Five
years ago today, I wrote a blog-post to mark the fifteenth anniversary
of my ordination to the priesthood. I was still pretty new to blogging and this seemed
to me a good opportunity to capture some of the memories of that eventful and
historic time and tell a story which deserves to be remembered.
This
year the Church in Wales decided to mark the twentieth anniversary of these
first ordinations with simultaneous services in all six Welsh cathedrals. We live at the very southern tip of Bangor
Diocese, so on Saturday morning DH and I set off bright and early to drive the
85 miles to our cathedral. Normally we would have revelled in the glorious
scenery through which we were travelling, but sadly that morning it was almost
completely shrouded in thick Welsh mist. Nevertheless we arrived in good time
and at 11am the service began.
Of
the original nine ordained in Bangor all those years ago, only I and three
others were able to be there. One had died, one was ill, and two had moved out
of the diocese, while the last was unavoidably absent. However we were strongly
supported by the presence of many of the women ordained in the diocese since
that momentous first ordination and we rejoiced in the fact that the new Dean of
the cathedral, who presided at the Eucharist, was one of the original nine
ordained in 1997.
Our
bishop relinquished his normal position to act as deacon to the women who led
the service and our preacher was an old friend from the campaigning days of the
mid 1990s, who gave us a sermon by turns thoughtful, inspiring and amusing. The cathedral
choir sang sublimely as always and the proceedings were filmed by BBC Wales who
had also covered the service twenty years ago. As we met up with old friends
after the service and exchanged reminiscences, it was hard to believe so many
years had passed.
The
following day I led the service at the
same church where I had celebrated Holy Communion for the first time 20 years
before and, thankfully, still with many of the same faces in the congregation. Now,
as I reflect on the past weekend and the twenty years since the events it
commemorated, I am filled with gratitude for the people I have known, the work
I have been enabled to do and the deep enjoyment and satisfaction it has given
me. And as I look forward to the consecration next week of the first woman to
be elected bishop in the Church in Wales, I am filled with hope and
encouragement for the future. Gratitude and hope – who could wish for more?
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| A memory of 20 years ago |
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| Being welcomed by the Dean - one of us |
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| Listening intently to the sermon |
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| Celebrating the Eucharist together, led by the Dean - and yes, it's still the Christmas season. |
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| The final procession - cathedrals love processions! |
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| Together with our preacher, second from left |
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| The Famous Four |
