Parish of Llandudno North Wales, Rector's letter June 2010

June 2010

In recent centuries Christians have used different ways of naming their places of worship. In the Welsh Nonconformist tradition it was common to give chapels a Biblical name – for example here in Llandudno we have Seilo Church. Some Christian communities simply named their church to denote what denomination it was and where located: eg Llandudno Baptist Church. Recently founded evangelical churches, which tend to worship in community halls etc, sometimes give themselves intriguing names such as the local i61 group which now meets in John Bright School.

Anglicans, together with Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians, maintain the ancient tradition of naming churches after the holy ones (saints) of the faith or after God or Christ eg Holy Trinity, Christ Church, St. Saviour, Christ the King, Emmanuel, Holy Spirit etc. The practice of dedicating churches to saints seems to have begun with the placing of the relics of the early martyrs beneath their altars. The martyr may have come from that community, or died there, or perhaps his or her relics were brought there. The most famous example of this would be St. Peter’s in Rome. These Christian communities would feel close to that particular saint and be deeply inspired by their life and manner of death. As time went on the dedication of churches to saints widened out to reflect growing devotion to Mary the Mother of the Lord, the Apostles, and to many other holy men and women held in honour by the Church.

Here in Wales the dedications of churches are often to the person(s) believed to have founded them – as in our own St. Tudno. Sometimes these were not canonised ‘saints’ in the strict sense but may well have been persons locally recognised for their holiness of life. In some cases they may not even have been particularly ‘holy’ at all but simply the one who gave the money to build the church in the first place! And I was intrigued to read in a historical journal recently that some ancient Welsh dedications may actually reflect the names of pagan deities originally worshipped in the area.

In this parish we are fortunate to have both an ancient church dedicated to the saint who founded it, and a more recent parish church dedicated to God himself. Why Holy Trinity was chosen as the dedication of our parish church I do not know – though this particular dedication seems to have been particularly popular for seaside churches built in the Victorian era.

Last month we celebrated the Patronal Festival of our parish church on the Feast of the Holy Trinity and this month we shall be keeping St. Tudno’s Day and so recalling the man who first brought Christianity to this place and is patron of our parish and of our town. I believe that we must never take these dedications for granted and just use them as mere names or means of identifying our churches. ‘Trinity Church’ so often slips easily off the tongue. In a sense these dedications define us as a particular and unique Christian community and give a special slant to the way in which we experience and live out our Christian faith. To be dedicated to St. Tudno means that as we reflect on this pioneer of the Christian faith up on the Great Orme we dedicate ourselves afresh to our worship and witness in 21st century Llandudno. It also surely means that we have a special relationship with this citizen of heaven who prays and is concerned for us who follow in his footsteps. And to be dedicated to the mystery of God the Holy Trinity will be a constant reminder to us that we are called to share in the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to whom we were dedicated in our baptism. As a Christian
family we should be particularly concerned to build up a community of love which in some way reflects, albeit imperfectly, the giving and receiving of love which is the very life of the Holy Trinity itself.

So, at this time of year when we celebrate our patronal festivals, may we be proud of our dedications, proud to be the sons and daughters of blessed Tudno, even prouder though to be members of a church named after the mystery of the being of Almighty God.

Fr John

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