Celebrating The Past, Enjoying The Present And Looking Forward To The Future

Fr Matthew Gibbon, a priest in the Cynon Valley South Ministry Area, reflects on a week long festival celebrating 140 years of the church in Aberaman.

Like many church buildings St Margaret’s is steeped in history, with a piece of the pyramid of Giza on the wall and a lectern and stained glass window dedicated to former world champion cyclist Arthur Linton. When it came to celebrating 140 years at the heart of the community in Aberaman our events team were really keen that we should celebrate the past, but the celebrations had to be about more than nostalgia. We wanted to celebrate the here and now, the role we play in the community today, and the role we want to play in the future.

Over the last week St Margaret’s has been transformed by a brilliant team of volunteers led by June who has created every single one of the themed flower arrangements on display and Diane who has worked so hard to curate our history and heritage exhibition. It has been a joy to watch the community come together to share their memories.

The exhibition focuses on a theme of ‘140 years at the heart of the community’, celebrating the key role the church plays in people’s lives- weddings, baptisms, confirmations, music, trips and socials are all represented. As I stood at the altar to celebrate our family-friendly Monday evening Mass I was stuck by the significance of our young people bringing up the offertory surrounded by the memories of generations of young people before them. They viewed the photographs in the exhibition with excitement, sometimes spotting parents, grandparents or even great grandparents.

One of the young people was very excited to see his own baptism photographs as part of the exhibition. “I’m on your wall!” he said excitedly. “Of course you are,” one of my churchwardens replied, “you’re part of our story!”

We’re very lucky to have excellent working relationships with our local schools, and it was wonderful to welcome children from both Aberdare Town Church School and Cwmbach Church in Wales Primary School to lead our midday prayers. We also had the pleasure of welcoming 12 dogs (and their humans!) to our pet blessing service- everyone was incredibly well behaved, including my cocker spaniel, Oscar, who is used to being the only four legged member of the congregation!

Bishop Mary joined us to close our festival with a Celebration Mass and a bring and share party. It was the perfect end to a lovely week. As we cut our cake it gave me hope that in another 140 years time the church in Aberaman will still be at the heart of the community sharing cake and breaking bread.