Welsh Christmas

The journey to Wales for Christmas took more than five hours driving - for around 170 miles. But at least we got there, through the gales and traffic congestion. Others had much worse experiences.

View from the cottage

We were staying at a Farm where we have been before, in one of their converted barns. Tresigin (in English Siginstone, or Siggingstone, or some variant on these - try Googling it!) is a hamlet of maybe fifty residents and a pub. The Catholic Church is three miles away towards the coast, at Llantwit Major. The new parish priest there, Fr George Areekuzhy, C.M.I., invited me to concelebrate with him at Midnight, and at 9am I was principal celebrant and preacher. Fortunately the Vale of Glamorgan is almost exclusively anglophone so there was no wrestling with Welsh.

Some of the people in the congregation seemed glad to have a priest from the Ordinariate. They are looking forward to the time when there are Ordinariate clergy and congregations in Wales. At present there are, I think, exploratory groups. As in England, many catholic parishes are staffed by missionary priests from overseas. Fr George is from India, though he has served in South Wales for the past seven years.

On Boxing Day we had a little trip to the coast. The sea at Southerndown was furious, and it looked as though Somerset, on the opposite shore of the Bristol Channel, was getting many downpours.

Southerndown

Yesterday we made the journey home - just a three hours drive, despite quite heavy traffic. Now we are gearing up for Mass in Bournemouth this morning; and next Saturday, our Ordinariate Group comes to Lymington to have lunch with us. Should be a good start to the New Year. May 2014 be very happy for all who stumble across this blog.