Author: stmelangell_l5nfea

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Sunday reflection

Dear all,
“Are you envious of my generosity? So the last will be first and the first will be last.” 
from Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard, St Matthew 20:1-16, NIV.
“Who is wealthy? One who is happy with what they’ve got. Is your glass half empty or half full?……I think I’m happy to have a glass. Be grateful for the glass we have.”
from Chief Rabbi Mirvis’ Thought for the Day, Radio 4, 18th September.
 
The parable of the workers in the vineyard was one that sometimes came up in discussions when I was a chaplain with the Black Country Industrial Mission. In an area so much associated with the industrial revolution, whole families had sometimes been involved in making nails or other items, often vying with their neighbours for the work. That could then create an atmosphere of rivalry and competition that is still not entirely eclipsed in some areas. Today, the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath are annually lauded for successfully going on strike for fairer wages compared to what male workers received and all this is why this parable is still sometimes hard to hear in that and other similar locations.
In the story Jesus tells, workers have been set on for the day and have agreed the wage they’ll receive. Throughout the day, more workers are taken on and this is presumably because there is plenty of work to be done. Perhaps the vineyard owner is considerate of those first workers and sending them more help; were they glad of the further help at the time? Did they chat as they worked or perhaps shared their food, getting to know one another as they did, or were they already well known to one another as they vied in the marketplace for the work available? Whatever the circumstances, at the end of the day all the workers are paid the same wage whenever they started – but those who had first accepted the rate are now unhappy because they have worked for so much longer. 
Perhaps that’s understandable, given that so much less effort and labour was required from those who began later. But the first workers got what they had bargained for originally and accepted. Now they’re resentful, because of the good fortune of the others – who have also received what they bargained for, due to the generosity of the owner. Rather than being thankful that they all have money to take home to their families, that the work is done and the owner kind, there is grumbling and a sense of grievance from some, although not all. There’s a risk for the owner too: in the face of the disgruntlement, it may be that it will in future be difficult to find workers for the whole day if they think that others can work for fewer hours and receive the same amount. The owner seems willing to take the risk – but how does he feel in the face of the grumbling? There’s a touch of exasperation in his final comment that the last shall be first and the first last. 
A parable being an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, Jesus is talking here of the kingdom of God, its inverse values and the generosity we sometimes take for granted. It’s a complex matter applying that today, in the midst of the economic circumstances created by lockdown, the furlough scheme and the severe unemployment expected as the pandemic continues.
My granny used to remind us that not all our riches are in the bank and, as Rabbi Mirvis suggests, wealth is to do with being happy with what we have. That’s not easy as the  Covid-19 figures increase again and uncertainty grows once more. But that’s why this parable is so important to these challenging times: mercy, generosity and grace are hallmarks of God’s kingdom even if that is sometimes confusing when it seems not to be deserved. For that, we can be grateful – but are we? As we consider the awful circumstances we’re facing now, on this Battle of Britain Sunday perhaps we should remember the price paid in adversity during World War Two by the Few on behalf of the many and appreciate the true cost of the freedom and work it’s so easy sometimes to  take for granted.
With my prayers, as I ask for yours,
Christine
Guardian of the Shrine Church of St Melangell
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Sunday reflection

Reflection for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Jesus, in St Matthew 18:21-35: “Forgive your brother from your heart.”

Guardian to recycler: “Do you take the hard plastic cases from cassette tapes?”

Youngish recycler: “I’m sorry, my dear, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”

As one who, at the time, found it challenging this week to put into practice the words of Jesus due to being both patronised and treated like a dinosaur in an encounter with the generation gap, forgiveness is not easy! 

One person who showed forgiveness in a quite remarkable way was Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who, with her family, took into their home and hid Jews being persecuted during the Second World War. In February 1944, an informant betrayed them and all ten family members were arrested – though not the six Jews and resistance workers who had been successfully hidden behind a false wall. In prison, where she was held in solitary confinement for three months, Corrie received a letter saying, “All the watches in your cabinet are safe” and so knew that all had escaped. She and her sister Betsie ended up in Ravensbrück concentration camp where Betsie died just fifteen days before Corrie was released on 16th December. Later, she was told that a clerical error had brought her freedom and all the women in Corrie’s age group (52) were sent to the gas chambers a week afterwards. What if she had not survived, like so many others?

After the war, Corrie set up a rehabilitation centre in Holland for survivors of the Holocaust and Dutch collaborators, returning to Germany in 1946 where she met and forgave two workers at Ravensbrück, one of whom had been particularly cruel to Betsie. She who had every reason to hate was able, due to her lively faith, whole-heartedly to live out Jesus’ guidance to forgive – even in such heart-rending circumstances. Corrie wrote many books about her experiences and, in doing so, liberated others to be freed by forgiveness too. 

I first experienced the power of these following words of hers when I was a prison chaplain. One man wept with hatred of his father, not wanting to forgive him for the abuse experienced in his childhood and saying that he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to to show his own future children love if he hadn’t known it himself. Eventually, in being willing to at least explore those feelings, he was able to realise that his father had been abused himself, to forgive him and to begin to overcome the hurt. That cycle of abuse was broken by time, will and courage – I often think of him and hope that he did find love in the end. So many don’t.

With such mixed emotions being created and great suffering being experienced due to the ongoing pandemic today, the words and actions of Corrie ten Boom, based on the example of Jesus, are still relevant:

“Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” 

May it be so – and may we find the will for it to be so.

With my prayers,

Christine

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Sunday reflection

 Dear all,
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” 

Jesus in St Matthew 18:15-20.

 
“In 1665 , there was living in this cottage with her two young sons a woman…named Mary Cooper…and she had taken in a lodger called George Viccars, a travelling tailor…” Eyam Plague 1665-1666, pamphlet by John Clifford.
Conflict and its resolution is the emphasis in today’s Gospel reading and Jesus gives guidance on what to do when people can’t agree, procedures that are still relevant today given the amount of conflict and disagreement currently being generated by the opinions and responses to Coronavirus. Despite all this, there’s so much for which to be thankful, too, as we face this with the experience of those gone before us and the drugs, discoveries and treatment they developed in their lifetimes. Think how many lives the discovery of penicillin has saved as the search for a vaccine for Covid-19 goes on.
Events in 1665 in Eyam, the Derbyshire plague village, also had long-term consequences for the handling of disease. It’s thought that the plague may have arrived via infected fleas in cloth sent to the tailor from London and, as the cloth was damp, George Viccars spread it out to dry. He died soon afterwards, and the disease spread quickly, killing at least 260 villagers from 76 different families out of a population of 350. Mary Cooper had given hospitality to more than she realised, as so often do we. 
What was significant was the response of the villagers who, at the suggestion of Rector William Mompesson, voluntarily went into quarantine to stop the plague spreading. They were asked to bury their own dead in their back gardens, to worship outside and to have food and goods brought to boundaries where money was left in vinegar to disinfect it. Today, there is much confusion and many grumbles about having to quarantine at short notice but at least we have never had to bury our own dead – the villagers united in their response and the infection was contained. 
However, this was not without its cost and the Rector’s wife was one of those who died. As the current vicar wrote of his predecessor: “When you read Mompesson’s letters….in one he writes ‘I am a dying man’. He was scared but he did it all the same. I suspect fear stalked them every day of their lives at the time.” Mompesson, who was only 28 at the time, survived but when he moved afterwards was at first made to live in a hut in Rufford Park for fear of the plague being brought with him. Where two or three are gathered…..
The shrine church here bears testimony to this too. A few people gathering though Melangell’s arrival, her encounter with the prince and the small community that then began here eventually grew into the church of today where the work and legacy of so many down the years bears silent witness to the faith underpinning it. There may have been conflict at times, too, but its restoration must have required vision, will and co-operation, which are much needed today in our generation. 
I was reminded of this when Enid Shaw and her daughter recently arrived. Enid is now 94 and was much involved with bringing groups to the church as well as stitching one of the pew runners which continue to provide colour, warmth and comfort today. She was delighted to find her runner and both are shown in the photo beneath. Talking with her enabled me to understand more about the origins of what is here today and the importance of each generation in shaping what we sometimes take for granted.

As we think of the words of Jesus, consider the actions of the Eyam villagers, ponder the pandemic or realise what has been entrusted to us, what conflict needs to be reconciled in our lives? What will successive generations say about our response to the challenges before us and what we entrust to them?
With my prayers,
Christine 
Diocesan prayer for the week
Sovereign God, our world is fractured and divided by differences of belief, opinion, custom, and allegiance. Open our hearts to be reconciled to one another in love; may we not, for the sake of our own ease, be reconciled to what wrong or uncharitable but work in your strength for the good of all. For the sake of Jesus, whose costly work of reconciliation brings us close to you, Amen.

Canon Carol Wardman

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Sunday Reflection

Dear all,
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men…. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” 

From St Matthew 16: 21-end, NIV.

 
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
From Chapter 6, Alice through the Looking Glass.
 
Today’s Gospel reading continues from last week’s, where Simon Peter had called Jesus the Messiah and had been blessed for doing so, given a new name and told that he would be given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Using the term Messiah was perhaps a dawning realisation for Peter rather than the acceptance of all that it would involve so it’s perhaps unsurprising that, when Jesus later tells his followers that he will suffer, die and rise again, Peter rebukes him, saying that this must never happen. It must have been bewildering for Peter to hear himself now called Satan and a stumbling block but perhaps the strength of Jesus’ response shows how hard it was for him, too. Reading the accounts so many years later, it may be easy for us to assume that Jesus naturally chose what God was asking of him but the Gospels suggest that he had to make his choice for God every day. This may be of comfort to us in the bewildering times in which we now live, when there are daily choices to reflect upon, whether about faith, major life decisions, using a mask or even going out. However, by losing the habits and expectations that were so familiar, it may be that lives will be saved and blessings found amidst what now seems disruptive, whether or not it all seems back to front. Those are the values, not only of the kingdom of heaven as Jesus’ words remind us, but of Carroll’s Looking Glass world, too. As we wrestle with the many changes faced today, it’s not only Peter who is bewildered or Humpty Dumpty who is pondering which is in charge.
So, this weekend’s Bank Holiday is timely as an opportunity for enjoyment, relaxation and re-creation before the schools return, autumn draws nigh and the worst wheat harvest for 40 years begins to push up food prices. Holidays were originally Holy Days and, when we seek the holy each day (perhaps beginning by praying the following prayer daily) then we will find ourselves being renewed, refreshed and re-created. That can be reflected even when, like Peter, what we’re looking at seems back to front or topsy-turvy and when, like the White Queen Alice met through the Looking Glass, it seems as if we also sometimes have to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast!
With my prayers,
Christine.

Diocesan  Collect for the week

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

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Sunday reflection

Dear all,

“Who do people say the Son of Man is?”……Who do you say I am?” – Jesus in St Matthew 16:13-20. 

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” – Peter, as above.

“All I want is my Prince Charming.” – ‘Wife’ in Married At First Sight, Australia.

“I’m feeling real bad at the moments about not being her fairy tale.” – ‘Husband’, as above. 

My niece was married in Australia last year and so, being unable to go, I watched an episode of Married at First Sight, Australia to get an idea of what an Australian wedding was like. What I didn’t realise is that, although they make vows when they meet for the first time at the ceremony, the couples aren’t legally married so that they are free to move on later if the relationship doesn’t work out. They are matched by ‘experts’ for an ‘experiment’ to see whether science can be more successful than their own failed attempts to find partners for life. In the episode I watched, it was clear that some couples had unrealistic expectations, with the above couple in particular finding reality hard. Their comments made me think of the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury when Prince Charles and Lady Diana married and he suggested that this was the stuff of which fairy tales are made. Sadly, that proved not to be the case for them, as for others, and the painful reality of divorce resulted.

That’s been so this week with the turmoil over the exam results – what was the actual reality, given estimated grades, the disputed algorithm, the reversing of decisions and future dreams? Could there be a fairy tale ending or were hopes dashed? Outcomes varied tremendously – and yet another complication of the way the ongoing pandemic is affecting so many lives became clear. That’s so for my niece and her husband too, living near a hotspot and now expecting their first child at a time when, for many couples, the joys and hopes of pregnancy are tempered by the restrictions and realities of Covid-19. The ‘new normal’ is challenging.

The disciples found themselves wrestling with a ‘new normal’ in the Gospel reading today as Jesus takes them into Caesarea Philippi, two days’ walk away from their Galilean homes. Leaving the familiar behind, he asks them a question about who the Son of Man is and they give traditional answers such as John the Baptist, Elijah and Jeremiah. When Jesus asks who they think he is, Peter replies that he is the Christ, Son of the living God – he realises that the dreams and hopes of the Messiah, prophesied for so long, are being fulfilled in the reality of the person before him. A ‘new normal’ has come into being as the future hope becomes part of the present reality – no fairy tale, but a story of miracles, muddles, suffering and soul-searching that changes the lives of those who are willing to engage with this nuanced reality. It’s not until Easter Day that Jesus is called God by Thomas but, for now, Peter’s realisation is profound and Jesus gives him a new name for the role he will play in the different future that is coming into being, a present reality that is far more challenging than those disciples then could have realised. This reality will involve, not Prince Charming, but the Prince of Peace and a costly love for humanity which could last a lifetime – and beyond. 

Those disciples must have been in turmoil then as they grappled with all this and perhaps that’s so for us, too, as we face the lengthy challenges of a virus that is so hard to overcome, relationships that aren’t easy to sustain due to the restrictions and such difficult choices having to be made. Our present reality continues to be challenging and the consequences of the pandemic continues to cause such disruption to students, people having to quarantine at short notice, those who still have to seek isolation as the risk of infection continues, the economy…… Life and love may not be turning out as we expected, yet future hope can still shape the current reality and who we are capable of becoming, even when hearts are broken, relationships fail and plans are disrupted. If and when we seek it, there is hope that the costly love witnessed by those first disciples can also enable us, today, to find new beginnings and begin to transform our fairy tales into reality – life doesn’t have to be always Grimm! 

With my prayers and apologies for so awful a pun,

Christine

Diocesan prayer for the week

Bountiful God,
In your creation you gave us the freedom to make many choices so guard us from decisions which harm ourselves or others. May those whose privilege affords greater freedom be always mindful of the common good, so that all may enjoy the generosity of your provision and by our actions may we not deny good things of mind, body or spirit to others. Amen. 

Canon Carol Wardman

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Sunday reflection

Dear all,

“Out of the heart come evil thoughts…… These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” – Jesus, in today’s Gospel, Matt 15:10-28, NIV.

”Toilet paper was the most sought after item” – Edward Woodward, Royal Corps of Signals, speaking of supplies dropped by air in the Far East. 

Today’s Gospel may have an ironic ring to it as the Covid-19 restrictions ease but emphasis remains on hand washing and the keeping of a social distance. Hand washing is used by the Pharisees to provoke Jesus by asking why his disciples don’t wash their hands before they eat, as is customary for observant Jews. He calls them hypocrites and tells the crowd that what comes out of people’s mouths when they speak matters more than hand washing, before he crosses another traditional boundary by going into the region of Tyre and Sidon. 

In this area, the Canaanites and Jews had been enemies since Canaan had been cursed by Noah’s son (Gen.9:25-27) – yet a Canaanite woman beseeches him for help. At first, Jesus honours the traditions of his day by ignoring her as she’s both female and regarded as a pagan enemy of the Jews. But the woman perseveres, asking Jesus to have pity on her and telling him that her daughter is tormented by a devil, which would indicate mental illness today. His disciples urge him to send her away and Jesus makes it clear that his ministry is to the Jews only – but she persists, approaches him despite the distance that should be observed between them and shows humility and respect by kneeling before him as she asks again for his help. In calling her a dog, Jesus then belittles her – yet she replies that even dogs will eat the scraps they are given. Her perseverance overcomes the barriers between them, Jesus praises her for her great faith and her daughter is healed. 

The astonishing thing about this encounter is that the woman’s courage and determination seem to change Jesus’ mind – he begins to realise that his ministry is to gentiles as well as Jews. This happens soon after Peter’s lack of faith during the storm, the demands of the crowd and the challenging questions of the Pharisees, so perhaps Jesus found the unnamed woman’s faith heartening. She is unclean in terms of the traditions of his day – yet, as those who would normally avoid one another overcome boundaries and engage in conversation, Jesus finds greater understanding and the woman’s daughter is healed, as she hoped. Through the unexpected encounter, Jesus changes his mind and both meet each other’s needs – and that is the hope for us today as the pandemic rolls on. We are now having to find new ways of still relating to each other and as church through the media while social distancing and hand washing are still essential. As the battle with Covid-19 is also creating a rise in mental health issues, this incident in Canaan reminds us that there is no need for distance, cleansing or well being before Jesus is contactable today – prayer is the direct means anywhere, any time, with no need for hand sanitiser first!

All this coincides with the VJ commemorations this week as the Forgotten Army is remembered and the awful conditions of fighting in the Far East, the treatment of prisoners of war and the terrible death toll are honoured. Many nations combined in the fighting with more than 12,000 prisoners of war dying in captivity and an estimated 71,000 British and Commonwealth casualties. At the time, those soldiers overcame the distance and differing languages, religions, customs and conventions of their day as they united In the cause of freedom and peace – as Prince Charles said at the National Memorial Arboretum, “Let us affirm that they and the surviving veterans are not forgotten…. Your service and your sacrifice will echo through the years.”  Yet, amidst the horror of it all, a soldier is filmed operating a machine gun whilst smoking a pipe, toilet rolls were still valued and the last Japanese soldier only surrendered in 1974. They, and their families, sacrificed so much and yet it’s sometimes tempting to think that this is a long time ago and all happened far away. As the Burma Star on one of the local gravestones in St Melangell’s churchyard reminds us, though, this is all much closer at hand than we sometimes realise. Today, we also have great challenges to face as our mindset, expectations and way of life have to change so significantly while the battle to contain Covid-19 and find a vaccine continues. It’s costly, unsettling – and vital:

Ours is a ‘today’ dearly ransomed in blood 

That freely flowed ‘yesterday’.

A sacrifice, the whole

This tennis court was too poor to contain. 

Gallantly they laid their lives down.

What price, what price a soul…?

From In Grateful Dedication by Easterine Kire

With my prayers,

Christine

Diocesan prayer for the week

Merciful God;
Your compassion for all in distress is boundless.
Sustain, we pray, those stricken by disaster and unrest, in the midst of the pandemic crisis.
Give humility and wisdom to leaders and discernment to the peoples,
that righteousness may prevail,
and that in your time and your way, good may come out of their troubles.
In the healing name of Jesus: Amen.

Canon Carol Wardman

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Sunday reflection

Stormy weather, then and now.

“Jesus….went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came he was there alone.” – from St Matthew 14:22-33, NIV.

“She’s become very self-sufficient in lockdown – she’s even doing her own nails!” – reporter Ross King, of Michelle Obama.

Today’s Gospel continues from last week’s, where Jesus first sought solitude following the news of the terrible death of John the Baptist but then attended to the needs of the large crowds awaiting him instead. Now, he makes the disciples go ahead of him by boat and dismisses the crowds so that he can be alone to pray. Matthew writes that the weather is windy and, despite being buoyed up with the day’s miracle of sharing five small fish and loaves to feed so many, the disciples are now caught in a storm. Many of them were fishermen, familiar with weather predictions, so why did they set sail? Had a gale arisen without warning? Were they doing what Jesus told them? If so, why would he put them in danger? There are so many questions about what’s actually going on as these followers do what their leader tells them.

Amidst all this, Jesus comes to his disciples by walking over the water and, despite the miraculous events of the day, they are very frightened when they see him. The fourth watch of the night is 3-6am and also known as the witching hour – darkness is thought to be at its greatest just before dawn so, with the mindset of their day, the disciples are terrified by what they think is a ghost. Only Peter finds the courage to speak and try to walk on water himself. Matthew tells us that, at first, he does – but his fears eventually get the better of him and he begins to sink. Jesus then reaches out and catches him with the well-known, and still often-used, phrase, “O ye of little faith,” (KJV) and, as both get into the safety of the boat, the wind dies down and all aboard land safely.

Perhaps, after the events of the day, Peter had thought that, by the sheer force of his own will, he could tap into the power of Jesus to do miraculous things. As his fear overcomes him, Peter is only saved by reaching out for Jesus’s hand – a reminder to us all that Christianity is a relationship with a saviour, not a system of achieving miraculous results. Prayer, worship and care for self and others are at the heart of it – and that is needed more than ever as the storm-clouds around the Covid-19 pandemic continue to gather. It seems that gales of criticism and variations of policy are causing confusion as further outbreaks develop – choppy waters are still ahead, anxiety is resurfacing for many as winter draws near and we may be as understandably fearful as those first disciples. Like them, we are today expected to follow faithfully what we’re being told to do by leaders as the turbulence of anxiety, restriction, treatment and criticism created by the pandemic continues to whirl around. There may be many questions for us about what’s actually going on as followers begin to query what their leaders are now telling them. Yet we’re all in the same boat, trying to outrace the unknown consequences of a new virus as we face an uncertain forecast about the future – even if it’s in a dinghy, trying to cross the channel.

Like Michelle Obama, the prospect of this has caused many to become self-sufficient and do for themselves in lockdown what they would normally expect to receive, whilst offering encouragement to others through podcasts, phone calls or remote contact. Yet, after the terrible explosion in Beirut, and despite the risk of Covid-19 in such chaos, surgeons nevertheless stitch wounds by the light of mobile phones in the car park, a nurse rescues three premature babies by holding them closely in the darkness and an aged woman plays her piano in the debris of her ruined home. Death, suffering and destruction are everywhere – but so are hope, love and new beginnings, brought through hands reaching out to help those in need. In the face of such uncertainty, adversity and turbulence perhaps our watchword today should be the other words of Jesus to his followers facing the terrifying storms then and today, as he brings God’s love and hope of the miraculous into the everyday and at the darkest of hours: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

With my prayers,

Christine

Diocesan prayer for the week

God of peace, you draw close to us, breathing tranquility into the storms of our fears. In your calming presence may we step forward courageously, knowing that your grace and strength will sustain us in every situation, so that our faith may not be for us alone, but bring peace to others amidst the turbulence of the world. Amen. (Canon Carol Wardman)

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Next Sunday Service 23rd August

Our next Sunday service will be on 23rd August. Please contact us if you wish to attend as spaces are limited due to physical distancing requirements.

This will be a short and simple service to ensure we keep everyone as safe as possible.  At this time we are unable to meet for refreshments before or after the service. We will keep you updated with any changes or developments.

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Sunday reflection

Dear all,

“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” 

From St Matthew 14: 13-21, NIV
This passage from St Matthew is the Gospel reading for today, part of what eventually leads to the feeding of the five thousand. The actual number would have been even greater as Matthew tells his readers that this was the amount of men present, with the women and children not being counted. St John’s Gospel says that the five small barley loaves and two small fish that were used came from a boy who presumably gave up his meal for this to happen, a reminder of the human generosity and co-operation that is needed if God’s purposes and blessings are to break into our daily life. 
However, all this begins with Jesus wanting to be alone after hearing of the terrible death of John the Baptist, one of his own relatives as well as the one who had baptised him as his ministry began. Understandably, Jesus wants to withdraw for a while – he is no automaton but a man with feelings, affected by what’s happened. That may comfort us at times when we are saddened by grief or troubled by recent events – but the crowd won’t allow this to happen. Jesus is followed by hordes of people who have worked out where his boat is going and are waiting for him when he lands. Rather than being irritated by the sight of them, which means he can’t have the solitude he wants, Jesus has compassion and heals those who are sick – then challenging the disciples to feed them.  The disciples find the loaves and fish but they are not enough – until they are brought to Jesus and the miracle happens, as God’s abundant blessing mingles with humanity’s offering. All are fed with twelve basketsful to spare – and having attended to the needs of the crowd, fed them and then sent them away, Jesus then honours his own need by going alone up the hillside to pray. 
Generosity, blessing and abundance were factors with Melangell and Brochwel too, in that the Prince’s generosity in giving her that part of the valley meant that Melangell and her helpers could then offer healing, sanctuary and hospitality to those who came to the valley searching for it. From that has developed the tradition still honoured here today and through which so many have been fed spiritually as well as actually – as one visitor this week remarked, “I so miss Anne’s delicious lemon cake!” Perhaps it won’t be too long before refreshments can be offered once more but, for now, the pandemic restrictions prevail although they are easing a little.
Today, St Melangell’s is able to reopen for Sunday worship at 3pm for the first time, thanks to those who have volunteered to form a rota to ensure that this can be done safely. This will be done according to the guidelines issued by the Welsh Government and the Church in Wales and there will be no singing, refreshments or socialising afterwards. However, every cloud has a silver lining: as services must be kept short, there will not be a long sermon from the Guardian!
At the service the Paschal candle, which would have been lit as Easter dawned, will be a focus for thanksgiving at this time of new beginnings. This is still a time of darkness as well as light, of fear as well as hope and of illness as well as healing and the symbolism of lighting it on the first occasion we can gather together will contrast with dawn on Easter Day itself. Then, candles and flowers were nevertheless still placed on the altar as a sign of hope in a church where worshippers could not gather together to proclaim the resurrection, as the photo taken at 6.55 am that day shows. And if, now, hope is daunted and the future still seems uncertain, remember those disciples who played so crucial a role at the feeding of the five thousand when Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” They obeyed him trustingly and brought meagre resources of just five small barley loaves and two little fish – but it was enough for Jesus to use and for God’s blessing to provide abundantly.  A huge task lies ahead as we consider the scale of what we now face but if we can also respond to what Jesus tells us to provide, even in a small way, we may also find that far more can be achieved and shared than ever we thought possible and that God’s purposes and blessing will burst into the everyday now as then. Despite the pandemic, we are still an Easter people of hope and trust and alleluia is our song – even if we can’t sing it in church yet!
With my prayers,
Christine