The sacred heart – open to all

newsletter,

We are in the month of the Sacred Heart, and statues usually show Jesus with his arms open wide. This tells us of Our Lord’s love and care for all. Sadly our love and care does not always reflect this. Ten years ago, in chatting to some individuals, I became aware of one of the gaps in our caret, and here, ten years later, it’s a cause of great gladness to me that the group that came out of this is flourishing, and indeed is one of our biggest groups active among us – the Circle of Friends. Here, on the tenth anniversary of their beginnings, they tell us more about themselves, how they share the love of the Sacred Heart.

“The Circle of Friends was set up in the community of our 3 Churches in May 2007. Its purpose is to provide help and support to divorced, separated, widowed and single Catholics, and their friends. This it tries to do by:

  • promoting the spiritual well-being of those Catholics who are divorced separated, widowed or single
  • reaching out to those who are alone and providing support for one another in various and appropriate ways
  • encouraging the social involvement of members in a variety of activities and providing the opportunity to meet people in similar circumstances
  •  facilitating appropriate support outside the group for members
  • supporting various

The group meets once a month, and has an informal committee which includes a chairperson, treasurer, secretary and members. Members pay a small annual subscription to cover expenses so that the group is self-financing.
A full calendar of social events is organized by members: these include a Book Club, Walking Group, Cinema Group and Pub Quiz Team. The group is under the pastoral guidance of Father Matthew, and pastoral events have also been held and advertised in this newsletter. If you would like to learn more about the Circle of Friends then please contact Sue Peat (2076 2358) We look forward to hearing from you.”

The heart of the Trinity – an open door

newsletter,

Fr Matthew writes: This Trinity Sunday we celebrate the very nature of God. Among many other things, this feat reminds us that God is community as well as unity, dynamic not static. In a word, God is Love, and that love spills out over us and impels us. So Jesus commands us to love, not just because this is the heart of Christian life, but because when we love we are being and acting like God. In the next few weeks we remind ourselves about some of the activities in our 3 Churches that try to live this love in practical ways. This week – Edna Wharry tells us about “The Open Door”.

Following a meeting about our Parish Vision of reaching out to our local community, the idea of an “Open Door” social club was formed by members of our 3 Churches.

Led by Anne Rees, the group decided to invite senior citizens to a social afternoon event in Christ the King Hall. Although the organizers are faith led, the actual social is strictly non-denominational. Fliers were distributed to sheltered accommodation, local care homes and some residents in the neighbourhood.

The club has been successful and very enjoyable. Invited speakers talk about subjects such as libraries and Llanishen history. We hold activities such as passive exercises and listening to or singing with a visiting choir to which David Mclees belongs. We also enjoy occasional games of Bingo, and hold table-top “Bring and Buy” events. We are very lucky to have our own resident pianist, Sian O’Donnell, who plays lovely background music and also accompanies the odd sing song session! Peter Charles and Norbert Flynn also entertain us with amusing monologues from time to time.

Julie Mclees arranges lifts for those without transport, and I organize snacks and party food for our meetings. The afternoons are always happy, chatty times. We welcome new members – and new helpers – and are looking actively for new ideas to expand this Parish Vision initiative.

Edna Wharry St Brigid’s & St Paul’s Parish Council member

We’re all Pentecostal really

newsletter,

This Thursday I found myself at BBC Llandaff, not for my usual few-times-a-year “Wednesday Word”, but as part of a panel to record today’s edition of “All Things Considered”. This weekly programme goes out on Radio Wales just after the 9 o’clock news on Sunday morning.

Appropriately for Pentecost, the topic was “The Holy Spirit”, a subject that I’m very comfortable with. Then I saw that two of the other three panelists were to be a Baptist minister – well I’m OK with Baptists as my father was from that tradition originally – and, uh oh, an Elim Pentecostal minister.

And not any Pentecostal minister, but Rev Christopher Cartwright of the City Temple, currently serving as General Superintendent, i.e. boss of the whole denomination which counts 550 congregations across the UK and Ireland. I’ve known, and on the whole had good relations with, folks from most parts of the Christian Church, but never the City Temple. For many people they would seem to be at the far end of the spectrum from us.

Anyway we got going – and all went well, in fact very well, thank God. Then I noticed that while I was speaking Chris (friends now, see!) was taking notes. I thought ‘Oh, he’s loading his ammunition to fire at me’. But no, as he told me afterwards, he was taking notes because I was using some approaches to this difficult subject that he had never thought of and very much approved of. I have to say I felt a little glow of Catholic pride, that I should be teaching the leader of Elim Pentecostals a few things about the Holy Spirit.

But in reality you could say that we are all Pentecostal – Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, and the Holy Spirit is the very life-force of that Church and of Creation itself. If you would like to celebrate the feast today, I invite you to our Pentecost Praise this Sunday evening. We start at 7.15pm in St Brigid’s Hall with refreshments – bring a bit of finger-food – then move to the Church at about 8.30 to

honour the Holy Spirit in prayer, praise and reflection, ending with a Benediction.

Fr Matthew