Welcome to the website of the Shrine Church of Saint Melangell. Here you will find information about our services, events and facilities. Please use the menus at the top and bottom of the page to navigate to the page you need, or click the news links for up to date information.
Mae ein gwefan Gymraeg i’w gweld yma .
If you need any help or support you can contact us here.
We will remember them
November Services at the Shrine Church of St Melangell
November is the month of remembrance, with All Saints’ Day on 1st, All Souls’ on 2nd, Bonfire Night recalling the Gunpowder Plot on 5th, Remembrance Day on 11th and Remembrance Sunday on 12th. There is so much to be thankful for, not least the examples and courage of those who gave so much to enable the freedom we sometimes take for granted.
That freedom is often sorely tested and I recall one Dunkirk veteran, who still could not bear the sounds and smells of Bonfire Night fifty years later because it reminded him so much of the battlefield, saying sadly that he felt his mates had died for nothing. He’s dead himself now, but I wonder what Dennis would make of what is happening between Israel and Gaza as the responses to Hamas’ actions are revealed with thousands dead or injured and traumatised people being ordered to leave their homes? As the tidal wave of humanity fled the North of Gaza, it seemed that in some ways little has changed, with so many displaced families affected by the conflict and destruction having so little to eat or drink and nowhere to sleep. Was Dennis right?
William Orpen, a war artist on the Somme in 1916, takes the longer view. In 1921 he wrote: “I’d left it mud. Nothing but water, shell holes and mud, the most gloomy dreary abomination of desolation the mind could imagine.” But he went on: “And now in the summer of 1917, no words could express the beauty of it. The dreary dismal mud was baked white and pure, dazzling white. White daisies, red poppies and blue flowers, great masses of them, stretched for miles and miles. The sky, a pure dark blue, and the whole air up to the height of about forty feet, thick with butterflies. Your clothes were covered with butterflies. It was like an enchanted land. But in the place of fairies there were thousands of little white crosses marked “ unknown British soldier” for the most part.”
May future hope spring from current despair as, in 2023, we remember the sacrifices made then and now in the cause of peace and do what we can to establish peace and goodwill in our homes, families and communities today.
The following services will take place in November:
Thursday 2nd November, noon: Holy Eucharist for All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day.
Sunday 5th, 3pm: Service of Reflection
Wednesday 8th November, 10.30: Julian Group at the Centre.
Thursday 9th, noon: Holy Eucharist
Saturday 11th Remembrance Day, 10.45 in church: Act of Remembrance in church, followed by the laying of poppies on the war graves in the churchyard.
Remembrance Sunday 12th, 10.45: Llangynog War Memorial Wreath Laying in the Memorial Hall. Due to this united service, there will be no service at 3pm.
Thursday 16th, noon: Holy Eucharist
Sunday 19th, 3pm: Service of Reflection
Thursday 23rd, noon: Holy Eucharist
Sunday 26th, Christ the King, 3pm: Holy Eucharist
Thursday 30th, St Andrew, noon: Holy Eucharist
For further information, please contact admin@stmelangell.org or ring 01691 860408.