Good evening all,

It’s turning out to be another whirlwind of a week and I am very much looking forward to a day of mundane domestic chores tomorrow! How are you?

An important change to the Sunday rota that I need to tell you about – this Sunday, 7^th Dec. There is no service in Llandegfedd. I’m sorry for the mistake on the pew sheets – my fault entirely. The congregation there are going to aim to go to the bishop’s celebration service in the afternoon instead – Usk at 4pm. I hope to see as many of you there as possible. It will be a lovely occasion.

Actually, I’m sure there are other things I need to tell you or that might be good to chat about, but it’s nearly 9pm and I’ve not had dinner yet, so would you mind if I called it a day and got into my pyjamas?

You know where I am if you need anything and please be assured of my prayers.

Lots of love,

Sally xxx

—

Please note that Friday is usually my rest day. Emails received on Friday may not be responded to until after the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

Good evening friends,

Well I’ve had better weeks – a nasty bout of sinusitis wiped me out for nearly two days and it’s been hard to catch up today! My apologies for anything you are waiting for that I’ve not delivered. I’ve a day off planned for tomorrow, in addition to my usual Friday as we have a friend here from Texas, so please don’t worry if I seem absent tomorrow – it’s planned! I am taking him to Cardiff to enjoy the museum and the arcades. It should be lovely. How is your week going?

Can I just remind you that we have two MA services on Sunday – 11am in Goytre for our usual 5^th Sunday Eucharist, and then 6pm in Raglan for the Darkness to Light Service, marking the first Sunday of Advent. 

Then on Saturday 13^th December we have our MA Quiet Day, in the hall in Llanfair Kilgeddin. This will be an opportunity to pause and reflect upon the season, in the company of our wider church friends. Please do come along. 10am- 4pm. Please bring lunch with you.

There is a huge programme of services and activities planned for the next few weeks and at the service in Goytre on Sunday we will be distributing the Christmas cards for everyone to share in their communities. Thank to all of you for making sure that every single church and community is able to celebrate and look forward to Christmas. You are an amazing lot!

Finally, just a little word of reassurance. These weekly emails go out to around 250 people and although I hit send at a reasonable time of day, I am aware that sometimes the email doesn’t hit your inbox until the middle of the night. Please be confident that if I haven’t sent it by 8pm I’m not going to. But you may not receive it as I send it. I promise I am never hitting send at 1.30am or some other crazy middle of the night time! Thank you to those of you worried and concerned who have checked in with me about this!

And with that, I’m signing off.

Be assured of my prayers and I hope to see you over the weekend.

With much love,

Sally xxx

—

Please note that Friday is usually my rest day. Emails received on Friday may not be responded to until after the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

Good evening friends,

Good heavens – terrible rain and local flooding last weekend, and now we are experiencing impressive frosts. I do not enjoy scraping off my car! Thank goodness for central heating, but I will also be digging out my thermals I think. My grandma introduced me to the Damart catalogue (other thermal vest makers are available) when I was about 15 years old and I haven’t looked back. Perhaps you didn’t really want to know this? Hahaha!!

Things to share with you – It’s the Big Breakfast on Saturday 8-11am. Please come along and eat a delicious breakfast with old friends and new.

In ten days time we have our 5^th Sunday of the month Ministry Area service which is in Goetre this time – at 11am. Please come along, the singing is always great at these larger services and it is wonderful to come together from across the whole geography. That same evening there is also our Darkness to Light service in Raglan at 6pm – an atmospheric, candlelit service, to mark the start of Advent. Can you believe we are only ten days from Advent!! I need to buy a calendar (chocolate of course!).

Finally, it’s time for my weekly prayer request! I’m so grateful to those of you who pray faithfully, it is so encouraging and hopeful. This week please could I ask you to pray for our Diocesan Office team? They work extraordinarily hard and I know many of you have personal experience of how helpful and supportive they are to us. I’m specifically requesting prayers for them this week because I think it’s easy to forget those who ease our own workload, and those who are beavering away behind the scenes. There are lots of people in our local churches doing jus that, and for whom I pray daily. Let’s pray for the office team too.

With thanks for all that you do, and, and assuring you of my prayers, 

Love Sally xxx

—

Please note that Friday is usually my rest day. Emails received on Friday may not be responded to until after the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

Good evening friends, 

I hope you haven’t floated away in all this water? What a week!

It’s another busy one, with a lot of meetings, visits, and conversations. I recently feel as though I’m spending too much time in the meetings and admin part of the role, for which I am sorry. 

This week saw the last of the Bible Course sessions – eight really interesting opportunities to learn more about the huge story that the bible tells us. Well done to the forty or so people who took part, and thank you to the clergy team for leading these sessions. We learnt a lot! Look out for the Bible Study that is planned for the New Year. 

Before that we have now got Advent approaching, and we suspect that you are all feeling a little “coursed out”! We will be holding a Ministry Area Quiet Day during Advent as a result – a single day during which we can be still, spend time resting in God, and hopefully take the opportunity to refresh ourselves. I am immensely grateful to Rev’d Helen for leading on this, I am very much looking forward to it. So get your diaries out – Saturday 13^th December 10am – 4pm. Llanfair Kilgeddin Hall. Please bring a packed lunch, we will provide teas and coffees. There is no charge for this day. If you are definitely coming, please can you let a member of the clergy team know, so that we can make sure the space is set up for the right number? Thank you.

Perhaps that is a good place to finish? I’m looking forward to a slower day tomorrow and will see some of you at the Diocesan Conference on Saturday morning. You know where I am if I can help in any way, and please know that I pray for you every day.

With love,  Sally xxxxx

—

Please note that Friday is usually my rest day. Emails received on Friday may not be responded to until after the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

Good evening friends,

Just a short email this evening to remind you of a couple of things – 

First – the enthronement of the archbishop, and our party in Raglan Church from 2pm on Saturday. Everyone welcome! Thank you to Sue Russell and Sarah Byford for leading on this (and Will for his tech support). We all know how blessed we are to have Cherry as our bishop, how wonderful that we get to be part of spreading the good news of her ministry a little further afield!

Also, don’t forget there are a number of different opportunities across the Ministry Area to commemorate Remembrance. This is a very special time of year and one in which we very often share the space as churches, with a wide section of the general public who are not weekly church folk. What a wonderful opportunity to have conversations, to invite people to Carol Services, and to show what it means to be Christians. Thank you to all who will make an effort this weekend and at other times too.

With that, it’s a trip to the airport now to collect Eli who is popping home for the weekend. It will be very lovely to have him home.

With love and gratitude for you all,

Sally xxx

—

Please note that Friday is usually my rest day. Emails received on Friday may not be responded to until after the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

Good evening all,

That hour change in our time makes such a difference to the evenings doesn’t it? My heating is on, hot chocolate is back on the agenda, and it’s time to get the blankets out. 

News this week includes another reminder about the nine days of prayer we are invited to undertake, in readiness for the enthronement of Archbishop Cherry. You can find the link to the prayers here – https://churchinwales.contentfiles.net/media/documents/2511_-_Novena_for_the_Enthronement__Cherry_w8V7I5d.pdf

Archbishop Cherry has a huge task ahead of her and values our prayers tremendously. Please do try to find a few minutes every day to seek God’s blessing for this extension of her ministry. I wonder if she knew what she was getting into when she joined us in Monmouth, just as Covid 19 began? 

In addition, it’s not too late to let Sarh Byford or Sue Russell know that you will be in Raglan for a live stream party on Saturday 8^th November. I’ve had a sneak preview of the Order of Service and now know that although the service itself starts at 3pm, the processions will begin at about 2.40/2.45. I hope the live stream will already be operating at that time so that you can see all the formal preparations as the procession enter the cathedral and take their seats.

Finally, a prayer request please. I am aware that lots of us are struggling with various illnesses, bereavements, or other stresses, and we cannot underestimate this has a wider community as well as within our trusted circles. We have so much to be grateful for and hopeful about, but these things get lost when we are tired, upset, or anxious.

Let us pray for each other, that we know the gentle and caring hand of God upon our lives, and that we are able to see his love in those around us. May we seek the rest and support that we all need, and may we always offer kindness to those around us, conscious that we don’t know the struggles they may be carrying.

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

With love, Sally xx

—

Please note that Friday is usually my rest day. Emails received on Friday may not be responded to until after the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

Good evening friends,

Who’s looking forward to an extra hour in the morning on Sunday? As I am on the rota for the 8am service I must confess to feeling very lucky! 

Now then, what do I need to share with you this week? I think the most important thing is an invitation to pray. The Dean of the cathedral has written a special series of prayers called a Novena – nine days of prayer specifically for us to pray as we approach the enthronement of Bishop Cherry as the Archbishop of Wales on 8^th November. The theme of the prayers each day focuses on aspects of the archbishop’s presidential address at the recent Governing Body meeting and it is hoped that the whole province of Wales will unite in praying as we approach this new season in the life of our church. At a clergy training day today, Bishop Cherry thanked us for our prayers, and then added “please don’t stop”. It was heartfelt. So please click the link and have a look at the materials. If you would like a hard copy printed, just let me know.

https://churchinwales.contentfiles.net/media/documents/2511_-_Novena_for_the_Enthronement__Cherry_w8V7I5d.pdf

Also, don’t forget that if you would like to watch the enthronement in good company, Raglan Church will have a big screen up to live stream the service – 3pm 8^th November. Just bring a plate of food to share and join the party. (Sue Russell and Sarah Byford are collating numbers).

My last thing to mention is that next week I am taking two days off (Tuesday and Wednesday, 28^th and 29th). The rest of the team are working so please don’t hesitate to be in touch with them if you need anything – the team is so strong and we are all aware of each others’ work and situation so someone will be able to help. I really do think we are in an amazing place with the various clergy and lay people who work so hard to pull together for the mission of God. Thank you to everyone who contributes to church life, I’m very aware that you make my role much easier than it might be, and we shine the light of Christ for all to see, when we work together. Thank you.

Someone said to me this week that they never know whether they really can ask me for prayer when I offer. Yes you can – I keep a note of everyone, week by week, on my desk and you can be assured of my prayers when you need them. So just let me know.

With love,

Sally xxxx

—

Please note that Friday is usually my rest day. Emails received on Friday may not be responded to until after the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.

Good evening all,

I am soooooo tired this week! I can’t work out why, and there have not been too many late nights, but I’m tired none the less! So I am very much looking forward to my rest day tomorrow – a slower start and then getting my hair cut, for the first time in many months! 

Enough of my moaning! What can I share with you? 

Well – on Saturday 8^th November, 3pm, Archbishop Cherry will be formally enthroned in a service at St. Woolos Catedral, Newport. It’s a ticket only service which I suspect has disappointed some of you who would have liked to go, so I’m very grateful to Sue Russell and Sarah Byford who have a plan! We will be live streaming the service on a big screen in Raglan Church and you are invited! Come along to the church and bring your friends and family, with a plate of food, and join the party. It promises to be a wonderful service and a great afternoon. Why not celebrate with others who wish they were there? Please let Sarah or Sue know you are coming so they can set up the space properly, and spread the news!

My second and final thing to mention is a prayer request – you know how important I think prayer is in our lives and how wonderful it is that we can pray together and be a real force for change – 

Please can you pray for all those in our communities who are living in fear. I see and hear fear in the context of misunderstanding, misinformation, change, difference, and so much that is in our news. I understand why people can become fearful, but we need to make sure that people know that our churches and the faith we have is a good news story and that we are open to love everyone without judgement. I know you are already good at this, and are possibly already praying this way, so thank you if you are, and thank you if you begin to pray for this as a result of my writing. We are in a position to offer hope and safety to those we know and love, why wouldn’t we want to pray for more opportunity to do that? Thank you.

And now I’ll finish. Please let me know if I can pray for you, it’s always a privilege, and is an important part of my ministry amongst you.

With love,

Sally xxxx

Please note that Friday is usually my rest day. Emails received on Friday may not be responded to until after the weekend. Thank you for your understanding.