Lost in Lille
Found in Flanders
Moved in Merville
The clergy conference
Over seventy clergy went with the Bishop to the diocesan centre in Merville near Lille for five days of spending time together sharing prayer, study, worship and and relaxation. Was it worth it?
For those who went, the answer was a resounding ‘Yes!’
Helen Hall, soon to move to Lliswerry, found the gathering a really valuable experience: “I felt a combination of getting away completely in a physical sense, and of spending time in silence and meditation, helped me to engage with my colleagues in a different and deeper way than I have done at other conferences. Being in new surroundings made it easy to focus on the present moment and give God and other people my full attention, rather than nodding politely whilst mentally planning a meeting or writing a sermon!
“It was also really nice to be reminded just how affirming and supportive most clergy can be. I used to work in an office, and still pine at bit for the chance to bump into people at the coffee point and let off some steam. I had been a little stressed about going, as I’m shortly to move house and job, and the timing felt rather bad. As it turned out though, it was actually a great blessing to go just then. It made me feel a lot less alone, and a lot more confident about taking up my first post after my curacy.”
Others also found the companionship welcoming. New deacon, Rob Lindsay, felt ‘welcomed into the Diocesan community which was a great benefit as it also enabled me to put faces to many names’.
We met in the chapel for worship three times a day and spent the mornings in silence. Keith Beardmore from Maindee summed up what many felt: "I found the periods of silence and chapel worship most rewarding. It was good not to be rushing around and we were able to listen to God at these times."
In the mornings, we also listened to three stimulating talks by Gethin Abraham-Williams. For Alicia Baker of Abercarn, the times we had with Gethin were excellent. “He was very good at encouraging us to open our minds to new ways of seeing the familiar stories.”
We then met in small groups to pray together using the Benedictine practice of Lectio Divina - Holy Reading. Though some were familiar with Lectio as an individual way of prayer, meeting in a group gave it a new dimension. Many would agree with John Dearnley from Llandogo that “other people's silent presence somehow shifts my thoughts.”
Afternoons were an opportunity to visit Tyne Cot war cemetary, Ypres and the Menin Gate, and Lille with its fine cathedral. The trip to the WWI sites was particularly moving.
The accommodation was austerely comfortable, the food gave a homely perspective on French cooking and, yes, the wine flowed freely (but not in Cana quantities). The whole trip was funded by a charity which can only be used for such purposes. Our thanks to Canon Jeremy Winston for his excellent organisation - and to the Bishop for taking us.
Janet Bone
Where is the Cathedral?
If some found the streets of Lille a puzzle, most soon found their way to a cafe to relax together over a drink.
Being in Flanders it was right that we spent an afternoon paying our respects to those who gave their lives in the First World War. The personal nature of the remembrance was brought home to some as we stood at the grave of a young rifleman from the Monmouthshire Regiment at Tyne Cot and seeing the name of the grandfather of one of our number engraved on the Menin Gate.
The futility of war was brought starkly home as having remembered all those who died in the 'war to end all wars' the next morning at the Eucharist we marked the 70th Anniversary of the start of World War II.
Mark Soady