St Mary's Pennard

26/01/2026

It is nearly time for the launch of our Lent Course for 2026 – from pancakes to palm crosses! Join us on a journey around all six of our stunning cathedrals as we explore faith and pilgrimage throughout Lent. All materials will be available to download from our website on 30/01/26 https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/evangelism/lent-2026-from-pancakes-to-palm-crosses/

This is a bilingual course designed to be completed in study groups, with discussion questions and videos provided, but it can also be completed alone. Each video is 10 minutes long, and provides discussion questions for a study group session that will last a recommended time of one hour. We hope you enjoy this course and use it to draw closer to God during this season of reflection!

Programme:
Bangor – Preparation
St Davids – Persistence
Brecon – Penitence
Llandaff – Praise
Newport – Passion
St Asaph – Palm Sunday
Epilogue – Easter Day
Made in collaboration with the Cathedral Deans, and written by the Very Revd Ian Black, Dean of Newport Cathedral.

Mae bron yn amser lansio ein Cwrs Grawys ar gyfer 2026 – o grempogau i groesau palmwydd! Ymunwch â ni ar daith o amgylch ein chwe chadeirlan syfrdanol wrth i ni archwilio ffydd a phererindod drwy gydol y Grawys. Bydd yr holl ddeunyddiau ar gael i'w lawrlwytho o'n gwefan ar 30/01/26 https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/cy/evangelism/lent-2026-from-pancakes-to-palm-crosses/

Mae hwn yn gwrs dwyieithog wedi'i gynllunio i'w gwblhau mewn grwpiau astudio, gyda chwestiynau trafod a fideos yn cael eu darparu, ond gellir ei gwblhau ar eich pen eich hun hefyd. Mae pob fideo yn 10 munud o hyd, ac mae'n darparu cwestiynau trafod ar gyfer sesiwn grŵp astudio a fydd yn para amser argymelledig o awr. Gobeithiwn y byddwch yn mwynhau'r cwrs hwn ac yn ei ddefnyddio i nesáu at Dduw yn ystod y tymor myfyrio hwn!

Rhaglen:
Bangor – Paratoi
Tyddewi – Dyfalbarhad
Aberhonddu – Edifeirwch
Llandaf – Moliant
Casnewydd – Y Dioddefaint
Llanelwy – Sul y Blodau
Epilog – Sul y Pasg
Wedi'i wneud mewn cydweithrediad â Deoniaid y Cadeirlannau, ac wedi'i ysgrifennu gan y Parchedig Ian Black, Deon Cadeirlan Casnewydd.

29/10/2025

As the Church in Wales prepares with joy for the enthronement of The Most Reverend Cherry Vann as Archbishop of Wales on the 8th November, all are invited to join in prayer and reflection. You can download the full Novena here: https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/news-and-events/archbishop-of-wales-enthronement-service-2025/
Beginning on 31 October, prayers will be shared each day for nine days, leading up to the enthronement. 🙏

Wrth i'r Eglwys yng Nghymru baratoi gyda llawenydd ar gyfer gorseddu'r Parchedicaf Cherry Vann fel Archesgob Cymru ym mis Tachwedd, gwahoddir pawb i ymuno i weddïo a myfyrio. Gallwch lawrlwytho’r Novena lawn yma: https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/cy/news-and-events/archbishop-of-wales-enthronement-service-2025/
Gan ddechrau ar 31 Hydref, bydd gweddïau’n cael eu rhannu bob dydd am naw diwrnod, gan arwain at yr esgyniad. 🙏

01/06/2025

Each day from Ascension to Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come are reflecting on a line from the Lord’s Prayer. Today’s reflection is on: ‘Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’.

29/07/2024

06/03/2024

05/03/2024

Lent Reflection and Photo 5th March 2024.

Driving across Dartmoor one evening in May 2023 I came across this cross as the sun was dipping down behind the Granite Tors.

It was worth pulling over and getting out and taking a picture of this beautiful ancient carved cross, know locally as Bennetts cross which may have come from the order of monks 'Benedictine'

There are many such crosses erected on Dartmoor and there are of course legends attached to them

There is a legend attached to the origin of the original crosses. The story says that there were four monks who did not want to follow their abbot's rules on austere living. Once the abbot went to Italy, the four brothers decided to celebrate, yet they needed some money. They robbed and killed a wealthy Jew. In the same evening the brothers were called to the nearby moor, which was covered in snow and ice at the time. When they reached the place, they realized that the messenger who had beckoned them was the ghost of the murdered Jewish man.

The ghost hypnotized them, and they wandered into the mire, fell through the ice, and were sucked into the thick bog. The abbot, who knew nothing about the murder of the old Jew and assumed they had run off out of guilt when they saw him coming home, ordered that the crosses be erected to mark the tracks from one monastery to another to prevent future monks from getting lost.

Whatever the truth behind their er****on it is more than likely that they stood as markers for routes and boundaries.

Isn't amazing that these legends attached to these crosses have survived for centuries in local folklore but it is more amazing that we as Christians have followed for 2000 years a cross that the Bible tells us has a message that some would call foolish but we hold at the heart of our faith as a symbol of that very act by which all our sins are forgiven.

As we continue this Lent journey through to Easter let us not forget that amidst the horrors of Good Friday lies that path to our freedom, a way by which you and I can be restored and renewed to be truly children of God.

19/02/2024

Day Four of my series of Lent photos and reflections.
There is a legend that if you stand in the harbour at Aberdyfi in Mid Wales you can here the bells ringing out beneath the sea for the lost lands of Cantraer Gawelod
So what is the story of the bells of Aberdovey?
This ancient sunken kingdom is said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island and Bardsey Island in what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales. The legend supposes that the bells of the submerged lost kingdom can be heard ringing below the waves on the beach at Aberdyfi.
It is a longing after something that once was but is now lost.
A sense that there was a time when things might have been better.
The Good Old Days as some might say, but I doubt if the Days of Old were Good for all....
That sense of something lost is I believe the feeling that some people may have when the start to realise that there is more to life than what they are experiencing and there is a longing to discover something more. Along the shore at Borth there is evidence of a lost sunken forest, the signposts to something that once was but somehow has been overwhelmed.
This is the same as an awakening of faith. The rediscovery of something that has lain dormant within us and responds to a loving God who calls out to us to come and discover Him afresh. The voice that calls to us that we can just discern in the wind like a distant ringing bell, the voice that calls us to respond

19/02/2024

Prayers in the ministry area today for St Hilary Killay parents and tots, all our links with Brownies, Guides and youth organisations.