Weekly message from Area Dean Jeremy Harris

Opening Church Buildings.

Following the announcement by the Welsh Government we have now received the detailed guidance on reopening our buildings for private prayer. We will be required to complete a comprehensive risk assessment before we can open and these will need to be signed off by our archdeacon. Various measures including a thorough clean each day the building is opened and some temporary structural changes will be required. Over the coming weeks we hope we might be able to open one or two of our churches for a few hours each week. We also hope that in the coming months we might be able to hold one or two small services – but that will depend on permission from Welsh Government and the completion of risk assessments.

Prayer.

Several people have told me that they have discovered an increased depth to their praying during this period of lockdown and I know many have discovered the blessings of a time of daily prayer perhaps using our prayer booklets. Something else that we can be grateful for! You’ll find some resources about prayer on our website. I’m going to put together a brief series of talks about how we might go about praying. As part of this I’d like to hear about the ways you might pray. If you are prepared to share something about what you  find useful to help you pray then please drop me an email.

Ordinations.

This weekend we should have been celebrating with Samuel on his ordination as a priest. Sadly because of the current situation most ordinations have had to be postponed. We look forward to the autumn when we can celebrate with Samuel. Please hold in your prayers all of those from our diocese who are due to be ordained as a Deacon or Priest this year:-

Priest: Samuel, Bronwen, Lee, John, Heulwen, Lisa and Matthew

Deacon: Liz, Kay and Mary.

Congratulations to Liz whose ordination went ahead at the Cathedral this morning , the service was streamed live and is recorded on youtube. https://youtu.be/kg6Mj_5pTaM