SPECIAL NEWSLETTER

June 2002 From Nick Jones Dear Parishioners, The Fellowship Group The vicar, the Rev. Hugh Trenchard, has asked me to write about the newly formed Fellowship Group that has evolved between the four churches in our cluster, comprising Caerwent, Llanvair Discoed, Newchurch and Shirenewton. A few of us started meeting after the atrocities in New York last autumn and continued to meet for a Lenten study prior to Easter. We are currently discussing a book "Why the Cross" by Rev. Martin Robinson. After the 11th of September last year, the Queen sent a message to America and the world - "Grief is the price we pay for love". She knew it from her own experience and sadly she has had further close bereavements twice since then. Grief is the reaction to the loss of the people and things we love, often taken for granted. It manifests itself by a range of emotions, not least irrational anger, at circumstance removing from us, often prematurely, that which we had loved, or taken for granted. They can be felt both personally and collectively. We resolve grief best when we learn to reinvest our emotion. As a newcomer to the village, it has been a joy to attend the parish church in Caerwent. Not being a thoroughbred Anglican, my delight has been tempered by the need to try to understand the symbolism of some of the worship activity. For me, there is a charm in the history, the architecture and the tranquillity created by the interior and exterior of the building. In a sense, for me and for others too, it captures something of "the beauty of holiness". There is indeed a fine cultural inheritance attached to the building and it is good that the church opens its doors for the use and enjoyment of the community for a variety of events and occasions. However, in Caerwent, as in the other churches too, our numbers are few. As a worshipping congregation we must appear to be a small, ageing, irrelevant group of people, with outmoded, archaic, incomprehensible practices attending a building soon to become a museum. It is difficult, from a purely human perspective, to avoid the vieu that it wi11 not be long befare the church closes down. Would it matter to our villages? Does it matter if and when the church closes as a church and becomes a museum? What would be lost other than the maintenance of the graveyard by the few who formerly kept the church open? Is there a love for our church, that were it to close would cause us to grieve? Would we in fact be angry over the loss of that which we had formerly taken for granted? Those of us who use the church for Christian worship think it would matter. We are mindful not only that we have an exceptional cultural inheritance in Caerwent Parish Church, as in the others, but we are also in receipt of a divine inheritance from those Christians down the ages who have kept the witness of the Christian Faith alive in this area. We cannot fritter this away. Our churches are empty, our prisons are full. Across the country, drug addiction is destroying lives as effectively as any a war. Now more than ever after September the 11th do we need to think through the relevance and consequences of the Christian faith for the nations of the world, for our society and the individual lives of men, women, boys and girls. We think also that others in our villages would be affected were the churches to close. There is still great enthusiasm for the "Songs of Praise" on the Sunday morning of the village festival - for the hymns of glory, half forgotten and half recalled. Yet our church services are incomprehensible to an increasing number. It is with these issues in mind that some of us from the four churches - Caerwent, LLanvair Discoed, Newchurch and Shirenewton - have formed a fellowship group that meets in one house or another in order to: Read the Bible Pray Discuss matters of mutual concern Support one another To increase the worhing together of the four parishes, without losing their individuality In general, to work out the role of our parish churches in the 21st Century - to be faithful to its Lord and to serve the people. We are currently planning some contemporary services that hopefully will be less stylised and more comprehensible Everyone is welcome to these fellowship meetings. You do not have to be, or have been, a churchgoer to come along. Your presence and contribution would be warmlv received. If transport is required please ring Nick Jones on 01291-423981 or Patsy Lewis on 01291-420602 Next meeting: 13th June 2002 at 7:30pm At the home of Mrs Patsy Lewis. Cobblers Pitch, Highmoor Hill. Caerwent. Tel 01291-420602 Best wishes, Nick Jones