Smallest church has big impact (From Free Press Series)

Smallest church has big impact

THE smallest parish church in Monmouthshire was a blaze of colour at the weekend.

St Bridget's Church at Llansantffraed was decorated with ten spectacular flower arrangements depicting the patron saints plus St Bridget, St Teilo, St Cadoc, the crucifixion and the resurrection.

The tenth was a stunning arrangement created by Susan Griffiths which represented the Mothers' Union, the worldwide Anglican organisation founded in 1876 by Mary Sumner, daughter-in-law of the Bishop of Winchester.

The display depicted the International Year of the Family, and the varying sizes of the five displays represented the different sizes of families throughout the world, with the number of displays representing the five continents.

The majority of the displays were created by Helen Alford, a lecturer in the art at Coleg Gwent, Usk and her team of helpers, but the display for St George was the work of Chris Powell of the Abergavenny flower shop.

Organist Jean Smith, who modestly proclaimed that she is not a professional flower arranger, created The Crucifixion and The Resurrection displays.

To represent Mary Magdalene at the opened tomb she used a tiny model of a woman which she bought as a souvenir in Tenby more than 30 years ago.

She said: "I usually do the same colour scheme, but on a smaller scale, on the side window at Easter. The stones for the tomb were collected from our farm at Llanarth by my husband and son when clearing the field to plant corn."

There were 150 guests at the preview evening at Llansantffraed Court Hotel, in whose grounds the church stands, and hundreds of people visited the church over the three days of the festival.

Churchwarden Eric Smith said: "We are delighted with the overall appearance of the church and the reaction to the displays has been very good."

Colin and Pat Jarrett who helped organise the flower festival were pleased that so many people visited.

They thanked Sharon Andrews for designing the programme which gave a history of the smallest parish, which consists of just 290 acres and 29 parishioners.