Thanks from Rector William

I have now returned to the Benefice having completed my three month sabbatical, the first fortnight of which I spent reading and studying in St Deiniol’s Library in North Wales on a Study-retreat.St Deiniol’s Library was given to the church by the famous Victorian Prime Minister WE Gladstone to house all his personal papers and to become a resource for the church. It contains copies of all the ancient documents and histories of the church, as well as contemporary documents and books.

After that phase of the Sabbatical was over, I travelled through The Holy Land, (Israel and the West Bank), Rector William with Aremenian Orthodox monks at Gerhard monastery in Armenia Jordan, Syria, the Lebanon and finally Armenia, where I spent a week in an Orthodox Monastery at Holy Etchmiadzin in the Caucasus Mountains. I could see snow-capped Mount Ararat (over 16800 feet) only a few miles from where I stayed. During the course of my travels, I saw ancient churches in ruins, although remarkably well-preserved, some of them nearly 1800 years old, sites at which I was often the only person, but which if in Europe would have hordes of visitors. I spent time in ancient libraries. I met peoples who have clung on to their faith as a sense of their personal identity despite the most harrowing circumstances. I learnt how tolerant of Christianity the governments of Syria and Jordan are; indeed they want to encourage Christian pilgrims and tourists for economic reasons. On a lighter side, I danced with Kurds up in the mountains on the border; I sat beside a muezzin in a mosque in Aleppo in Northern Syria as he made his call to prayer through a microphone; we were stopped then followed on two occasions by members of the secret police as we drove through the area of the Euphrates, crossing that great river (seen as the limits of the Roman empire and the eastern edge of the classical/civilized world) which flows then through Iraq and into the Persian gulf. In total I spent 58 days away studying and visiting.

I write this to say that none if this would have been possible without the help and support of a lot of people. Parish priests are supposed to go on sabbaticals every seven to ten years, but that is not often possible, partly because of the costs, but also because of the matter of finding a locum. I was very lucky that we have in our parish two such able priests as Fr Fay Hemingray and Fr Haydn Smart. Ray has a “day-job” as a solicitor and Haydn is supposed to be retired, but they both agreed to stand-in for me. We are also very lucky that we now have Jo Morris as our Parish administrator, who coped magnificently with the benefice administration while I was away. I am grateful to the Churchwardens for overseeing so much and to the verger-sacristans Brian Goode and Gina Hill, to the Pastoral Team and to those who stood in for me at the Daily Office and to those who just carried on looking after things. I am also grateful to a number of charities (grant-making bodies) and individuals who supported and underwrote my sabbatical. Thank you to Diana and my family for their behind-the-scenes support.

Thank you all of you for allowing me the opportunity to do something that I have always wanted to do – to learn more about the early origins of Christianity and the Church. It was for me the experience of a life-time.

Thank you all of you.

William