On Sunday morning, June 21, I made my way to Eglwys y Santes Fair (St. Mary's Church) for the early 8 am service, retracing the steps that Stuart and Prudence had walked with me the night before. Here is one of the landmarks that helped to guide me, memorable owing to my son Iago, er, James!
Incidentally, the Welsh words only say "James' Square." Also, if my name were in traditional Welsh form, it would be Gwilym ab Iago, or William (son [of]) James (my dad), and my son James' would be Iago ap Gwilym. (ab precedes a vowel, ap precedes a consonant).
As I entered the church, I was warmly greeted by the Warden, Mairwen Williams. Soon thereafter I met the associate vicar of Aberystwyth parish, Andy Herrick, who invited me to sit in the choir with the rest of the worshipers, and then left for the sacristy to prepare for the service.
The 8 am service was a simple one, much as ours is at St. Gregory's: an older form of the liturgy (in this case from the Book of Common Prayer 1984), with sermon but without music. In a scene repeated throughout Wales, in Chapel as well as Church, a small gathering of maybe a dozen souls, three of them in their 90's. One, though, was a young women whom I would see again shortly.
Then back to the Bells for breakfast, before setting out once again for the Welsh-language Gwasanaeth Teuluol (Family Service) at St. Mary's. As I entered the church, Mairwen greeted me again, and I saw the young woman from the 8 am service. She was playing the violin as the little band rehearsed for this wonderful once a month service.
And my new friend, Lyn Dafis, did simultaneous translation into Welsh for those members of the family who don't speak Welsh. For example, the family who sat in the pew in front of me included a Welsh-speaking husband, children who attend a Welsh-medium school, and the wife and mother who had ear-phones so she could listen to Lyn's translation of the sermon into English-- although she sang the hymns in Welsh, and made many of the service responses in Welsh.
Andy preached a delightful children's sermon, using all kinds of clocks, most of which were currently useless, either because they were broken or lacked batteries. One was a watch, another a big office clock, and another with a lovely two-bell tolling mechanism. Only one of the watches was useful. All of these clocks were used to illustrate a central idea in Paul's Letter to Philemon, in which he asks Philemon to set his slave Onesimus free in order that Onesimus, whose name means "Useful," can indeed be useful to Paul in spreading the gospel. The tunes were upbeat and played well, with a keyboard, flute, singer, the aforementioned violinist, and Andy on the guitar.
As I was writing this post, I wanted to make sure my memory of the day was accurate, so I went to St. Mary's website, and what a surprise awaited me! Here it is! The photographer was the ever-present Lyn Dafis, who appears below, as the Warden checks the pews for belongings or bulletins left behind.
Here's a picture of the front pews, choir, and sanctuary. The writing along the border of the archway reads, in fairly literal English translation, "Here is nothing except the House of God and here is the Door of Heaven."
And the ceiling in the chancel and sanctuary:
And the organ's pipes:
We set out for lunch, and a second conversation. Later, I managed to make it to St. Michael's just after the 11 am service was finished, which gave me the opportunity to meet some of the English-speaking parishioners, take some pictures, and then join the Bells for another magnificent dinner. Later still, I went to the 6 pm Evening Prayer service, and enjoyed a third conversation with Lyn and with another of Eglwys y Santes Fair's lay leaders, Menna Phillips. But all that is for next time!
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