This photo of Hospederia San Martin Pinario is courtesy of TripAdvisor
The Church in Wales Lent course has details on page 13 on how to make a Pipe-Cleaner Person from a 12 inch pipe cleaner. Clear instructions are available at How to Make Bendable Figures Using Pipe Cleaners.
The course booklet suggests that if one Pipe-Cleaner Person is made each week through Lent, it can become a ‘symbol’ of "how we would like to become a more generous people, how we would like to become more generous stewards of God’s creation, and how we seek to welcome others into our churches with a generosity of heart and spirit."
A generous welcome is constantly extended to allegedly 'marginalised' people, especially lesbian, bisexual, gay and transexual (LGBT) people which is somewhat of a puzzle since they have been happily worshipping with the rest of us for as long as I can recall.
By comparison any whiff of orthodoxy has become as welcome in many churches as something stepped in before entering.
The Bible teaches that Marriage is sacred. If same sex marriage is permitted contrary to the official teaching of the Church in Wales as has been suggested by the Bishop of Bangor, a significant hurdle for LGBT people will be overcome leaving only a few inconvenient verses of Scripture to be revised or ignored as has become the custom of those who matter in the Church in Wales.
I have heard it suggested that generous stewards sitting in the pews who follow the Lent course could make pipe cleaner priests to substitute for their own clergy when they are away on June’s Santiago de Compostela jolly.
The bishop of Llandaff's generosity has been the focus of much attention in her desire to "train and equip priests to teach and lead pilgrimage in their own communities", something that could easily be achieved at minimal expense in the diocese of Llandaff drawing on the experience of clergy already well versed in leading pilgrimages.
Chartering an aircraft to fly all Llandaff's clergy to Santiago de Compostela is even more surprising since it is been reported that the Cathedral, the destination for Camino pilgrims, has been undergoing extensive renovations resulting in limited access and the suspension of the pilgrims' mass which may have been one of the few attractions of this compulsory jolly.
With no Camino walk and the main attraction in Santiago de Compostela closed for renovation, a few slides in a more accessible local venue should suffice instead of transporting all the diocesan clergy to Hospederia de San Martin de Pinario but that would lack the grandeur of a clergy school befitting the new breed of managers masquerading as bishops in the Church in Wales.
Might one suggest that a suitable posture for Lent bendable figures would be kneeling in prayer that the Church in Wales returns to orthodoxy before she fades into a distant memory of former glory.
