Annwyl Gyfeillion,

At the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, a challenging prophecy was offered by Simeon to Mary, the Mother of Jesus: “Yea, a sword will pierce your own soul.”  The narrative stories of the Bible, while joyously telling the stories of Jesus’ birth and the fulfilment of prophecy, also include an undertow, a shadow side of suffering. For the Gospel is not only news of salvation, it signals a battle with the powers of this world and with the realities of life to redeem hurt and loss. The Gospel is light in the darkness, hope in defeat, renewal in the face of death. Mary will know the joy of being Mother of the Saviour, but she will also have to see him rejected, despised and crucified. And yet, there is Easter to come.

In truth, life is a patchwork of light and darkness, joy and sadness, hope and grief.  The honesty of Christianity is not in denying that, but by saying God in Jesus enters into the darkness with us, that he shares, through the Incarnation, in the terror and the hurt and the loneliness: Jesus’ last words, almost, are “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

There has been more than a fair share of heavy news at the beginning of this year.  As bishop, I am grateful to be told when there is difficult news, and a number of us, at present, are facing the death or serious illness of a parent or a spouse, a close relative or friend or even of a child. Among our own, the darkness can take hold, and the promised light can appear distant. I won’t name you all here, but you will know among your neighbours and colleagues some of these stories and the sadness that must be borne. You are all loved, and prayed for.

My heart holds all of you in solidarity. And in the spirit of the Feast of Candlemas, I recite the creed of Desmond Tutu, as we did at Synod:

Goodness is stronger than evil.
Love is stronger than hate.
Light is stronger than darkness.
Life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours through him who loved us.

Lent Prayer

I am grateful to Archdeacon Andy for composing this year’s Lent Prayer. The prayer cards have now been distributed to the mission areas and supplies have been exhausted at Esgobty. Please do make good use of them in corporate and personal prayer, and as usual, I am inviting all members of the Teulu Asaph to join me in using the prayer at 1800hr or thereabouts every day of Lent, which starts on 14 February. Further copies can be printed from the downloadable version on the website.

Chrism Eucharist: Thursday 28 March

I look forward to welcoming all of you to the Cathedral on Maundy Thursday, March 28^th, at 1100hr as we gather to celebrate the Chrism Eucharist with the Blessing of the Holy Oils and the renewal of our commitment to diaconal, priestly and episcopal service, as well as the re-commitment of all the baptized to mission.  This common celebration is one of the chief points of diocesan life, so please make it a priority for your diaries.

Lunch will follow as usual and will be served in the south transept. It will take the form of a hot main course followed by pudding, provided, as usual, by Marc Macauley Caterers.

All licensed and commissioned lay ministers and all members of our congregations are very welcome in addition to all clergy, serving and retired, to help to make the Chrism Eucharist a genuinely diocesan service. I like the invitation to be as wide as possible, and it would be good if shared ministry teams could include the wider circle of lay ministers and PTO clergy in their invitations.

Please would clergy and lay people intending to be present register with their Mission Area Administrators.  MAAs will be provided with a pro forma to return to Esgobty no later than Tuesday, 19 March so that we have an accurate idea of numbers for catering, etc.  There will be meat and vegetarian options for the meal, and any other dietary requirements should be notified when registering. Full details about robing and other arrangements will be available in the March Ad Clerum.

Hwyl a Helo

I am pleased to announce that I intend, with God’s grace, to ordain two new clergy to the diaconate at the Petertide ordination. They are: Stuart Dean and Beci Ratcliffe. Stuart will serve in the Mold Mission Area, and Beci in the Denbigh Mission Area. I am sure that you will want to hold them in your prayers.  In the second week of Lent, we have the Spring Ember Days.  The latest version of the Ember Day leaflet gives you more detail on Stuart and Beci, and on our other ordinands and trainees. Please make wide use of these intentions for prayer, and distribute the leaflet to others: Welsh | English.

I would like to congratulate Sarah Errington on her appointment as Team Vicar in the Marden Vale Team Ministry in the Diocese of Salisbury. Sarah will be leaving us in the middle of May, after faithful service for almost fourteen years in the Wrexham Mission Area. We wish her and her family every blessing for the future.

I am sad to receive the resignations of Sue Huyton and Will Marshall. Sue is one of our longest serving priests, and it is hard to imagine the diocese without her. Sue will take up a well- earned retirement at the end of September. Will is newer to the diocese, but has brought an enthusiasm for the Gospel in his ministry.

Diary and Events                                    

The diary below includes all those fixed dates for events that clergy are required to attend as part of their professional commitment, together with those opportunities to build up our common life by supporting significant moments for our colleagues.  Please ensure that these dates are in your diary, even where the exact format may be open to change.  Where a clash comes to your attention, please raise it with Esgobty at the earliest opportunity.

This month

08 February       Mission Area Leader Training at St Matthew’s, Buckley from 0915hr

19 February       The Licensing of Janice Brown, St Ann’s Church, Rhyl, 1900hr

25 February       The Licensing of Rachel Dale, St George’s Church, Rhos-on-Sea, 1500hr.

In future

03 March            The Licensing of Andrea de Vaal Horciu, Holywell, details to be confirmed.

28 March          Chrism Eucharist, Cathedral, 1100hr

04 May               Festal Eucharist for St Asaph, Cathedral, with admissions to the Order of St Asaph, and celebration of ordination anniversaries.

25 May               Licensed Lay Ministry AGM with Licensing of Lay Ministers, Cathedral, 1200hrs

(All LLMs are expected to attend and renew their licences)

25 June               The Hellins Lecture, Cathedral, 19.15hr (see below)

29 June             Petertide Ordination (Deacons and Priests), Cathedral, 1000hr

19 September   Clergy Synod for all serving clergy, in person, location to be decided.

12 October       Diocesan Conference

13 November    Mission Area Leader Training

The Hellins Lecture

We are delighted to welcome Archbishop Ian Ernest, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Personal Representative to the Holy See and Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome as our Hellins Lecturer for 2024.  Archbishop Ian welcomes pilgrims and Anglicans from all over the world to Rome, and the Centre runs many courses, and other opportunities to become acquainted with the Eternal City. The archbishop will lecture on the work of the Centre, and his work as Representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See, and we will be using the opportunity to launch a Welsh branch of the Friends of the Anglican Centre.

The 2024 Hellins Lecture will take place on Tuesday 25 June in the Cathedral at 1915hr.  Before the Lecture there will be a celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the Cathedral at 1800hr for those who would like to attend, and the Lecture itself will be preceded by light refreshments served in the South Transept from 18.45.  Please make every effort to join us by securing the date in your diaries now. The evening will also be an opportunity for the Church in Wales to affirm formally its support for the work of the Anglican Centre in Rome, and it would be excellent to see a good crowd.

Notes and Queries

Apprenticeships

At September’s Synods, you were given important information about this new opportunity to work with St Padarn’s, the diocese and Welsh Government to sponsor a young person to obtain a year’s work experience and Christian ministry qualification, which could run between September 2024 and August 2025.  Further copies of this material can be obtained from Pam Powell as Director of Ministry.  As a scoping exercise, we need to find out how many apprenticeships we could sponsor next year, and so it is important that all those interested return the “Expression of Interest” forms that we distributed as soon as possible.  So far, there have been only a few expressions of interest, so please consider what might be possible.

Exhumation of deceased persons

There has been quite a rise in faculty requests recently for the exhumation of the deceased who have been buried for a long time because family circumstances are changing and the family have expressed a desire for the remains to be relocated.  Exhumation orders are extremely serious things, and not granted for anything but the most serious of reasons, such as the police requiring DNA, or burials in the wrong plot. There are very occasionally other extenuating circumstances, but the Chancellors of the Church in Wales have advised that applications based on sentiment or circumstances of life are normally denied in line with the law of the land.

I attach further guidance from the Chancellor. Difficulties and upset can be caused if faculty applications for exhumations are put through by clergy, sometimes with approval having been obtained from the Mission Area Conference. It is important not to cause any unnecessary upset to the families by raising hopes or expectations that exhumations are routinely possible, so it would be better if they were headed off at the point of first enquiry. In doubt, request advice from the archdeacons or registrar.

Order of St Asaph

It is now the time of year to invite the submission of applications for Order of St Asaph awards in 2024. The ceremony will take place during the Diocesan Festival Eucharist for St. Asaph at the Cathedral on Saturday, May 4th. The Order of St. Asaph seeks to recognise and honour the outstanding contribution of lay persons at diocesan level, particularly at an appropriate point on the completion of service in a particular way or in a particular role which serves our diocesan life.

A nomination form is attached which should be returned completed with as much information as possible about a candidate’s contribution to the diocese. All members of the Teulu Asaph, whether clerical or lay, are encouraged to make nominations, which can also be submitted through any diocesan council or committee. Nominations forms for consideration by the OSA advisory committee should be submitted to Esgobty by Friday, March 1st.

Understandably there are those who have offered sterling service to the Church within the local church or mission area context, and there has been some representation for the remit of the Order to widened from the present criteria based upon service to the diocese as a whole. This was considered by Standing Committee recently, but the decision was made to retain the status quo for the time being. I continue to be happy to provide a suitable certificate for local presentation by a church or mission area. Please contact Michael at Esgobty in the first instance with appropriate details for me to consider.

Permission to Officiate

It is crucial that retired clerics recognize the fact that when they withdraw from public ministry, and surrender Permission to Officiate, this means that they are not eligible for “one-off” Permissions to Officiate on an occasional basis. They are still welcome to assist at occasional offices and elsewhere but require a permanent tri-ennial Permission to Officiate, with the attending DBS checks, and Safeguarding Training as fundamental to the safe exercise of public ministry.  Where PTO is not held, permission cannot be given to requests to preside or officiate at single services, no matter how close the connection.

Preparing for Lent : A One Day Retreat

Prepare for your Lent with a preached retreat which is being led for us by Sister Gemma Simmonds CJ, Canon of St Asaph Cathedral. It’s being held on Saturday 10 February 2024, 10.30 am to 4 pm at St Beuno’s Retreat Centre, near Tremeirchion. The cost for the day for each participant is £20, and this will include coffee and tea throughout the day, although you should bring your own packed lunch.  Book your place through stasaphspirituality@cinw.org.uk or by calling 01745 582245

Clergy Synod

Thank you for a comprehensive turn out at the Synod last week, where I think we were blessed with two stimulating presentations with very different outlooks, and two acts of worship and reflection which complemented and provoked in equal measure. I am grateful to Giles Fraser, Andy Grimwood, Miranda Threlfall-Holmes and Andrea Russell for all they offered to us in the day. I am pleased to be able to attach Heather Fenton’s record of the day, and am indebted for her producing this helpful digest.

New Waste Regulations

The law regarding waste disposal is changing in April and will affect churches and church halls. This is very important as incorrect disposal could lead to fines. The guidance note has been circulated recently and is also available on the Church in Wales website at www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/about-us/our-campaigns/environment/.

As we approach Lent, my prayers are with you all. May the God of Grace grant us light, hope and refreshment as we go forward, and bring us to a renewed faith at Easter,

With my thanks and gratitude as always,