Carols by Candlelight
The
annual services of Carols by
Candlelight were on Sunday 21
December at 3.00 pm and at 5.00 pm. There were two services as
the
service is very popular but the church is quite small. Despite
the very windy weather, 99 people attended the first service and 102
the second. The Friends
of St. Tudno's Church prepared the church with candles inside and
lights outside and there are some more photographs on the Holy
Trinity events 2008 and Friends of St. Tudno's archive pages.
On
Saturday 18 October there was a working party at St. Tudno's, when the
benches used for the open air services were
put away for the winter.
On Saturday 6 September, St.
Tudno's took part in
the
Open Church Day, organised by Church Tourism Wales as part of the
European Heritage weekends.
Stewards were available to answer questions on the church and serve
refreshments
between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm but the day was very wet and windy and
there were few visitors. However, those who had braved the
weather were generally glad of the shelter, a hot drink, a cake
and a chat.
On Tuesday 15 July
there was a special Concelebrated
Eucharist at St. Tudno's for members
of the St.
Asaph / Bangor Chapter of the Society of Catholic Priests.
A Concelebrated
Eucharist is one in which a number of priests celebrate
together and during this service six new members were admitted into the
Society. We have no idea when there would last have been so many
priests at St. Tudno's! More information on the Society and the
Concelebrated Eucharist can be found in the July 2008 edition of the
Parish
Magazine.
The
biennial Pet
Blessing Service was
on Sunday 29 June. The
service was attended by 60 people, 20 dogs and 5 cats, all of whom were
very well behaved. The hymns, songs and readings all had animal
themes
and all pets were blessed individually, by
name, while "If I were a butterfly" was sung (three times).
There is another photo on the Holy
Trinity events 2008 page. |
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We have
formed a Friends
of St. Tudno’s Church group, with a Eucharist and Inaugural Tea on
Saturday 7 June and this
was also a second opportunity for
everyone to celebrate St. Tudno’s Day. The aim of the Friends is
to enable people from within and outside the parish to keep in touch
with St.
Tudno’s and to support the misson and manitenance of the church.
More details can be found on the Friends page and anyone is
very welcome to join.
St. Tudno's Day was on 5 June and
was celebrated with
two pilgrimage walks and a Eucharist. The first pilgrimage walk
was from Holy Trinity to
St. Tudno's and more details of this can be found on the Holy
Trinity events 2008 page. The St. Tudno's
Day Eucharist was attended by a
mixture of parishioners and visitors and afterwards 10 people made the
pilgrimage walk, in the rain, from the church to St. Tudno's
Well. Although
the well is not far from the church “as the crow flies”,
reaching the well required a walk along a footpath and then down one
hill and up another, the second hill being covered in bracken and wet
with water flowing from St. Tudno's Well (the Welsh name, Fynnon Tudno,
could be translated as "Tudno's Spring", as well as "Tudno's Well", and
so gives a better description). There was a short service at the
Well, during which the rain became harder and Rector blessed the Well
water (which had plenty of tadpoles in it) and signed each of us with a
cross on the forehead with water from the well (but
without the tadpoles),
before pouring some of the water through our cupped hands.
The service finished with a prayer:
Lord in your mercy give us living
water, always springing up as a foutain of salvation: free us body and
soul from every danger, and admit us to your presence in purity of
heart. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
St.
Tudno's Well is on private farmland and we thank the
landowners for their kind
permission to visit the Well .
The Easter
Vigil service took place on
Saturday 22 March, a cold and windy evening, and the New Fire was quite
popular with people arriving at the church (perhaps we should have made
the fire larger!). The service began in the dark with blessing
the Pascal Candle, lighting it from the New Fire and passing the light
from person to person. After the Rector sang the Exultet,
readings were heard in the darkened church and the Easter Proclamation
was followed by simultaneous fanfare on the organ, ringing of the bell
and switching on of the lights. After singing an Easter hymn,
water for baptism was blessed in the font and baptismal vows were
renewed.
Early
visitors to St. Tudno's in 2008 were this nanny goat and her
young
kid, seen
in the churchyard
during February. They are part of the herd of
feral
Kashmir goats which live on the Great Orme.
The Wardens of the Great Orme Country Park
warn that a nanny will often leave her young kid somewhere
safe while
she is feeding, returning at
regular intervals to suckle it. The
kid has not been abandoned and should not be approached or handled, as
this could prevent the mother from accepting it again. If
you are
concerned about a kid, please telephone the Wardens on 01492
874151.