News from the Wales Area
Many of you will recognise and perhaps even have visited St. Davids Cathedral. Its origins were established over 1500 years ago when Dewi Sant (Saint David) founded his monastery here, settling in this far westerly coastal valley in rural Wales.
We are still a small, quiet, rural, coastal community in essence, but St. David’s has always been associated with Christian Pilgrimage and in many ways, our Cathedral is the beating heart of our little ‘city’, attracting thousands of visitors every year.
Over 25 yrs ago, Fr. Laurence visited and introduced Christian Meditation here which resulted in the ‘seeding’ of several meditation groups in the West Wales region. Some of those original groups continue to this day – in one way or another. West Wales was a WCCM Region in its own right but, since our national reorganisation in 2024, the whole of Wales has now become one Area, overseen by a small group of us. Geographically we are a large Area and yet in terms of active WCCM meditation groups we are small. Currently, we have one group in Mid-Wales, one group in South Wales and four groups in West Wales – plus an online group.
Don and I are part of the Wales Area Team (along with Poppy Weston and Diana Morgan). Don and I live in St. Davids and currently facilitate a weekly meditation group at the Cathedral here. The group has a regular core membership and also welcomes visitors and pilgrims throughout the year. St. Davids has been an important centre for pilgrimage for centuries and many visitors sense that it is a ‘thin place’ where contemplation seems to come naturally. Today, our small community welcomes many thousands of visitors and pilgrims every year and the Cathedral serves both as our parish church and the Diocesan Cathedral, ministering to many far and wide. To facilitate a weekly meditation group within its walls is a privilege and also a great opportunity for outreach.
The Tranquillity Space in Erw Dewi Garden
As part of this update, we have some exciting news to share from St. Davids. With very grateful thanks to the WCCM Eileen Cox Legacy Fund, we have just begun work on a project which we hope will offer a new and different way of sharing the gift of meditation here.
There is a walled garden of approximately an acre in size nearby the Cathedral called Erw Dewi (pronounced ‘Eroo De-oo-ee’) which in English means – ‘David’s Acre’. It is said that in the 13th Century Bishop Bek set aside an acre of land for the many pilgrims coming on pilgrimage to St. David’s. This acre was a place for rest, reflection and nourishment for weary pilgrims to pause and rest in preparation for visiting the Cathedral – the culmination of their long pilgrimage.
Up until a couple of years ago this space was an overgrown wasteland until the community volunteer group took it over. From the outset, it was intended that this acre of garden should reflect ideas of pilgrimage, contemplation and rest and be a place where the local community could share in being together, creating, gardening and growing.
In the same spirit, Erw Dewi garden is slowly and lovingly being developed by local volunteers and is already used by local people, school projects and visitors alike. It is a naturally beautiful space and its peaceful atmosphere lends itself to contemplation. Workers and visitors alike are naturally quiet in the garden.
A year ago it was suggested that we make a designated ‘Tranquillity Space’ and build an area of the garden for the purposes of contemplation, reflection and prayer. After a lot of planning and hard work this idea is now in development and we are delighted that we now have the funds to proceed with our building project of the Tranquillity Space.
There is a walled garden of approximately an acre in size nearby the Cathedral called Erw Dewi (pronounced ‘Eroo De-oo-ee’) which in English means – ‘David’s Acre’. It is said that in the 13th Century Bishop Bek set aside an acre of land for the many pilgrims coming on pilgrimage to St. David’s. This acre was a place for rest, reflection and nourishment for weary pilgrims to pause and rest in preparation for visiting the Cathedral – the culmination of their long pilgrimage.
Up until a couple of years ago this space was an overgrown wasteland until the community volunteer group took it over. From the outset, it was intended that this acre of garden should reflect ideas of pilgrimage, contemplation and rest and be a place where the local community could share in being together, creating, gardening and growing.
In the same spirit, Erw Dewi garden is slowly and lovingly being developed by local volunteers and is already used by local people, school projects and visitors alike. It is a naturally beautiful space and its peaceful atmosphere lends itself to contemplation. Workers and visitors alike are naturally quiet in the garden.
A year ago it was suggested that we make a designated ‘Tranquillity Space’ and build an area of the garden for the purposes of contemplation, reflection and prayer. After a lot of planning and hard work this idea is now in development and we are delighted that we now have the funds to proceed with our building project of the Tranquillity Space.
It is our intention and hope that the Tranquillity Space will be used to promote meditation and that its outreach will be wider than that of the existing group meeting in the Cathedral. We plan to use the Tranquillity Space structure as a focus, enabling us to introduce people to meditation and run other events related to contemplative practice throughout the year. Don and I are working alongside the Education and Pilgrimage Team at the Cathedral and already have some provisional events planned.
There is still a long way to go, but we really wanted to share this lovely project with our UK community. We will keep you posted…Watch this Space !!
Jayne and Don MacGregor – Wales Team
Images provided by the Wales Team