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Crickhowell area churches working together

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Ministry Area News

Remembrance Sunday

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Services of remembrance were held throughout the ministry area, Remembrance Sunday this year coinciding exactly with the centenary of the 1918 armistice. Rain swept down the Usk valley that morning, hitting Llangynidr first and later on, the ceremony at the war memorial in Crickhowell. This photograph by Andrew Nummelin perfectly captures the rainbow above the church of Ss Cynidr & Mary in Llangynidr.

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.Genesis 9:13

A Pilgrimage Around Wales

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Anne Hayward’s new book has been published and is available from booksellers including our own Book-ish in Crickhowell.

She has recorded an interview with Roy Noble on BBC Radio Wales which you can listen to here (starting at 1:18:20).

Here’s what the press release said about the book:

In 2015 Anne Hayward spent three months as a pilgrim, travelling on foot to visit some of Wales’ holiest sites and carrying everything she needed to camp along the route. Her main objectives were four ancient places of pilgrimage – Holywell, Bardsey Island, St David’s and Llantwit Major – but she also visited numerous churches and other places of interest along the way.

In A Pilgrimage Around Wales she gives some of the history of those ancient places of pilgrimage and reflects on the spiritual experience of being a modern-day pilgrim. ‘I was very fortunate – ‘blessed’ is a more apt word, perhaps – to have been able to take time out of ordinary life in the spring and summer of 2015 to go on a pilgrimage around Wales. This book is a fruit of that pilgrimage,’ explained Anne.

‘Being on foot, and carrying quite a heavy pack for a small(ish) woman, was both liberating and constraining,’ said Anne, ‘What became increasingly clear during those three months was that my research prior to my walk had left me unprepared for the sheer joy of quietly discovering new places and the enormous sense of achievement that I felt each day. Often what was most overwhelming was the beauty of the ordinariness of many of my days.’

In the book, she also meditates upon the significant conversations she found herself sharing with the strangers she met along her path.

‘The subtitle of this book is In Search of a Significant Conversation, and its contents cause us to appreciate the conversations, random or otherwise, which peppered the author’s pilgrimage around Wales,’ said the Most Reverend John D E Davies, Bishop of Swansea & Brecon and the Archbishop of Wales. ‘Unspoken or spoken, those conversations bring the places to life, and illuminate the faith which motivated the journey.’

‘“Camping here is my gift to you,” said one campsite owner to Anne on her tremendous pilgrimage, and this book is a real gift to us, with Anne’s thoughts reminding us of the vast riches we have in Wales in so many ways’ added the Revd Canon Ian Rees, Rector of Central Swansea.

Anne Hayward read History at Oxford University and went on to become a secondary school teacher. Over the last few years, she has walked thousands of miles to places of pilgrimage in Wales, Ireland, Brittany and England. She is a Reader in the Church in Wales and is involved as a licensed Lay Minister in her local church and the wider area. She lives in the Brecon Beacons, and has written articles for various local magazines and newspapers.

More Mission Pictures

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Mission in Crickhowell, Wales 2018

The Lee Abbey team that went on mission to Crickhowell, Wales returned last week. Check out the following video (thanks to Rend Collective for the music!) to get some snapshots of the experience and click the link below to read more about the trip.leeabbeydevon.org.uk/2018/05/mission-in-crickhowell-wales

Posted by Lee Abbey Devon on Monday, 28 May 2018

More pictures on Lee Abbey’s blog page.

Mission Together 2018

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It’s been a fabulous ten days and the weather could not have been better. The churches in the Ministry Area came together for a family ceilidh on the first Saturday, a huge success with many people coming in from the town and further afield. The Lee Abbey team joined us for Open the Book, with the launch of Prayer Spaces in Schools and at a wedding party at Llanbedr School, making contact with over 600 children in our Ministry Area. We’ve been out on the streets in Brynmawr, we’ve spent time with care home residents making them feel special for the Royal Wedding, and we had our own event in the Market Hall with the wedding live-streamed onto a big screen.

Check out the photos on our Mission page

Huge thanks to the Lee Abbey team, and to all who got involved. Job done? Mission accomplished? Not yet! This is only the start…

Mission Briefing 9

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Ascension to Pentecost, Ten Days of Prayer and Mission

A great deal of planning has gone into the preparation of the services and events which will take place across our Ministry Area in the next couple of weeks. Thank you to everyone who has offered support, prayers and practical help to the teams involved, both here, and in Lee Abbey.

Ascension Day Service, 7.00pm St. Mary’s Brynmawr

We are delighted that the Archbishop will be preaching and presiding at this service to kick off the Mission and help us to welcome our guests from Devon. Everyone is very welcome to attend this service, where the Mission will be launched, and the Ministry Area Council and Teams will be commissioned.

Please pray for the final preparations of both teams, for safe travels for the Lee Abbey visitors, for warm welcomes, for generous sharing of our gifts and love, and that many will be reached by our projects and prayers.

Mission Briefing 8

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2 weeks to go!

Sally Rees has prepared a wonderful prayer diary for us to use during the Mission Together Project. Please take one and use it during the ten days of the visit. We hope that, each day, between 5pm and 5.30pm, people across the Ministry Area will pray at the same time, wherever they are, for the specific events and churches on the list.

Ceilidh

Printed posters and flyers are available for the Ceilidh, please think about where you could display a poster, and who you could give a flyer to. You can also download the poster. Please do use the flyer as a personal, hand-delivered invitation, and consider whether you could offer to bring a plate of food for the person you are inviting!

Royal Wedding Party

On Saturday 19th May from 10am, we will be holding our Royal Wedding event in the Market Hall, Crickhowell. Wedding cake, flowers and chocolates will be given out to shoppers, and bubbles and face-painting offered to children, to share our love with the community on the occasion of the Royal Wedding. At 1.30pm, we are delighted that the couple marrying in St. Edmund’s on that day will attend to cut the cake! If you are able to join us, we’d love to see you.

Mission Briefing 7

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3 weeks to go!

The Lee Abbey team will join with Lay Pastoral Visitors in the usual activities that are going on during their time at Maes y Ffynnon, Glaslyn Care Home, Greenhill Care Home, and Caffi Croeso (Dementia Friendly Cafe).  However as Pastoral teams we are also involved in some extra activities for the Royal Wedding aimed at making Older People in Care Homes feel special for the celebrations.  In Gilwern the pastoral team are inviting residents at Glaslyn to join them at their weekly Saturday drop-in, which will have a special emphasis on the Royal Wedding on May 19th.

At Oaklands a small pastoral team will help get residents ready for their Royal Wedding celebrations on Friday May 18th, and in Greenhill the Crickhowell pastoral team will be helping residents get ready for celebrations on the morning of Saturday May 19th.  Staff will get residents up as usual and dressed in smart clothes and then the pastoral team will help to further ‘dress up’ residents by helping them with hair style, hand and nail care, and by offering perfume, jewellery, providing button holes and lending a hat or fascinator for those who would like it. Residents will then be ready to watch the Marriage Ceremony of Harry and Meghan hopefully feeling able to join in ‘in style’.  The Care homes are then providing a special tea to complete the occasion.

What can you do to help?

  • We are asking anyone in the Ministry Area Churches if you have a hat / fascinator or any cheap jewellery that we can borrow from Thursday May 17th – Monday May 21st this would be very much appreciated. Please label your item clearly (so that we can return it to you), and give it to one of the Lay Pastoral Visitors in your church. If you would prefer to drop it off, there will be a clearly marked box at the back of St Edmund’s church where you could leave it from Sunday May 13th.
  • Please pray for a special blessing for the residents, staff and visitors of Care Homes during this time.