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St. Asaph

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Hundreds of Children gather for National Society Celebration

St Asaph Cathedral was packed with more than 600 children on Wednesday 8 June as a celebration was held for the 200th anniversary of the National Society.

The Society was launched in 1811 to help poor children into school and two hundred years later it still promotes Religious Education in our classrooms.

Bishop Gregory with pupils from St Mary's Ruabon

Wednesday’s service was led by Revd Val Rowlands who introduced children from St Mary’s School in Ruabon (pictured). They gave a short history of the National Society, explaining what it was designed to do. They also shared the history of their own school which dates back to 1848.

Music was provided by the choir from St George School near Abergele and the jazz band from Ysgol Bodafon in Craig y Don.

Bishop Gregory spoke on Luke 5 when Jesus calls the fishermen to be his disciples. He highlighted the importance of passing on Good News which is what Jesus was asking them to do when he encouraged them to “catch people” instead of fish.

Diocesan Schools Officer Anne Suter organised the celebration alongside Cathedral Chaplain Val Rowlands.

Anne said:

“It was a fantastic celebration and it was great to see children from schools across the Diocese gather together to worship and enjoy themselves.

“We’d like to thank St Mary’s for their presentation, St George for the choir and Ysgol Bodafon for their jazz band.”

The theme of the service was “nets and fish” and each school was encouraged enter a competition to design a banner based on the theme. Bishop Gregory will judge it and the winner will be announced next week.

The winning school’s banner will represent the Diocese of St Asaph at the UK-wide celebration of the National Society’s 200th anniversary at Westminster Abbey in October.

Banners on display at St Asaph Cathedral

Some of the banners on display at St Asaph Cathedral

Send your news of events - forthcoming and recently enjoyed - to the Diocesan Communications Officer, Phil Topham. The news pages of the website include Bishop Gregory's mailing to clergy, a Calendar of forthcoming events, news of activities around the Diocese and a link to the Diocesan newsletter, Teulu Asaph. Use the column on the right to navigate around these pages.

 

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