News and reflections

Palm Sunday this year follows immediately after April Fools’ day on the 1st April, the origins of which are unclear but ancient. Some even date it back to the time of Noah, who sent out the dove from the ark before the floods had receded and had to release it again seven days later when it then returned with an olive leaf showing that the trees had reappeared. By entering Jerusalem on a lowly donkey rather than a kingly stallion, and going to his death rather than avoiding it, Jesus was also thought by some to be foolish and the events of Holy Week show his scared and doubting followers struggling to understand or accept what he is doing. 

However, the courage of Mary and John in standing with Jesus as he was crucified was echoed by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who had been secret followers of his but who now openly came to collect and anoint Jesus’ dead body. Even when Mary Magdalene and other women said to the disciples that they had been told at the tomb not to look for the living amongst the dead, it’s clear that this was thought foolish too. 

Their confusion was understandable after such astounding events but, in a series of resurrection appearances, Jesus acknowledges the disciples’ fears and doubts rather than condemning them for struggling to accept what he’s been through. He shows them his wounds so that they realise the reality of the crucifixion but Jesus also reassures their fears, telling them, “Peace be with you”. This is not foolishness but hopefulness!

We may have fears and doubts about what’s happening in our lives, communities and nations with so much to worry or concern us about the world today. As Jesus stood amongst the confusion and fear of those first frightened disciples, so his words of peace and hope then can be echoed in our lives today if we listen for them. Or perhaps we can speak words of reassurance to those who we know are fearful or struggling. Wouldn’t it be foolish not to?! 

The following services will be held at St Melangell’s, with refreshments at the Centre afterwards. Bacon butties will be available after the 6.30am service on Easter Day – please book yours beforehand to be sure of one. For further details, please ring 01691 860408 or email admin@stmelangell.org

Holy Week

Palm Sunday, 2nd, 3pm: Service of reflection, with distribution of palms 

Monday 3rd, Tuesday 4th, Spy Wednesday, 5th, 7pm: Zoom Compline and meditation 

Thursday 6th, 11am: Chrism Mass at St Asaph Cathedral.
 7pm: Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Eucharist 

Good Friday 7th, 10am: Stations of the cross         2pm: At the Cross

Holy Saturday, 8th, 10am onwards: church cleaning and decoration 8pm onwards: Easter vigil

Easter Day, 9th April: Everyone at St. Melangell’s wishes you a joyful Easter!
6.30 am: All in an Easter garden – meet at the yew near Nansi Richard’s grave. 10am: Holy Eucharist            

Thurs 13th, noon: Noon prayers.

Low Sunday, 16th, 3pm:  Service of reflection.

Thursday 20th, noon: Holy Eucharist

Third Sunday of Easter, 23rd, 3pm: Service of reflection

Wednesday 26th, 10.30am at the centre: Julian Group

Thursday 27th, noon: Service of reflection

Fourth Sunday of Easter, 30th, 3pm: Holy Eucharist

May Easter bring blessings and renewed hope at this time of such uncertain change.

With my prayers; pob bendith,

Christine, Guardian.

“ Bu llaw yr Arglwydd arnaf, ac a’m dug allan yn ysbryd yr Arglwydd, ac a’m gosododd yng nghanol dyffryn, a hwnnw oedd yn llawn esgyrn. 2 Ac efe a wnaeth i mi fyned heibio iddynt o amgylch ogylch: ac wele hwynt yn aml iawn ar wyneb y dyffryn; wele hefyd, sychion iawn oeddynt. 3 Ac efe a ddywedodd wrthyf, Ha fab dyn, a fydd byw yr esgyrn hyn?”

O Ezekiel 37:1-14, adroddiad heddiw o’r Hen Destament.

“Myfi yw’r atgyfodiad, a’r bywyd: yr hwn sydd yn credu ynof fi, er iddo farw, a fydd byw: 26 A phwy bynnag sydd yn fyw, ac yn credu ynof fi, ni bydd marw yn dragywydd. A wyt ti’n credu hyn? “ Ioan 11:1-45

“I lwyddo mewn bywyd, mae angen tri peth; asgwrn dymuniad, asgwrn cefn ac asgwrn doniol”. Reba McEntire, cantores gwerin o America.

Mae adroddiadau heddiw ynglyn a’r esgyrn sych a atgyfodi Lazarus yn rhai cyfarwydd ond yn cyseinio’n wahanol yma ym Mhennant Melangell, lle mae esgyrn sych ffesantod a defaid yn gorwedd o gwmpas y lle.

Bu esgyrn ddynol, a’u darganfuwyd yn ystod cloddio ym 1958 a 1979 wedi eu gosod yn y Shrin pan ei ailadeiladwyd yn y flwyddyn 1979.

Efallai fod y creiriau hyn yn perthyn i’r santes, neu ddim, ond dywedwyd iddynt fod yn perthyn i ddynes tua 5 troedfedd neu 1.52 medr o daldra.

Mae sawl pererin yn ymweld oherwydd y Shrin ond ni sylweddolais arwyddocad hyn yn llawn nes i mi fynd i mewn i’r eglwys yn fuan ar ol cymeryd y swydd, a gweld corff yn gorwedd ar lawr yn ymyl y Shrin.

Wrth i mi sefyll yno wedi syfrdanu, trodd y corff ataf a dweud “Bore Da!”, nes i mi ddallt mae Pererin Uniongred oedd yma’n addoli’r creiriau a mae’r  holl gardiau gweddi a symbolau o gwmpas y Shrin yn arddangos dylanwad Melangell ym mywydau bobol heddiw.

Efallai fod ei esgyrn sych yn gorwedd yma heddiw ond mae Melangell yn ymgorffori’r gwerthoedd o seintwar, gwellhad a croeso sy’n fyw yma yn ardal y Shrin.

Gofynwyd i Ezekiel “A feder yr esgyrn sych yma fyw?”

Yn y pen draw maen’t yn gwneud, a bywyd newydd yn dod i’r hyn sy’n sych ar ol colli gobaith.

Mae’r un peth yn wir pan gafodd yr Iesu wybod am farwolaeth Lazarus – mae E’n disgwyl deuddydd cyn mynd at Mair a Martha, sy’n drist gan fod yr Iesu heb ddod yn gynt.

Mae Martha hefyd yn pryderu am oglau, sy’n golygu fod Lazarus wedi marw ac nid yn unig ei fod yn anymwybodol.

Ta waeth, pryd mae’r Iesu yn gweld Mair a’r rhai o gwmpas yn wylo, mae Ef hefyd yn wylo.

Nid Duw estron yn defnyddio’r ddynol ryw fel y myn, mo hyn, ond Iesu ddynol yn dioddef colled, galar a phoen.

Wrth i Lazarus godi o’r beddrod, does dim arogl mae’n debyg – yn codi’n fyw o farwolaeth. Mae bywyd wedi adnewyddu ac mae geiriau’r Iesu i Martha yn cael eu defnyddio mewn angladdau Cristnogol hyd heddiw fel atgof o ailsefydlu gobaith wrth wynebu a trechu marwolaeth gan i’r Iesu gael ei atgyfodi nes ymlaen.

Gwelodd Ezekiel bywyd newydd yn tyfu wrth i anadl Duw ailfywiogi’r esgyrn sych, yn union fel i Lazarus ymateb i orchymun yr Iesu i godi o’r beddrod.

Wrth i adeg y Dioddefaint gychwyn, mae llawer sy wedi sychu neu marw mewn bywyd heddiw ac weithiau mae’n anodd ystyried lle fedr gobaith fod. Be sydd angen marw a pha esgyrn sych sydd angen anadl newydd i’w bywiogi, a sut?

Seiniwyd y cwestiynnau yma dros y blynyddoedd ac mae’n ymateb ni’n holl-bwysig; “A fedr yr esgyrn yma fyw?”, “Ydych yn credu hyn?”.

Gyda fy ngweddion,

Pob Bendith,

Christine, Gwarcheidwad.

‘The Lord brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones….. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?”’

From Ezekiel 37:1-14, today’s Old Testament reading.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live….. Do you believe this?” Jesus, in today’s Gospel John 11:1-45.

“To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.” Reba McEntire, American country music singer. 

Today’s readings about the dry bones in Ezekiel and the raising of Lazarus are well known but have a slightly different resonance here in Melangell’s valley where dry bones from pheasants and sheep lie in many places. Actual human bones found within the church during an excavation in 1958 and fragments in 1989 were also deposited in the shrine when it was rebuilt that year. 

These relics may or may not be those of the saint, but have been verified as being those of a woman of about 5 feet or 1.52 metres tall. Many pilgrims come here because of the shrine and its relics but I didn’t fully realise the significance of this when I first arrived until I went into the church and discovered what I thought was a collapsed figure on the floor by the shrine. As I stood there astounded, it wasn’t until the body moved and said, “Good morning” that I realised this was an Orthodox pilgrim venerating the relics and the many prayer cards and tokens that are left here also bear testimony to the enduring influence of Melangell in lives today. Her dry bones may rest here but Melangell’s embodiment of sanctuary, healing and hospitality lives on in the same values enshrined here today. 

Ezekiel is asked, “Can these bones live?” Eventually, they do and new life is given to what is dried up where hope has been lost. The same is true when Jesus is told of the death of Lazarus – he waits for a further two days before he visits Mary and Martha, who are sad because Jesus hasn’t come sooner. Martha is also, understandably, concerned about a smell so it’s clear that Lazarus has really died and is not just unconscious. However, when Jesus sees Mary and those with her weeping, he also begins to weep. This is not a remote God using humanity for his purposes, but Jesus experiencing human loss, grief and pain. As Lazarus emerges from the tomb, there is presumably no stench – he is living and raised from the dead. New life has been restored and these words of Jesus to Martha are used in Christian funeral services as a reminder of hope also restored when death is encountered and defeated because of the later resurrection of Jesus. 

Ezekiel saw new life growing as the breath of God was breathed into the dry bones, just as Lazarus responded to Jesus’ command to emerge from the tomb. As Passiontide begins, there is much that’s dying or desiccated today and it can sometimes be hard to consider where hope could be. What needs to die but what dry bones could have new life breathed into them – and how? 

These questions ring across the years and our response is vital: 

“Can these bones live?”     “Do you believe this?”

‘They returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him.’ From Luke 2:33-51, today’s Gospel.

‘Besides male and female, there are 72 other genders.’ MedecineNet

Today’s Gospel focuses on the encounter in the Temple of Jesus and his parents with Simeon and Anna, the aged people who realise who the child is. Simeon tells Mary that what will happen will be painful for her and images such as Michaelangelo’s Pietà depict Mary holding the body of her dead son after standing near the cross at his crucifixion. Equally, there are images of a serene Mary holding his her baby and many parents will recognise the anguish and the joy that can be part of raising a child today. 

It’s recently been suggested in the media that the terms ‘father’ and ‘mother’ should not be used but that ‘parent’ would be preferable. A very mixed reaction has resulted but, with the Welsh Senedd putting tampon machines into the men’s toilets and it being suggested that there are 73 genders, this is not an easy time to be either a parent or a child as these things are debated. 

That confusion is echoed in the rest of the reading today, in which Mary and Joseph go up to Jerusalem for Passover but, unknowingly, return without Jesus. They assume he is with other families travelling in their group but he has actually stayed in Jerusalem and it takes them a day to realise that he’s not with them. When they return to look for Jesus, it takes another three days to find him with the teachers in the Temple and they are understandably very worried about him by then. But, as Mary questions him, he asks why they were searching for him when he must be in his father’s house. What effect did that have on both Joseph and Mary? Luke tells us that he then came back to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them but that Mary treasured all these things as the child grew in wisdom as well as height. 

It can’t have been easy for Mary as she ‘treasured’ these things but what happened then would perhaps be rather different today. At a time when communities don’t always do as much communal care of their youngsters as they did, if parents don’t know where their child is for four days, awkward questions might well begin to be asked. However, it could perhaps hearten us that even then Mary and Joseph found raising their child a challenge when so many issues confront us today and when Joseph was, in effect, a stepfather to Jesus.

During a retreat, I came across a mop head suspended in a cage with a light rigged up to provide warmth with food and water provided by the warden. Underneath the mop were chicks whose mother had been killed by a fox – the mop wasn’t ideal, but it was good enough to provide warmth and shelter for those chicks until they could fend for themselves. With life as a refugee in Egypt for two years and Joseph being, in effect, a stepfather to Jesus as he passed on to him his skills as a carpenter, it’s clear that Jesus’ family had to fend for themselves at times and that they embodied many of the challenges some families still face today. Nevertheless, despite his parents not realising he was missing, Jesus’ upbringing was sufficient for him to become who he was destined to be and the same hope applies to us in the changing circumstances we may face today. Mary and Joseph weren’t perfect parents and, as Mothering Sunday is also called Refreshment Sunday, perhaps we can allow our souls to be refreshed by their example!

With my prayers; pob bendith,

Christine, Guardian.

‘Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.’  Fromtoday’s Gospel, John 4:5-42.

“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell, author of 1984 and a former BBC talks producer. 

Today’s encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in Sychar is a lengthy one, in which they engage with a series of exchanges that affect both of them. Jesus is tired, alone because his disciples have gone to get food, and it’s noon, the heat of the day. He’s vulnerable – and so is she, as fetching water at the hottest part of the day when most people would be sheltering from it indicates that she may not be in good standing. To her surprise, as the Jews and Samaritans ‘do not share things in common’ v9, Jesus crosses a social boundary by freely asking the unnamed woman for a drink – something that would never normally happen in the custom of the time as it could compromise them both. Then, as sadly still today, the racial, religious and social circumstances meant that enmity and unrest prevailed there, although fetching water was something women were expected to do.

Jesus then offers her living water – fresh, not stagnant, “a spring of water gushing to eternal life” v14 but she jokes with him that he hasn’t got a bucket and, despite the divisions between them, refers to our ancestor Jacob. The woman establishes common ground by doing this and then says that she wants this water, calling Jesus a prophet when he refers to her five husbands. When he tells her that he is the Messiah and the disciples return, the woman leaves and speaks openly of what has happened so that many other Samaritans flock to Jesus and ask him to stay with them. John writes that many believed Jesus, but does not say whether or not the woman herself came to faith in him. Yet through her, Jesus’ ministry is now extended to the Samaritans and she is the means by which many acknowledge him as, “Truly the Saviour of the world.” v42

The irony is that, whilst she is sharing what has happened, the woman who may have been shunned and goes to the well when no-one else does becomes the centre of attention. Once that has happened, social convention is restored as she is told, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves.” v42. What became of her – did she allow God’s grace to change her life as well as theirs or did the nameless woman continue to seek living water in the desert, despite finding it in so unexpected an encounter? 

Perhaps we are like her at times: encountering unexpected or difficult situations and being the means through which others become involved. Garry Lineker and the BBC executives might agree, given the row that has developed this week about the right of the sports presenter to speak about controversial matters and the need for the BBC to be impartial, although for many this has now become a debate about free speech. Lineker’s comments about refugees and the many wide-ranging responses to his remarks continue to create much speculation, though not always at the heart of the matter: those who don’t care what Lineker says on Twitter but do mind about missing their football analysis have also entered the fray. 

Who are the people we may have unexpectedly encountered in our communities and lives or on the news? How may they have changed our thinking or whose thinking might we have changed? Were social boundaries crossed or re-established and for whom is the outcome unknown, like the Samaritan woman who was the means of change for so many others? As the Lenten journey continues, is it possible that chance conversations and desert experiences we have had may contribute more than we realise to the growth of the kingdom of heaven here on earth?

With my prayers; pob bendith,

Christine, Guardian.



”How can these things be?” Nicodemus in today’s Gospel, John 3:1-17.

“I’m really good at what I do. I do stories in the public interest, and I make judgements.”

Journalist Isabel Oakeshott on giving Matt Hancock’s confidential WhatsApp messages to the Daily Telegraph for publication. 

Today’s Gospel takes place after the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana and Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, when many ‘believed in his name because they saw the signs of what he was doing’. v23. Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, comes to Jesus to question him about this but does so at night as he presumably doesn’t want this to be widely known. Nicodemus acknowledges that Jesus’ actions are connected with God’s activity and offers his support but is hedging his bets at this stage. A debate begins about being born from above, during which Jesus directly challenges Nicodemus, who is clearly perplexed as he asks, “How can these things be?” v9

There is much happening today which may make us ask the same question. How can it be that there are so many national issues causing such confusion and bewilderment, whether the cost of fuel, strikes causing chaos, lack of food in some supermarkets or Government ministers appearing to be economical with the truth? Journalist Isabel Oakshotte defends divulging 100,000 confidential messages for open publication on the grounds that they are in the public interest whilst the Health Secretary criticises her betrayal of his trust although he is having an affair with his aide which breaks the trust established in two marriages. The messages highlight disputes during the pandemic over testing in care homes, policy for schools, contempt for teaching union officials and also mock those having to pay for hotel stays during the pandemic – yet the messages, equal to three volumes of the King James Bible, also clearly show the huge pressures being faced by those in leadership at the time. Government policy made on the hoof in an unfolding situation – how could this be and yet, how could it be otherwise as Covid advanced in unknown territory?

Nicodemus’ question echoes Mary’s “How can this be?” at the annunciation in Luke 1:34. In reply, Jesus asks Nicodemus, “Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” All this clearly has an effect on Nicodemus who, whilst covert now, will later try to defend Jesus as criticism of him grows, (7:50; 11:47) and will also bring spices to anoint his body after crucifixion (John 19:39). In encountering the truth and facing hard decisions, the furtive Nicodemus then shows courage openly when the conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities is already well established – will the same be true of the politicians and authorities today as the analysis of Covid and its consequences rumbles on? As the Lenten journey continues, perhaps there are things in our own lives we would prefer were not widely known and we may also have hard questions to ask of ourselves or our own conduct at times of testing. How can these things be, and what can we openly do about them?

With my prayers; pob bendith

Christine, Guardian.