn Snow, the Bishop of Leicester. “An Intercultural Church for a Multicultural World” is a book which explores the theme of gift exchange in a diverse and multicultural world and how we might think and act with greater cultural sensitivity
Take a look at our OMG! Pentecost celebrations with young people last Sunday. A time of worship followed by pizza with a number of young people signing up to the Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage in August!
Elected for service
Congratulations to Jane Henshaw, a member of St Saviours congregation and a local Councillor who, this week, was elected as Mayor of Cardiff for the next year.
Wonderful moment for @EdwardStubbs and I to see our ward colleague in Splott, @msjanehenshaw elected tonight to be Lord Mayor of Cardiff and Chair of @cardiffcouncil for the next Municipal Year. Llongyfarchiadau a phob lwc Jane (and Annie, Lord Mayor's Consort). pic.twitter.com/FqOpKXGNgI
The Glastonbury Pilgrimage is 100 years old! If you’d like a seat on the coach leaving from Cardiff then either add your name to the list in church or get in touch with us. A £10 payment is required. You can find out more about the pilgrimage here:
Like so many gifts regularly received we can take the Eucharist for granted, forget the great Mystery of Faith. And so we need some reminders, something to make us think. A feast will do just the job! Get ready for Corpus Christi Sunday on June 2
The housing crisis in Cardiff and across the UK means that many families are living in unsuitable accommodation. We’re giving a welcome gift to new families in housing need who will be living in our community of Butetown when Cargo House is reopened. You can discover more about it here, and how you can be involved!
Mass is celebrated each day across our churches. Heres our pattern of prayer for the week beginning Sunday 5 May
Sunday 26 May 8.00am: Said Mass at St Paul's 9.15am: Sung Mass at Ss Dyfrig & Samson 9.30am: Sung Mass at St Saviour’s 10.30am: Sung Mass at St Paul's 11.00am: Solemn Mass at St Mary's
Monday 27 May 10am Mass at St Mary's (Bank Holiday Time)
Tuesday 28 May 10.00am: Mass at St Saviour's 7.00pm: Mass at St Mary’s
Wednesday 29 May 10.00am: Mass at St Paul's 11.00am: Mass at St Mary's
Thursday 30 May 9.30am: Mass at Ss Dyfrig & St Samson 10.00am: Mass at St Mary’s 5.45pm: Mass at St Saviour's
Friday 31 May 10.00am: Mass at St Mary's
Saturday 1 June 11.00am: Morning Prayer & Rosary at St Mary's 11.30am Mass at St Mary's
You can discover more about our regular pattern of worship through the week at
Fr Dean reviews a book by Martyn Snow, the Bishop of Leicester. “An Intercultural Church for a Multicultural World” is a book which explores the theme of gift exchange in a diverse and multicultural worldand how we might think and act with greater cultural sensitivity.
I often tell a story or two. The same ones. Things that stick with me and illustrate a point, stories that are ready to be pulled from my sleeve like a magician’s flower, slipped into a homily or a presentation.
I’m standing in the school dinner hall. A young lad points at me, shouts at me. “You’re Christian!” he exclaims. That’s all I need, a theological debate with a six year old. I lean closer. “That must mean that you’re Muslim,” I reply. “Yes!” he shouts proudly. And then silence. We lock eyes. And then he continues. “Christians and Muslims love God!” He joins the queue which brings him closer to the kitchen.
Some of the stories that Martyn Snow tells in his book, I’d gratefully heard before. He was a guest speaker at the ‘Ecumenical and Interfaith Officers Network’ meeting of the Church in Wales in Builth Wells in December 2022. It wasn’t long after the unrest experienced in his home city of Leicester when groups of Muslims and Hindus clashed just a few months before. He told us that his presentation would be very different if he had met us before this happened.
In his book, he talks of the self examination which followed in a city which had previously experienced good community relations, and he begins to explore some of the causes and lessons learned.
His book is based both on personal experiences of a city which is now predominantly of the Global Majority, and theological research and reflection.
He tells stories, and reaches out to the work and thoughts of others to deliver a book that speaks to the heart of our identity and what it means to build a community where each of us has something to give and receive. We are a gift to each other. Diversity is a gift. This is the heart of his book.
Admittedly, the experience he shares is from the English context, and there is much in Wales that is so very different but there is that common ground, too. Like a garden, which is a metaphor he uses to express a common space of encounter, a place to play and explore but which has its own boundaries and where there are possibilities of engagement and openness.
He starts the book tentatively, though, walking that fragile ground which has been marred by colonialism and white, middle-class privilege and suggests that his book is “an offering to a bring and share meal, a chance to contribute to the conversation. We are all invited to the table to eat. Even more than this, we are all invited to the kitchen to share in the cooking.”
The book also gives way to other voices, each of which brings their own cultural perspective to the kitchen in chapters which tie up what had been explored in the previous pages.
He argues a for a church that should take seriously an engagement and inclusiveness of different cultures through ‘gift exchange’. This itself is a loaded term and one that has often been abused and marred by conquest and colonialism, a belief that our gift is what you need to live better, a power struggle between the giver and the receiver. But he suggests a different way.
I loved the story he told us at the meeting of Officers in Builth Wells, and which is repeated in the book, when he was living in Guinea in West Africa among the Susu people. A woman knocks at the door, accompanied by her three children. They exchange the ritual greeting. And then there is silence between them. He invites her in. The same exchange is repeated. And then silence. This time more uncomfortable. She repeats the ritual greeting. And then more silence. When she eventually leaves, he rushes to his his local language teacher, afraid that he has insulted her or done something wrong.
“No, no, you are fine,” he says. “In our culture, it’s normal to greet someone new by going to the house, welcoming them and presenting a gift. My guess is that she is too poor to bring you a material gift, so she gave you something more precious. She gave you the gift of her time.”
The book explores what it means to give and receive gifts, and how we can be gifts to each other in a country that has been skewed by soundbites and caricatures of “the other.”
It’s also important to appreciate the different ways in which our gifts are exchanged, to understand the cultural differences of how we live and encounter one another, what we have to offer and what we can from receive others.
The author isn’t shy of dealing with some of the difficulties of immigration but he does open up the possibilities and the need to see life from a different perspective.
“This book is intended to argue that it is possible to preserve cultural distinctions even if there is bound to be some process of hybridisation with all cultures being changed though encounters with other cultures,” he writes. We enrich one another.
So many of the divisions which exist in our world come from never encountering someone different from us which means we never discover what we also have in common.
The book is a challenge not just to the Church but to Government and to society as a whole to create those spaces of encounter, to be able to give and receive in a mutually beneficial and enriching way.
Or perhaps it’s not a challenge at all, more an invitation to a “bring and share meal”, discovering that opportunity of giving and receiving, and rubbing shoulders in the kitchen.
And so I’m back, near the kitchen in the school hall where that young lad has expressed so eloquently a deep sense of his own identity. He knows what or who he is. He knows we are different. But he can also identify what we have in common.
Perhaps he will never remember the conversation we had. But, in that moment, he was a gift to me. And I’ve dined on it ever since.
An Intercultural Church for a Multicultural World is published by Church House Publishing.
We celebrate Pentecost Sunday on May 19. The Feast brings the forty days of Easter to a close but our baptismal calling to “Walk in the light and keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts” continues. Read on.
Thank you to everyone who donated to Christian Aid Week. Amongst the generosity, St Saviour’s raised £160 on their Bake Sale last Sunday! There is still an opportunity to contribute for the final time in our churches this coming Sunday. We’ll update you on the total amount of money raised next week.
Churches Together (CYTUN) is back with their Pentecost Walk on SaturdayMay 18, visiting and praying in each of the member churches. We begin at St Paul’s Church, Grangetown at 2pm. Why not join us for all or part of the walk?
Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
Next week, we’ll be sharing our plans on how we’ll be celebrating the week which also includes Windrush Day and the “The Great Get Together” so look out for our online launch! This year’s theme is “Our Home” and we’ll begin our celebrations on Sunday 16 June so make sure you put the week in your diary! In the meantime, you can find out more about Refugee Week here:
The Glastonbury Pilgrimage is 100 years old! If you’d like a seat on the coach leaving from Cardiff then either add your name to the list in church or get in touch with us. A £10 payment is required. You can find out more about the pilgrimage here:
This week, our Justice Cafe welcomed Charles Sloper from the Homeless charity Llamau, and we explored how we can support their vision to end youth homelessness. You can learn more about Llamau at their website:
Like so many gifts regularly received we can take the Eucharist for granted, forget the great Mystery of Faith. And so we need some reminders, something to make us think. A feast will do just the job! Get ready for Corpus Christi Sunday on June 2
The housing crisis in Cardiff and across the UK means that many families are living in unsuitable accommodation. We’re giving a welcome gift to new families in housing need who will be living in our community of Butetown when Cargo House is reopened. You can discover more about it here, and how you can be involved!
Twice a year, the steps of the Senedd in Cardiff Bay are awash with memories as we remember members of the Merchant Navy who died during times of war. This year, on Saturday May 25, the service has been slightly changed to make it more embracing of different faiths and cultures churches.
Saturday Mass at St Mary’s: For Sunday, May 25, the time of Mass has been slightly changed to 12 noon because of the availability of clergy. We’ll be back to the usual time from the following week!
John Ryan: We were saddened by the death of John Ryan from St Saviour’s, and we pray for his sister, Betti. Details of his funeral will be announced soon. ‘Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.’
Walsingham Prayers: a few pilgrims from St Saviours are making their way to Walsingham next week for the National Pilgrimage. If you would like particular prayers to be made in the Holy House please speak to Glyn or Liz or email them to us.
Worship for the Week Ahead
Mass is celebrated each day across our churches. Heres our pattern of prayer for the week beginning Sunday 5 May
Sunday 19 May 8.00am: Said Mass at St Paul's 9.15am: Sung Mass at Ss Dyfrig & Samson 9.30am: Sung Mass at St Saviour’s 10.30am: Sung Mass at St Paul's 11.00am: Solemn Mass at St Mary's
Monday 20 May 6.00pm: Mass at St Mary's 7.00pm: Mass at Ss Dyfrig & Samson
Tuesday 21 May 10.00am: Mass at St Saviour's 7.00pm: Mass at St Mary’s
Wednesday 22 May 10.00am: Mass at St Paul's 11.00am: Mass at St Mary's
Thursday 23 May 9.30am: Mass at Ss Dyfrig & St Samson 10.00am: Mass at St Mary’s 5.45pm: Mass at St Saviour's
Friday 24 May 10.00am: Mass at St Mary's
Saturday 25 May 11.00am: Morning Prayer & Rosary at St Mary's *12 noon: Mass at St Mary's (* NB the change of time today because of availability of clergy)
You can discover more about our regular pattern of worship through the week at
‘The Body of Christ.’ We hear those words each time we receive Holy Communion. Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ.
Like so many gifts regularly given we can take it for granted, forget the great Mystery of Faith. And so we need some reminders, something to make us think. A feast will do just the job.
The feast of Corpus Christi emerged in the thirteenth century when St Thomas Aquinas made the proposal to Pope Urban IV to create a festival which celebrated the Holy Eucharist as the Body and Blood of Christ.
A distinctive feature of the Feast of Corpus Christi is the procession of the Blessed Sacrament. We are a people on the move and the Eucharist is our food for the journey, our manna in the wilderness.
The Corpus Christi Procession at St Mary’s
During the procession, those who take part or stand by and watch on will see the Body of Christ moving through the streets. We hold what we are, carry what we become, the body of Christ in the world, united to him who is our Head.
Whilst the feast takes place on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, many churches have begun to celebrate it on the following Sunday which is what happens in South Cardiff Ministry Area.
At the end of Mass at St Mary’s there’s a procession into the gardens ending with Benediction, a blessing, with the Blessed Sacrament.
Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament
But in the evening, our celebrations continue, and many of us travel to St Theodore’s Church in Port Talbot for their Corpus Christi celebrations with Vespers (Evening Prayer), Procession and Benediction. This year, the guest preacher is Fr Richard Green.
Corpus Christi Sunday is on June 2 with Mass across the churches in the Ministry Area at the usual times in the morning, and a celebration in Port Talbot in the evening.
I have just the one cat now. He’s sat next to me, washing away after a dish of food. He’s been driven from the garden by the onset of the forecasted storm. Slightly damp yet satiated, he brings me some delight.
Like the other two cats he used to tolerate and with whom he shared this house, he was once a stray who turned up, and wouldn’t go away.
When he first arrived at the patio doors he was in a rather poor state and I remember one day having to capture him and take him to the vets. It was a snowy day. My hand bled after he attacked my hand as I waited for the bus. He took exception to being caged in a cat carrier.
Since those days he has discovered a more serene sense of trust and is rather more content and controlled in his outbursts.
A grateful response
At the time I was grateful to the Cats Protection charity who paid for his treatment. Likewise for the involvement they had in the other two cats I adopted, and who have since died. I didn’t have to pay for their treatment or the chipping, the neutering or the spaying.
As a result, I decided to set up a regular donation to them. It was just £10 a month but I wanted to show my appreciation for them and their ongoing financial commitments.
Cats are not everyone’s thing, of course. And the £10 a month forms just one part of my regular charitable giving, ten per cent of the ten per cent. I give to others too. I’m just reminded of this particular charity because “Whitey the cat” is sat next to me, lapping away. For you, it may be the Air Ambulance or Cancer Research, a Homeless Charity or Christian Aid. There’s a whole array of charities needing support.
Giving to the church
The vast majority of my financial giving though goes to the church of which I am a part.
During Lent and Easter we’ve been encouraging members of our congregations to review and renew their giving in a regular and realistic way as part of their Christian faith and discipleship.
I know, though, there are many people who are not part of the congregation but who call on the church at times. Those who value the presence and availability of the building for celebrations throughout their life, or call on the ministry of the priest and others at times.
Maybe those who get in touch with the priest for a baptism, or the many who gather for funerals of friends and family. Those who enjoy the heritage and history and ongoing presence of a building which tells the story of a whole community, a history which clings to the stones.
But more than that, our churches are involved in the strengthening of our local communities, working with others to bring change and serve those in need. This takes many forms whether through Foodbanks or faithfully working alongside others in our communities to address issues and concerns, and to work for social justice.
Each of our church communities, the work we do and and the buildings we inhabit, incur costs and, for the most part, they are wonderfully met by those who worship there, week by week.
When I received the help of Cats Protection for each of those three stray cats, my gratitude was expressed by wanting to contribute to what they had given me, and I wanted to ensure that the charity was there for others who needed their help.
Cats. It’s not everyone’s thing, of course. But perhaps the Church, whose work is more than worship, may sometimes get overlooked or simply be expected to always be there when people need us the most.
Be the gift
You can be part of the life we lead, the service we offer, the need we try to address, the buildings we seek to maintain, being a constant presence in our community when all around us changes.
So, if that’s you, and you’d like support and encourage the work of your local church so that’s it’s always there doing what it does, to help there when you need it, you can do so very easily through the Church in Wales’ Gift Direct scheme (as well as in other ways).
Every donation will enable us to continue to be a presence in our community. It will maintain and develop a building, yes. But it will also help us to continue to be an important part of our community, reaching out and bringing change, standing alongside those in need, and playing our part in changing the world.
You can find out more about how you can give at our Giving pages below. But for those who just like a cat pic, here he is, looking far from white, but rather grey and dirty after a fun and sunny roll in the dust. He knows how to enjoy himself.
The third and final reflection from Llandaff Diocese’s Clergy School in York
This time, the journey seems longer on the way home which is strange as the experience, for me, is often the opposite.
We stop a few times for food and comfort breaks although the traffic is unusually kind, and the time it takes is a little over six hours.
The Mass which sent us on our way, as food for the journey, was simpler and quieter than the others through the week. A reflective moment at the end of a few days away, nestled by the city of York, washed in the sun.
Fr Mark Preece, the Archdeacon of Margam, gives a tender homily which gives a focus to haircuts. He’s not giving barber tips or free beauty products, says in self deprecating terms that he’s probably had the same hairstyle himself since he was six. We laugh, but he turns to the Acts account of Paul’s trim.
“At Cenchreae he had his hair cut off, because of a vow he had made,” we hear from the first reading, read with gentleness and a soft pace.
The trim comes with a pledge, it’s an expressive move for something which lay deeper in Paul’s heart. It’s a cut with an edge.
Fr Mark reflects on what we have gained and learned these last few days.
Like a hairdresser’s assistant, he brushes up the lost locks from the floor, hands them back to us and pats us on our way, perhaps feeling a little better about ourselves.
After Mass, there are some gratitudes shared. These kinds of events don’t just happen. Not everyone is able to be mentioned by name but hopefully everyone who has played a part will know the part they have played and, through the gifts they have given, feel a little bit different.
Earlier, we listened to Professor Simon Oliver of the University of Durham who talked about exchanging gifts and took us on a detour from the Ascension of Jesus and round about to the Pentecost Gifts of the Spirit. He explored with us how Jesus is known now by those who have not seen and not heard, left us with the question: how do we make Christ known today?
Canon Tim Jones thanks Professor Simon Oliver
Each speaker this week has brought their own style and study to us in an engaging and sometimes entertaining way. It’s been an enlightening and yet ‘light’ time away together. There have been no dead ends or cul-de-sacs.
I know about cul-de-sacs. I was brought up in one. A straight line of 26 Council homes but with an escape route of a lane where we could sneak to the shops or play in the Chicken Lanes (there were no chickens) or crawl beneath the factory fence, climb the drain pipe and eventually fall into a vat of water, coming away with a fractured arm.
I was in my twenties when I told my parents the truth of the incident of the factory fracture.
Since the plastered-arm days of my seven year old fall, my right arm has served me well. The time seems to have flown by. Sometimes, the journey has felt quick. But there have been many water falls and factory fractures along the way.
There have been just two memorable haircuts I’ve received in my life. The first was at the age of eleven or twelve when I began my crew-cut days. As a self conscious idiot of a kid I immediately regretted it, convinced that people were looking and laughing at me as I walked home. So I took that walk of shame with my jacket over my head.
People looked at me.
At the beginning of our week, on the first night, in the lovely little church in Bishopshill in York, where Christians have worshipped for a thousand years and more, Canon Ian Mcintosh shared some personal stories which drove him to desire a church that was turned upside down and inside out.
Quite often we have every right to feel bad about ourselves, as individuals and a Community of Faith. We want things to be different, to wish and want that life was not as it is. But our fractures need time to heal. Water falls are often only talked about years later. And I learn not to cover my head in haircut shame although the need is always there.
An early morning, misty River Ouse
Earlier in the week, Canon Michael Leyden said something like, “The Incarnation is not God wanting to know what it means to be human. He doesn’t. He invented it! God wants us to know what it means to be human.”
So that’s our calling. To discover what it means to be human with all its haircuts and covered heads and fractured arms.
Within an hour of returning home, I do a quick turn around, change my clothes, adorn the black and the collar, pick up the oils and the Blessed Sacrament and move on to give the Last Rites to a dear parishioner whose journey through this life is drawing to a close.
But this is no cul-de-sac. No dead end. Something else and something more feels tangible. All we’ve gleaned this week, the life of Jesus, risen, ascended, glorified seems somehow closer. The journey home is not so far away.
Sometimes, though, the journey home does seems long and lingering. Like today. But, like today, I had great company as Fr Ben took to the wheel, and wound his way along the way home. There are always travelling companions. I’ve been blessed with mine.
“Through this holy anointing, may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit,” I say as I anoint our dear friend.
This week, as we loitered in York, another dear friend died. Fr Terry Doherty. He had been my training Incumbent. I remember the first time I met him, as I stepped off the train in Barry, just a few months before my ordination. I was, at that time, without a Title Parish, and time was ticking by. He took me out to Lunch. Probably each of us was checking out the other, trying to work out if this would work.
It seemed to work and I’m grateful for the time I spent in that parish with him and the other fantastic travelling companions of Merthyr Dyfan. In the days of his dimming, Fr Ben has cared for him so well.
Oh, the second haircut of significant memory? I’m at St Stephen’s House, just a year before meeting Fr Terry, as I try to train to be a priest, thirty years ago, with long hair, ponytailed and proud, grown since I was an undergraduate.
It drops to the ground in long locks, and I’m left with cropped hair and a French fringe.
Then, I didn’t make the connection with my eleven or twelve year old self. I didn’t walk home with my head covered. Didn’t care if people looked at me.
But, if I’m honest, I did feel a little bit different
South Cardiff Ministry Area 