Annwyl Gyfeillion,

Easter seems to have come round quickly for me.  Indeed, the whole pace of life in the post-Covid world seems to be that much quicker and more demanding.  I hope that your Lent has been going well, and that you’ve been able to retain something of a focus on Asaph 1450 as a Year of Jubilee, of recentring and renewing your faith.

This is particularly important in Holy Week.  There is so much to be done, and while conducting Holy week services can be deeply satisfying, we ought also to find time to tend to our own faith in quietness, and in our own encounter with the Lord.  I have made reference before now to the ancient symbol found in many middle eastern Churches of peacocks drinking from the fountain of the Cross.  Not only does this remind us that Jesus’ sacrifice stands at the centre of our faith, but that we are invited into eternity (the peacocks being an ancient symbol of paradise) by drinking from the well of living water that Jesus provides in himself.  As the gospels record, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ (John 7.37,38).

I hope that each of us can find some time to sit apart and intentionally draw close to Christ’s presence and invite him to refresh and renew us, for Holy Week can be really celebrated, only when it is not only “our Holy Week” but “my Holy Week”.

Chrism Eucharist: Thursday, 6^th April

As part of our own devotions for Holy week, I hope that you share with me the importance of coming together in the Cathedral next week on Maundy Thursday, April 6^th, at 1100hr as we gather to celebrate the Chrism Eucharist with the Blessing of the Holy Oils and the opportunity to renew our commitment to diaconal, priestly and episcopal service, as well as the commitment of all the baptized to mission.  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.  This common celebration is one of the high points of diocesan life, so I will hope to see you there.

Lunch will follow and will be served in the South Transept, with beverages available for purchase from the Translators’ Tearoom.  Numbers for this from the mission areas should have been submitted earlier this week. If, however, there are any late notifications please be in touch with Esgobty immediately and we will try to accommodate these.

• Clergy will be able to robe in the North Transept (alb/cassock & surplice with white stole) prior to taking their places. Readers are warmly invited to wear their surplices and scarves, and other lay licensed minsters the cross with which they were invested at their licensing.
• When robed, please take your seat in the nave as directed by the stewards.
• The Holy Eucharist will be administered in one kind only, given the diversity of the gathering, and you will be directed to your communion station. Please be mindful of the needs of those needing to main social distancing.  Gluten-free communion will be administered from the steps of North Transept.
• At the end of the service, please remain in your places while the Bishop’s altar party processes through the West doors, after which those with clerical and lay licensed ministries are invited to join the procession for a photograph in the area outside the Cathedral. Please remain robed for this.
• Please feel free to reconfigure the seating in the nave to form fellowship groups while you socialize over lunch. If the weather cooperates, there will also be plastic chairs available that people can use to sit in the cathedral grounds.
• A selection of second-hand theological books and other items will be available in the Cathedral Presbytery. Donations to the Cathedral would be welcome.

St Asaph Festival: Saturday, 29^th April

In this year of Asaph 1450, there will be a special Celebration of the Eucharist in the Cathedral on 29^th April, to mark the Feast Day of St Asaph, which falls in the following week.  The guest preacher will be the Dean of Liverpool, the Very Revd Dr. Sue Jones.  In addition to the celebration of Asaph 1450,  there will be the annual awards of the Order of St Asaph (which will include our retiring Diocesan Secretary, Mrs Diane McCarthy), the gathering of the Friends of St Asaph Cathedral, and a special invitation to clergy celebrating a special anniversary to join with me in the celebration of the Eucharist.  (Clergy wishing to mark a significant anniversary at this service are asked to contact my office by April 5^th).  We will also be distributing a special token to mark the Year of Jubilee and 1450 anniversary, which will be made available to every member of the congregation. Given the celebration of Asaph 1450 this year, I hope that a warm invitation to join us at the Cathedral will be offered throughout the diocese, and that you will think about joining us.

Liturgical Resources to mark the Coronation of HM King Charles III

The coronation of HM King Charles III will be a joyful and historic national occasion. The Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales wishes to encourage our churches to pray for the King, the Royal Family, our nation and the Commonwealth at this time and so is pleased to commend liturgical resources produced by the Standing Liturgical Advisory Commission.

The bishops have approved prayers which can be used for any of us who wish to mark the coronation of King Charles in their worship.  These prayers are here in Welsh and English and introduced in this paper appended to this Ad Clerum, and which is published on the web at

www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/publications/liturgy/coronation-of-king-charles-iii/

The Church of England has produced many additional resources which can be found at www.churchofengland.org/coronation.

The bishops have also authorised a list of amendments to royal prayers within Church in Wales liturgies necessary following the accession of King Charles. This is updated guidance on the use of references to the King and to members of the Royal Family in our liturgies and attached to this Ad Clerum.  These may also be found at:

www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/publications/liturgy/royal-prayers-2023

Bishop Stuart Bell and the Anglican Convocation in Europe

Some of you will be aware that on Saturday, 18th March, the Revd Stuart Bell, former Rector of the Rectorial Benefice of Aberystwyth, accepted ordination to the episcopate from Archbishop Foley Beach of the Anglican Church of North America and others.  While many of us have held Stuart in enormous respect for his ministry, the Bench of Bishops cannot receive or accept his episcopal ministry, founded, as it is, on a repudiation of the bishops’ own ministry and a breaking of Communion with the Church in Wales.  In these difficult circumstances, sadly there now exists some distance, not sought nor desired by the bishops of the Church in Wales, between us and the Anglican Convocation in Europe (ACiE), which is the group to which Stuart is now affiliated.

The bench understands that the issue over which Stuart has decided to take this action is the decision of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales to permit same-sex couples to have a blessing on their civil unions, and this step is characterised as a repudiation of Biblical authority.  Naturally, this is not an interpretation which the bishops of the Church in Wales can accept, although we have been clear that clergy, leaders and members of the Church in Wales have a diversity of opinions on this matter, and have sought to provide space in our common life for freedom of conscience and difference.

We have to be clear, therefore, about how relationships are changed with Bishop Stuart now, and those who are members of the Anglican Convocation in Europe.  A decision by members of ACiE to stand apart from the oversight of the bishops of the Church in Wales, and of the Churches of the Anglican Communion in communion with us, means that Church in Wales clergy should stand back from receiving communion at services held under the auspices of the ACiE.  No ministers affiliated with the Anglican Convocation in Europe should exercise ministry or leadership in a Church in Wales context, unless the explicit written permission of the appropriate Church in Wales diocesan bishop has been given.

We would like to be generous and open in our relationship with former colleagues and brothers and sisters in Christ in the future but we have to recognise the reality of the step which has been taken.  We will be happy to address any further questions or perspectives that arise in people’s minds.

Deliverance Ministry – New Protocols

After consultation with safeguarding, and with the diocesan deliverance teams, the bishops are introducing a new method of making a reference for access to the ministry and work of the diocesan deliverance team.  In future, all references should be made through the bishops’ offices.  I attach a protocol and flow chart, to which all inquiries should adhere, and I should be grateful for your observance of these new protocols.

Diary and Events                                    

This diary below includes dates for events that all clergy are encouraged to attend, or required to attend as part of their professional commitment.  Please ensure that these dates are in your diary, even where the exact format may be open to change.

Events like the Chrism Eucharist and Ordinations are not listed as professional requirements, because I don’t believe in making any worship compulsory.  However, I hope that our natural loyalty to support one another and our common life make these services a priority in our diaries.

 April

6 April                         Chrism Eucharist and Lunch, at the Cathedral, 1100hr

8 April                         Easter Vigil at the Cathedral, 1900hr

16 April                      Licensing of Luke Bristowe, St Peter’s, Ruthin, 1530hr

23 April                      Confirmation at St Mark’s Church, Wrexham 1600hr

29 April                      Festival Eucharist in the Cathedral for the Feast of St Asaph, 1100hr

May

07 May                       Choral Evensong to mark the Coronation of HM King Charles III, Cathedral, 1530hr

28 May                       Pentecost Confirmation Service, Cathedral, 1530hr

Later in 2023

8 June                         Recommitment of the Bryn a Môr Mission Area, and the licensing of Adrian Johnson as Assistant Curate, Llanasa Church, 1900hr

24 June                       Ordination of Deacons, Cathedral, 1000hrs

28, 30 June & 1 July Petertide Ember Days

1 July                          Ordination of Priests, Cathedral, 1000hrs

15 July                        Licensing of Lay Ministers, Cathedral, 1000hrs

16 July                        Evensong with the Installation of Canons, 1530hr

20 & 21 Septr            Archdeaconry Clergy Synods (as set out below)

27 & 30 Septr            Michaelmas Ember Days

12 October                Diocesan Conference business meeting on Zoom 1900-2100hrs

14 October                Diocesan Conference worship & addresses, Cathedral, 1400-1600hr

21 Novr                      MAL training day (Please note this date is currently provisional)

6 December               St Nicholastide Confirmation, Cathedral, 1900hr

13, 15 & 16 Dec        Advent Ember Days

Hwyl a Helo

I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Juliet Fraser, David Lewis, and Adam Pawley as honorary canons of the cathedral in recognition of their significant ministries in the diocese as mission area or mission hub church leaders.  They will join Huw Butler at a Service of Installation on Sunday, 16^th July, at 1530hr in the Cathedral.

I am also pleased to affirm the ministry of Jayne Coxall who now takes on formally the role of Mission Area Leader for Aber-Morfa, and Alyson Goldstein, who has accepted my invitation to become Officer for Licensed Lay Ministries.  This means that Alyson will be working with our Readers, pastoral chaplains, evangelists and youth and family chaplains.  As a Reader herself for many years, Alyson is well placed to take on this work of support.

We welcome Hugh Richardson as a new ordinand to the diocese who has been recruited to be the next Assistant Curate at Hope Street.  We look forward to welcoming Hugh to the diocese when he will be ordained to the diaconate in the Cathedral on June 24^th.

We will also be seeing a move for Adrian Johnson in June as he leaves his curacy in Mold to complete IME with the team in Bryn a Môr Mission Area.  Adrian will be licensed as part of the reconfiguration of the Bryn a Môr Mission Area team on Thursday, 8^th June, at Llanasa Church.

There is also a significant change for another of our curates as we wish Natasha Quinn-Thomas every blessing for the future as she moves to take up a post in the Church of Ireland at Castlenock, Dublin.  Natasha’s last Sunday in Dyffryn Clwyd will be on June 11^th.

I am sorry to record the death of Sherry Bloomer after a very short illness. Sherry was the Curate in Llangollen following ordination in 1997. From 2000-2004 she served in Nannerch, Rhydymwyn and Cilcain and as archdeaconry vocations officer before moving to Worcester diocese. Latterly on her return to north Wales, Sherry held my PTO.  With sadness, we must also mark the death of Jeanette Wilkes’ father, Peter Grayson, and the wife of John Elwyn Evans, Mair.  May all these servants of Christ rest in peace and rise in glory.

Notes and Queries

Easter Vigil at the Cathedral – April 8^th

Although there will be no confirmation in the cathedral during the Triduum this year, the Easter Vigil will still take place at 1900hr on Saturday, April 8^th.  There will be a warm welcome to any from across the diocese who would like to join us to celebrate the resurrection light that Easter brings.  As has been the custom in recent years, there will be an opportunity for all churches to bring their Paschal candles to the service, to symbolise taking the light of Christ from the Mother Church to illuminate the Paschal celebrations during Easter in their local settings.

Pentecost Confirmation at the Cathedral – May 28th

A diocesan confirmation service is planned for the afternoon of Pentecost, Sunday May 28^th, at 1530hr.  It will be helpful if clergy planning to present candidates at this service can contact my office as soon as possible, if they have not done so already.

Autumn Clergy Synods: 20^th and 21^st September

The Autumn Clergy Synods will be held by archdeaconry and on Zoom this year.  Please put these dates firmly in your diaries, and further information will be forthcoming.

• Wednesday, 20^th September, St Asaph Clergy Synod, 1400hr-1630hr, by Zoom
• Thursday, 21^st September, Wrexham Clergy Synod, 1000hr-1230hr, by Zoom
• Thursday, 21^st September, Montgomery Clergy Synod, 1400hr-1630hr, by Zoom

Diocesan Conference, 12^th and 14^th October

A fresh approach is being developed for the 2023 Diocesan Conference in October. The business elements of the conference will be split from the inspirational/keynote speaker. Please save the following two dates and more information will follow:

• Thursday 12 October: 7pm – 9pm: This will be an online meeting (via Zoom) to conduct the business of the diocesan conference. It will include items such as the budget, accounts and any amendments to the diocesan constitution.
• Saturday 14 October: 2pm – 4pm at the Cathedral. This will include worship, keynote addresses and speakers and will conclude with refreshments. Among the speakers this year will be the Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Andrew John, who will be speaking about the commitment of the Church in Wales to support evangelism.

The conference pages of the website at https://dioceseofstasaph.org.uk/diocesan-conference/ will be updated with further information in due course.

Grace and Peace to you from the Lord Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Lord, in whose name, and to whose glory we work,