January 2010

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year to you all/ Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

It is Epiphany and the Wise Men have arrived in the crib. Between now and Candlemas, 2nd February, we shall have many revelations or eye-openers about Jesus at his baptism, at his first miracle or sign at Cana in Galilee and the first sermon that he preached at Nazareth. We shall also be observing the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which ends on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul and celebrating our Patronal Festival on 24th January, St. Cadoc’s Day. We shall be asking the “oncers” to become “twicers” on 31st January, because we are making a presentation to Revd Camilla after our Sung Eucharist at 10.30 a.m. and we shall be welcoming visitors from other churches in the Deanery of Newport at 4 p.m. for Choral Evensong when our choir will be joined by other choirs of the deanery and the preacher will be the Area Dean, the Revd David Neale.

Electoral Roll
Every parish has an Electoral Roll which contains the names and addresses of every Communicant over the age of sixteen who lives in the parish or regularly worships here. The Electoral Roll is revised every year in time for the Annual Vestry Meeting and it is completely renewed every five years. 2010 is the year for complete renewal of our Electoral Roll. We shall start the process at the meeting of our Parochial Church Council on 21st January and we shall be spending the following two months completing it. The P.C.C. is responsible for the Electoral Roll which will be completed fifteen days before the Annual Vestry Meeting in April. This year we shall be combining the renewal of the Electoral Roll with a complete Visitation of the Parish of Caerleon to ensure that only faithful Communicants who really want to worship in St. Cadoc’s Church are included on the Electoral Roll. It will be good to get people together in groups around the parish to share House Communions in some homes and Prayer and Bible Study in others, by invitation and with the full co-operation of P.C.C.members.

This will be the pattern of our Lenten worship and activities and we shall not be holding any parish meetings as such in Lent except these house-groups during which we shall be discussing with parishioners the importance of being on the Parish Electoral Roll. We pray that this Parish Mission in Lent will strengthen our life in Christ and our commitment to His Church.

Thanks to all who helped to make our Christmas services so joyful. As we reflect on those gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, we should remember that there were three gifts, not one, and we need a proper appreciation of worship and culture (frankincense) and the ability to cope with sorrow and bereavement (myrrh) in our lives.

Your friend and Vicar,

Arthur Edwards