The
Llandaff Renewal Team
Amanda
Thompson
In
1983 the Bishop of Llandaff, John Poole-Hughes, set up a team of people in his
diocese to look at Renewing the church.
The team consisted of a dozen people with Mr Bernard Davies of
Christchurch, Cardiff as its Chairman.
Over the years members of the team have come and gone, and there have
been many ups and downs, but now twenty years on, it is still offering events.
Three times a year we organise a Renewal Day in a church sympathetic to
Renewal, where there is a speaker, worship and prayer ministry in the power of
the Holy Spirit. Every month
there is a clergy support group to encourage clergy involved in Charismatic
Renewal in their parishes. We
also oversee a lay support group, and run worship evenings in parishes around
the Diocese.
Two
years ago, while praying for the team I had a picture. It was very clear; I was
writing an invitation to a past member of the team inviting him to a special
celebration. The invitation was like a wedding invitation; smart white card with
a gold trim, and under the name it said ‘your presence is urgently required
at…’ This obviously
led to a number of questions:
§
What was I inviting people to?
§
Why was I inviting him?
§
Who else was I inviting?
§
What was the urgency?
§
When and where would it be?
§
What are you asking me to do, Lord?
When
I mentioned the picture to others they were rather bemused, so I set about
bothering God for the answers. Over
the next few months things slowly became clear.
It was about the Renewal Team, it was about all the members of the
Renewal Team there had ever been, past and present, and members of Clergy
Support. As the man I was
writing to in my picture now works in a parish across the border I knew I was to
invite those no longer in the Diocese.
It included those who were no longer involved with Charismatic Renewal.
It was to be a thanksgiving for everything God had done through the team
in the past, the present and what he would do in the future.
So why the urgency? I
think that was God’s joke on me! He
knew I could take years to sort a picture out and finally do something about it. It was to speed me up!
All
the same, it was a year later that I presented the picture and my understanding
of it to the Renewal Team, and instead of bemusement I was met with enthusiasm.
After they had prayed about it, Team members started talking of Wedding
Feasts and banquets. Someone
said that next year would be our twentieth anniversary so I was given the
go-ahead to organise a wedding type feast, for all past and present members of
the team, clergy support, and their spouses and I was given some possible dates
and a venue.
Catering
for the event looked like it could be a problem.
I was allowed £5 a head for the food, but for that money the catering
companies in Cardiff could only offer sandwiches and sausage rolls, nothing very
special. When the
ladies who organise our church’s Alpha suppers heard of my difficulty they
volunteered to do the catering. With the money we had a three-course meal with
coffee and mints to finish and table service.
They decorated the Hall with pale blue flowers, the tables with blue
cloths and napkins and made it a real Banquet.
As
you can imagine the evening was a great success, I believe because God was there
behind it all. Although a few
guests were unable to come because of other commitments or ill health, we had
nearly sixty guests. The
worship in church was beautiful and Spirit led, the Archbishop talked to us
about thankfulness and the Wedding at Cana and led us in the Eucharist.
The food was a feast and Bishop Graham obviously enjoyed himself and
inspired us with his speech. Everyone
had a good time and we had many letters of thanks afterwards.
So what now? I’m not sure, but the unity and agreement we felt amongst us that evening is something the team intend to build on. God knows what he has planned for the future, and we are all looking forward to finding out what it is!