Aberdare St Fagan PCC annual report for 2021

               Aberdare St Fagan Parochial Church Council

Annual Report for 2021

 

It is fair to say that the year 2021 was a very mixed one in the life of our parish. On the one hand, it was another challenging year following the extraordinary events of 2020. For much of the year, Covid restrictions were still in place, which put severe limits on what we were able to do. Despite this, the life of our parish continued, and in many areas, flourished. On the other hand, and as always, there were moments of great joy and celebration, especially when the remaining restrictions were lifted in the latter part of the year.

 

The year began in a mood of some gloominess. In response to rising Covid rates, the Welsh Government imposed a third lockdown just before Christmas 2020. This meant that schools would remain closed after the Christmas holidays, and non-essential retail, pubs, cafés, restaurants, gyms and other indoor services had to close. Mercifully, and unlike in the first two lockdowns, places of worship were exempt from this. While some local churches decided to close, we decided to stay open, while stressing to people who were attending the need to abide by all of the Covid rules, such as social distancing, wearing face coverings, and taking a lateral flow test before coming. At this point, Sunday services were only taking place in St Fagan’s, due to the size of the building, and we were holding two services to accommodate the numbers. In St James and St Luke’s, only the mid-week services were taking place. For all services, those attending had to book a place to ensure that we had enough room. I could not be more grateful to Peta who answered the phone and took the bookings for the majority of the time, and to her husband Neil who maintained the lists and checked people in for “track and trace” purposes. They made a great team, and performed the role with such good humour and efficiency. Also, I must pay tribute to all of those who cleaned the churches after every service. We soon got used to the smell of sanitising spray!

 

With no “in-person” events apart from worship possible, we continued to hold many events online and virtually. These included our popular quiz nights, Messy Church mornings (with bags of craft materials delivered beforehand to those wishing to take part), and youth services. With schools closed until after the February half term, and in-person assemblies not possible, I started recording an assembly once a fortnight. These were then posted on the parish YouTube channel and the link shared with local schools. I am told they were mildly (though not wildly!) popular.

 

Due to the ongoing restrictions, Lent and Holy Week took on a different flavour to before the pandemic. Instead of the usual Lent Eucharist and discussion group, we held just a Eucharist with an address each Wednesday in St James. The theme was the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”. I also read through St Mark’s Gospel, a bit each day, and posted the readings online. In Holy Week, we had a mixture of online and in-person services, inlcuding a very popular Good Friday ineractive craft-style service on Zoom. 

 

Over Easter we continued the work started at “Connecting at Christmas” in 2020 (the reconfigured Company at Christmas, adapted due to Covid). The team, including volunteers from our community, delivered Easter eggs to families, children, shielding and isolating individuals, and care homes. We are grateful to donations of Easter eggs from Asda in Aberdare. We made over 100 “eggciting” deliveries – my thanks to all those involved.

 

Just after Easter we joined the nation in mourning the death of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and gave thanks for his lifetime of service to the Queen and the nation. At the beginning of July there was great joy when, after a hiatus of over a year, we were allowed to sing in church again (albeit still from behind a face mask!). Later in July there was another day of great joy when Peta was licensed as Reader by Bishop June in Llandaff Cathedral. The Cathedral couldn’t be packed because of social distancing rules, but a number of us were able to attend and the service was also livestreamed. Peta has been such an asset to our churches since her licensing and we have all benefited greatly from her ministy. This, perhaps, is the point to say that her fortnightly online prayer group, Space For Prayer (set up in autumn 2020), has continued, and has a loyal following. We all appreciate that half hour of calm and stillness on a Tuesday evening.

 

For the last several years we have take a group of young people to the Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage in Norfolk each summer. The event was entirely online in 2020, and in 2021 we took part in the WYP “at home”. Rather than travelling to Norfolk, we instead went and camped in vicarage garden on Fr Ben Andrews in Port Talbot. Worship took place in the gorgeous St Theodore’s Church, activities and food in the church hall, and games on the field next to the church. We also watched livestreamed events from Walsingham. Around half a dozen from our parish joined young people from other parishes in South Wales and a great time was had by all.

 

After another hiatus in 2020, we held the Uniform Exchange which had begun in 2019. Many generous people donated “pre-loved” items of uniform which were then washed and sorted by our wonderful team of volunteers. St Fagan’s Hall was open several times a week for people to come in and pick up whatever uniform was needed, thus helping with the cost of living and preventing old uniforms ending up in landfill. At the same time, our school holiday lunch club took a different format, where we delivered recipes boxes to the people that would normally attend in person.

 

In August – at long last – Wales went to Covid Alert Level 0. This meant that social distancing in church was no longer required, and we were able to put the normal chairs back in St Fagan’s. At the beginning of September, we re-opened St Fagan’s Hall which had been shut since March 2020. Fittingly, the very first meeting was the Mothers’ Union who held a Eucharist. It was a great joy to welcome back all of our user groups after such a long time. We were also able to re-start so many of our parish activities – Tea & Toast, Caffi Cinio, and Youth Club. Also, at the beginning of September, a group of us when on retreat at Llangasty for the first time since 2019. Indeed, we were pleased to learn that we were the first parish group to have returned there since the pandemic! The easing of restrictions meant that we could also re-start Sunday morning worship in St James and St Luke’s, which was a great joy. 

 

In November, we were at last able to hold a Confirmation service. We had a cohort of 59 adults and children, who had been prepared online during 2020. Because of social distancing rules, we had to hold two services, back-to-back (with a gap for cleaning the church!). We also had the pleasure of welcoming two bishops – Bishop June and Bishop Rowan Williams who shared the considerable task of confirming so many people. We rejoice with all those confirmed, and pray that they may continue steadfast in the faith.

 

Later in November there was a historic moment when we held the last ever meeting of the Parochial Church Council (PCC). This was because at the end of 2021 our parish became part of the new Cynon Uchaf Ministry Area, along with the parish of Hirwaun and the parish of Aberdare. The PCCs of the former parishes were replaced by a new Ministry Area Council taking in represetatives of all the churches. This is a good moment to pay tribute to all those who have served as PCC members over the years. After that final meeting we invited back former members and had a celebratory glass or two of wine.

 

As the year drew to a close, Covid once again reared its head, and specifially the Omicron variant. We had hoped to run Company at Christmas “in-person” but decided to once again to switch to a delivery model to keep everyone as safe as possible. We cooked 61 dinners on Christmas Day and our wonderful team delivered them to all of our guests. After the cooking and deliveries, 16 of us volunteers sat down to enjoy Christmas dinner oursevles!

 

Despite the disruption caused by Omicron, our Christmas services went ahead largely as planned. Unfortunately, Llwydcoed Band had to pull out of the Nine Lessons and Carols Service but one of our wonderful organists, Jonathan, stepped in and saved the day! Our Crib Service was a free-ticketed event and proved so popular that we had to run two. And so, another dramatic year, 2021, came to and end and we looked forward with hopeand positivity to better times in 2022 and a new era as part of the Cynon Uchaf Ministry Area.

 

I would like to finish by paying tribute to all those who continued to contribute so much to the life of our parish in so many ways during 2021. Peta, our wonderful reader, I have already mentioned, along with the gallant team of church bookers-in and cleaners. I am grateful to our amazing team of wardens, Marian, Angela, Martyn, Peter, Eric and Irene. We are blessed to have a fine team of organists – Jonathan, Carys, Rhian and Gwilym – and, as noted, it was lovely to be able to employ them once again when singing was allowed. I would like to thank our PCC Secretary Margaret and Treasurer Jan for all their hard work during the year. I am also grateful to Fr Norman and Fr Hywel for all of their help and support. I am, of course, so grateful to everyone else whom it is not possible to name here, and who contribute so much to the life of our churches in so many different ways.  

 

Fr Richard Green, Vicar.