A letter from our new minister, Rev. Ian Griffiths.
Dear Friends, Thank you for your wonderful welcome to Monmouth and indeed to the Circuit. It seems a long time ago when Tabitha and I came to visit after the first Stationing round, and finally we are here! So, a little about me. I was in Abingdon, Oxfordshire for the last ten years, there I had two churches both in the same town. The distance between them was very small. It is a bit further between Chepstow and Monmouth! So I am re-learning the need to allow time to get to places. I’ve been a minister now for twenty years and served in a variety of places, from deep rural Norfolk and Suffolk, to the suburban areas of Bradford. But it is Market Towns and Villages where Tabitha and I feel most at home. I grew up in the New Forest and have always attended a Methodist Church. In those days, the Sunday School was large and we learnt, among other things, to navigate the Bible by using the Good News version and the cartoon drawings. It meant that as children, we could often find our way around the Bible faster than the adults. Pictures always help! Like most churches, the number of children and young people diminished over the years, and the challenge of the church has been how to be a meaningful presence and community in very different circumstances. So my desire has always been for church communities to offer the best Christian presence that they can. One of my keen interests is music. I was brought up more with classical music discovering the delights of JS Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, and took the recorder to university as my first instrument. So, I went a little further with it than ‘Three blind mice’ of early primary school days. I have also attempted to learn various other instruments some with more success than others. Yet making music, whether singing or playing instruments has been a core part of my life and there is rarely a day when a tune is not in my head. Now, a new adventure begins. I am delighted to be here, and look forward to exploring the area as well as discovering where God is going to lead us. God is so often full of surprises and I pray we will be open to see and hear just what those are. I look forward to getting to know you all, hearing the stories of what God has done, and walking the next part of the journey with you. Every Blessing , Ian
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