Writing a weekly newsletter is a rather odd experience, especially in lockdown. There’s no feedback on what you write, so you have no idea if what your writing is helpful, or useful. I have no idea if people are simply seeing the newsletter, scanning it for what’s going on, and then assigning it to the […]
Like many priests, I have a collection of old Church candles. Ones that were being thrown out, or ones that I bought for a service or other – the particular service lost in the mists of time. Church candles are odd things. They are wide and thick, and hark back to a time before modern […]
Over the last two weeks (and likely going on until we finish), the Mission Area Leadership Team have been working our way through the book ‘Church Confident or Closing: Coronavirus lessons for the Church In Wales’ by Ian Rees. We have so far made it to chapter 2. Last weeks chapter was asking if the […]
This month has seen the return (or the attempted return in the case of the Governing Body) of the usual structures of the Church. Clergy synod met via archdeaconry on Zoom, guidance has come to us about how we are to deal with the lack of our AGM’s. Meetings are happening, discussions are beginning, and […]
As I write this, various parts of the UK are going back into local lockdown, with some suggesting that it may be necessary for everyone go back into lockdown. Masks have been mandated inside, rather than just being a very strong suggestion, and the mantra to continue holding social distancing and washing hands has become […]
I have stared at the blank page of this message for a long time, trying to find something to say. The blankness put me in mind of a tale my training incumbent, Rev’d Adrian Copping once said. He spoke of a sermon where a priest placed a large blackboard in front of the congregation. When […]
The weather is having a good go at being summer. Of course, on this warm day I’ve spent most of it running around doing lots of little errands that I’ve been putting off. My car hasn’t really gone very far since the beginning of lock-down, so all the little things that I normally keep in […]