Good evening friends,

I’ve spent a rather mixed hour this evening sorting through various bank accounts trying to prove that the gift of some savings that I’m giving one of the children is indeed mine and that I can trace it back to the point of it becoming mine and prove that I got it through fair means, i.e. employment! The money has rested in an assortment of bank accounts and I managed to find 14 of the 15 sheets of paper I needed, dating back several years, which I didn’t think was bad going, but could I find the final one? The fifteenth? No idea where that is, and so I went online to see if I could print an online statement from the bank’s online banking. Nope! My online statements go back to precisely the month after the one I need!! I’m beginning to think I’m jinxed Haha!

All that is to say, I’m not in control of everything and sometimes things are beyond me. And that is always worth remembering. So I’ve taken a deep breath, written a letter explaining why there is one broken link in a 15 link chain, and hoping that the other 14 will prove me trustworthy to give my own child money!! I doubt I’m the only person who likes to be in control and needs to be reminded that life isn’t like that? All we can do is our best and as long as we can say we have done that, then perhaps that is enough?

God certainly only wants us to offer our best, he doesn’t expect perfection, and maybe that’s what I’ll tell the bank if they are disappointed with my broken chain. 

I doubt you came here to hear about all that but it’s a long way of saying, keep praying, do your best, and give to God what you can’t do – he’s perfectly capable of bearing it, and much more – 

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I hope you have a good weekend, I might see you at The Stations of the Cross in Usk on Friday afternoon at 3pm? You’d be very welcome to join us.

With love and my continued prayers for you all,

Sally xxxx

— 
–Please note I will not usually reply to emails received on Fridays as this is my rest day. If you need me urgently please send me a voicemail on my mobile number. Thank you for your understanding.

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Vicar, Heart of Monmouthshire Ministry Area
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good evening my friends,

By the time you read this I will be on my way to Cardiff for a meal out with the family. It is a combined celebration for Libby’s 27th birthday which is today, and Mothering Sunday which is always incredibly difficult to do anything special for, as a family, for obvious reasons. We’ve decided to eat Italian in The Bay, so I’m very much looking forward to that. 

How are you all?

Lent marches on at a pace, and we are more than half way through. I know some of you are doing well with your various fasts or challenges and I hear some lovely stories about people meeting to discuss the lenten readings we have been sending out. Well done to you all. 

Just two things to update you about  – first keep your eyes open for the various local church meetings that are happening between now and the end of April. These are important as they are a chance to nominate people to the Ministry Area Council, as well as to pull together all the church activity that has happened during the last year. Plus a few other things. I hope they will be more relaxed than the previously formal Annual Vestry Meetings, but will nonetheless be productive and hopeful. It is always good to review how far we have come and to make plans for the future. All of our churches have things to celebrate!

Second – the service in Wolvesnewton on Sunday 26th March is no longer a Eucharist and will instead be Morning Prayer. Just so you know 🙂

Let’s leave it there for this week, I hope next week to be able to update you on the special services that will be happening during Holy Week, and in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to be in touch. I love to hear from you and will be happy to help with anything you think I can do.

Much love to you all, and I am praying for you.

Love Sally xxxxx

— 
–Please note I will not usually reply to emails received on Fridays as this is my rest day. If you need me urgently please send me a voicemail on my mobile number. Thank you for your understanding.

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Vicar, Heart of Monmouthshire Ministry Area
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Living In Faith Together

Good afternoon and hello,

How is your week unfolding? I must say that I have had a much better grip of my diary and work life balance this week and am feeling all the better for it! Thank you to those who have been patient or encouraging, or have wagged their finger at me 🙂 

How is your Lent progressing? As I was writing this week’s sermon I realised that I’m not doing brilliantly at my discipline this season, but putting myself under pressure really doesn’t help. I got sidetracked in my sermon preparation reading the story of a seventeen year old girl who was an accomplished cheerleader but who fell when messing about with friends, and suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury. She is now unable to use her legs and has reduced arm function. She caught my attention because she was wearing a sweatshirt with bold words across the chest. – “God Isn’t Done With Me Yet”

Now, I couldn’t possibly compare my chaotic Lenten efforts with the life change that this girl is facing, but I do like that phrase – even though I’m not accomplishing absolutely everything I want to, God hasn’t finished with me yet, and all I have to do is keep trying, do my best, and keep my eyes fixed on him. 

I wonder whether this little phrase is useful to any of you? Whether it is that you are too tired or feeling weighed down, whether your diary is too busy, perhaps you are unwell, or struggling, perhaps you are thinking of a change in your life. Wherever you are I am absolutely certain that God hasn’t finished with you, and whilst it may not always be clear what his next plan for us is, we can be confident and reassured that there is one! keep going!! 

Let me know if this chimes with you at all, I’d love to know!

And perhaps that is enough for this week? You didn’t come here for a sermon after all 🙂 I hope to see some of you at the Stations of the Cross in St. Mary’s Usk on Friday at 3pm, otherwise, I’m sure I shall see you soon, You know where I am if you need anything.

With love as always,

Sally xxx

— 
–Please note I will not usually reply to emails received on Fridays as this is my rest day. If you need me urgently please send me a voicemail on my mobile number. Thank you for your understanding.

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Vicar, Heart of Monmouthshire Ministry Area
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good Evening my friends,

First I must thank you for your kind words and prayers over the last week. God is good – my diary is feeling a little less hopeless and a little more controlled this week and next, which is quite a relief!

How has your week been? We had a lovely service on St. David’s Day ,with lots of Welsh spoken and sung, and some time thinking on the words of St. David – Keep faith, Say the Creed, be joyful, and do the little things you have seen me do. Such a lot to reflect on there. You know I am intrigued and excited by the saints of ancient times – so many of them passed through our area, and we walk in their footsteps. How can we fail to be inspired?

Lent continues and I encourage you to think about how you mark this significant season in our church life. We have the weekly resources encouraging us to have tea and cake with each other, what’s not to like, and you can of course do anything that helps you come a little closer to God, and to think about your own spiritual life in ways that might help you grow and flourish.

Can I pop a date in your diary, as part of Lent? On Tuesday 4th April at 11am the bishop will be presiding at the Chrism Mass in the cathedral. This is a very special service when ordained and lay people are invited to reaffirm their commitment to their ministries, and also, Bishop Cherry will be blessing the oils that will be used over the coming year at all our baptisms and for healing prayers. There is a buffet lunch afterwards and all in all, it is a highlight in my Lent calendar; it really is open to you!

Time to hit send I think, I have a lovely bottle of Rosé in the fridge with my name on it!

Love to you all, and please let me know if I can pray for you, or if you fancy a catch up.

Sally xxx

— 

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Vicar, Heart of Monmouthshire Ministry Area
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good evening everyone, another week done and this time we have been whisked into Lent! Are you doing anything special for the season? I’m trying a different prayer routine, just to try to bring some freshness to the way I sit with God. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Quite a bit to tell you about so I’ll just get on with it!

Lent brings some extra opportunities and suggestions. You will soon be emailed with a series of weekly reflections and conversation ideas with the suggestion that you invite someone from church or elsewhere, to have a cuppa with you once a week to pray together and go through the reflections and readings. These sorts of conversations can be so fruitful for our faith and it’s also a good way of getting to know someone a little better. Why not give it a try? If you ‘re not sure where to start you should ask someone by saying “Sally has suggested…..” There will be hard copies available in church too.

Archdeacon Ian has produced a set of daily reflections for Lent which are appearing on the Heart of Monmouthshire Facebook page every day. Do look out for them.

Also, THe stations of the Cross will be starting next Friday – 3rd March. We will be alternating between the Catholic Church in Usk and St. Mary’s in Usk, with a variety of leaders, lay and ordained. This is a lovely time to step into something a little different and I am very much looking forward to sharing this eccumenical experience. 

Finally, can I ask for your prayers please. Selfishly. I am struggling to manage my diary at the moment and as a result some things feel strained and not to my usual standard. I’ve asked God to help me get a better balance and I have got a little bit of space in the schedule next week, in which I will hopefully catch up. Maybe you are feeling this way too? I would be very pleased to pray for you about this, or anything else. Prayer is the bit I am getting right!

Thank you so much for letting me be honest and for all that you do to support the ministry of our churches. 

With love,

Sally xxx

— 

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Vicar, Heart of Monmouthshire Ministry Area
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good evening all,

Just a brief letter from me this evening – it’s been a long week. and I need to pack as I am going to visit my mum for 24 hours, leaving very early tomorrow morning.

I trust your week is progressing well and that you are getting a good balance between what you would like to do, what you have to do, and doing nothing. I need to try a little harder with that last category!

Can I just remind you that we are about to begin the season of Lent. In the next few days we will be launching our Lent activities, created as a team effort and then produced by Kevin and Sarah. It promises to be interesting and good, and I hope some of you will find it inspiring. In fact, I hope all of you will 🙂 So – pancakes on TUesday and then Ash Wednesday services on the following day – 10am in Raglan, 6pm in Usk, and 7pm in Raglan. I hope you will be able to make it, these services are wonderfully rich and are a good beginning marker.

I’ll leave it there for now, and trust that you will be in touch if you need anything or think I should know something.

With my ;love and prayers, as always,

Sally xxxx

— 

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Vicar, Heart of Monmouthshire Ministry Area
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good evening friends,

I trust this week is proving fruitful and is unfolding as you need it to?

The extraordinary busyness of the last few weeks encouraged me to have a proper look at how I’m spending my time and then reflect on whether I’m getting my balances right between church, family, and sleeping. It was a fascinating analysis and I wondered whether you might be interested?

I sort of divide my day into chunks of two hours, or into three parts (morning, afternoon, and evening), depending on what I’m doing. Here’s how the week looked from Friday morning last week through until this evening – 

1 complete rest day (I had a wonderful lie in!)

4 services

2 wedding couple meetings

8 home visits 

1 hospital visit

4 meetings

2 social activities with church groups 

1 recording and uploading of Just Five Minutes

1 session in school

1/2 day service preparation and sermon writing

1/2 day diocesan study event

150 emails either received or sent!

That last one is a shocker isn’t it? I had no idea until I actually counted!

My analysis was that apart from the last one, the emails, I was pretty happy with the balance and variety. There’s lots to celebrate in a visible and outward facing ministry, and what isn’t there but I can assure you happened, was that every one of those activities was rooted in and surrounded by prayer, heaps and heaps of it. I couldn’t do it without! Is there anything there that surprises you?

How does your week look? Do you think that you are getting your balance right? Are you making space for everything that matters? What would you like to do differently? It’s almost a sort of spring cleaning of our calendars and priorities, which is no bad thing. I commend it to you 🙂

And perhaps that is enough for this week? I am off tomorrow and am planning to go to Cardiff, which is always a pleasure.

I am keeping you in my prayers, every one of you, and am always happy for you to be in touch .

With love,

Sally xx– 

	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Vicar, Heart of Monmouthshire Ministry Area
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429

Good evening all,

How are you this week?

It’s been another very full week, with many highlights, but I have particularly enjoyed welcoming the whole of Usk Primary School into the church in Usk to celebrate the feast of Candlemas. We blessed candles for the children to use at prayer times in their classrooms, and we heard the story of the presentation of Christ at the temple. The words of Simeon are so well known to us as the Nunc Dimitis, and I introduced the children to a wonderfully sung version. They sat and listened beautifully. We lit candles and reflected on how Christ is the light of the world, and how we are lights that shine for him, no matter our age, our experience, or our skills. The children were amazing. I sometimes hear grumbles about how children aren’t in church with us on Sundays, but actually, they are wonderfully inquisitive about their faith, and are getting a good grounding in school. Open the Book are helping with that hugely. It really does encourage me that our church schools are exactly that – schools with church happening. More importantly, they are giving our children an opportunity to explore their beliefs creatively and deeply. Wonderful!

In other news, I have had several people comment on what an excellent sermon Archdeacon Stella preached on Sunday, at the MA service. I asked her if I could share the script with you, so if you missed it, please find it attached. Maybe you were there and want to read it for further reflection? It isn’t exactly as she preached it, but the message is loud and clear – relationships are what will grow faith. Something we all know very well and a message that is hugely encouraging. Please do read it and ponder. Come back to me if it sparks any ideas or you would like to discuss it further.

Finally, it feels like it’s time I said thank you to you all. I know I do this from time to time, but it is from my heart and it is important. You are all contributing to our church life in so many ways, some of you sacrificially, and I am immensely grateful for that. Please don’t do anything at the expense of family or your health, but I do acknowledge the hard work and long hours some of you give to church and our various activities. Thank you so so much. As Christians when we are seen by our neighbours and friends acting through faith, we set a wonderful example, and so many of you are doing that. What a lucky vicar I am, you make my calling easy to live out, and a joy to explore with you all. We are growing and changing all the time and I am very pleased I am doing it with you. Thank you.

And finally finally, I hope you have a lovely weekend, I cannot wait until tomorrow – a day off, much needed and hopefully restful.

With love,

Sally xxxx

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	Rev’d Sally Ingle-Gillis
Vicar, Heart of Monmouthshire Ministry Area
Monmouth Diocese
07813 264429