Dyffryn Clwyd

I hope everyone is having a good week and looking forward to the weekend.

It’s been another busy week with plenty going on.

I’ve had an interesting day, taking a trip out this morning to visiting a church in Abergynolwyn, the reason… to see their compost toilet! A priests life is varied if nothing else! The reason for this was that we are looking to install one in Llanychan church and we wanted to see what it was like in person. The perception is that it’s nothing more than a hole in the ground with a seat on top but it’s not like that at all. There’s a whole system in place to make limit any smells and keep everything clean as well as making sure that all the waste is recycled (although I don’t think I’ll be using to grow the potatoes in!).

Then this afternoon in a complete change of direction I had a zoom meeting with the finance officers of both Bangor and St Asaph as they helped me draw up a proposal for how we can help those of our churches who can not find a treasurer to manage their finances and reduce our paperwork. This might not seem very thrilling and quite distant from the many exciting missional things we do, but this work that goes on in the background that most of us don’t notice is essential to reduce the amount of time spent on managing things for our 12 churches and release time and energy to focus on those things we’d all rather be doing, reaching out to our communities and sharing the Gospel message… 

The proposal should be ready for our treasurers meeting this coming Thursday at 7pm in Llanfair and then it will come to the Mission Area Conference which is meeting the following Thursday again at 7pm in Llanfair.

It means that after a rather long day travelling around and staring at a computer screen I’m ready to enjoy some piece and quiet as my children go off to enjoy Teen Screen at No.10 Mwrog street!

Tomorrow we’ve got Wild Church in Llanbedr Church at 2pm where we’ll looking forward to the great feast of Corpus Christ (thanksgiving for Holy Communion) by crushing some grapes in a cider press and baking bread over the open fire so that we can share a simple communion with the bread and wine we’ve made together.

Then on Sunday we have our usual services and although we left the Easter Season behind with the coming of the Holy Spirit last Sunday at Pentecost we’re still in the party mood staying with our white and gold vestments for the feast of The Holy Trinity.

During the week we have our usual round of services and activities, mid-week Eucharists, morning prayers, choir, song schools and drop in Friday. We also have a new mums & tots group on Wednesday morning in Llanfair DC.

And then on Saturday there’s an open garden, with refreshments, stalls and raffles at Plas Coch in Llanychan, 10.30am-1pm. Do come along and enjoy the beautiful garden and a chance to get together, catch up and natter.

Don’t forget that Rev’d Natasha will be being ordained to the Priesthood on Saturday 25th of June, and Alyson Goldstein & Dan Morgan to the Diaconate on July 2nd. Please do keep them and all who are to be ordained this Petertide in your prayer. And come along on the 25th of July at 4pm to Llanbedr Church as Rev’d Natasha celebrates her 1st Mass!

There’s lot’s going on over the whole of summer (I don’t think I’ve got a Saturday free until around October!), we’ve added loads of events to our website, and will be adding more as we go along so do keep an eye on the page. You can also book your tickets there for the St Saeran’s Summer Series of Concerts, 3 Friday night concerts in July in Llanynys Church (we’ve even hired in a toilet for the concerts so you can relax and enjoy a couple of drinks with the beautiful music without worrying!).