The Wonder of Wellbeing: Renewal and Hope through Gower’s Beauty and Adventure.
In February 2024 Gower ministry area launched a new project to help connect local people and visitors to a sense of God’s Peace and Presence through offering a series of creative activities and reflective sessions that are based around its historic churches and surrounding landscape.
Alan: I think that St Illtyd’s church amidst the forest and overlooking Oxwich beach serves as a marvellous base for the project, following in the footsteps of the Celtic saint, who used this location as one of his own prayer retreats. We’d love to be able to inspire people into a sense of prayefulness and attune to God in a fresh way.
Maggs: Around the corner in Port Eynon I’ve worked with tourists and as so aware of their desire to come to Gower to find inner Peace and escape. The landscape at any time of the year resonates with wellbeing, and so the project will provide invitations for people to come to a small group, share, learn and be still together.
David: For several years our congregation in Oxwich have been discerning a way to better connect to our local villages and we’ve been able to bring our hopes into a wider vision of looking for evangelism in a way that we’re confident we can explore and support.
Peter, ministry area lead: We feel God’s direction in this venture. I arrived in post here last June already having been prompted to better relate Gower’s Beauty and Adventure to faith in ways to encourage folk that God’s blessing is for all. Oxwich congregation had a legacy that they wanted to use and we successfully match funded this with Swansea’s levelling up fund (Rural Anchor) which allows us to now employ a project coordinator for a pilot year before we look for a sustainable future. Along the way we’ve networked with many organisations and individuals who feel inspired to join in. I’m particularly looking forward to starting up both Wild Church (worship & wonder activities outside) and school holidays children’s work as we link up with families.
Chloe, project coordinator: This is a dream post for me, as I’m a fine artist finishing a MA in Arts Practice (Arts, Health & Well-being). I’m from Swansea and although not from the Church in Wales, I’m a church leader in Skewen and have a passion for both Gower communities and to see people encounter God through creativity. We’ll be offering three aspects of wellbeing in our walks, creative sessions, mini-retreats, and workshops: a secular stream that follows a NHS approach for 5 aspects to wellbeing that we’re planning offer in partnership with local health groups; a discipling stream that explores Christian expressions of prayer and spirituality; and spiritual tourism based on our recently established Gower Pilgrimage Way that links our 17 historic Gower churches.
Jinny: Its lovely to have a focus on healing and wholeness that brings in different part of the ministry area and I’m thinking of the project as a living retreat centre, promoting a sense of Sanctuary.
Fr Tim: There is a deep sense of spirituality in the land here, with the rugged marshes of the North and our local Celtic saints. We aspire to be faithful to their tradition in ways that can open people’s hearts to the Mystery of God’s love for each of them.
Claire: In Oxwich churchyard we’ve an ancient well beneath the yew tree and we can imagine how people might be able to draw from the great Spiritual Well as this project develops, inspiring people to live daily life with that vigour that St Illtyd found.
Martine: From our house we see the constant stream of visitors to the area and my prayer is that they would bring something of God’s blessing and leave with an extra sense of God’s blessing over their lives. So this is project combining both our plans for church growth locally and also providing that chance for a God encounter to shape the world in His plan.
Mary: In Oxwich and the whole ministry area, we’re very grateful to God that all these aspects of vision, funding and support of the churches have come together…and we are ready to wait to see what God does.
Gower Ministry Area 