Thought for the week – from the Rev. David Jones

The National Eisteddfod was held last week at Llandudoch in North Pembrokeshire. This year was the 850th anniversary as the first recorded Eisteddfod was held in 1176. Llanelli has been home of our national festival a number of times in recent history- 1895, 1903, 1930, 1962, 2000, and 2014. I have my grandfather’s 1930 programme when the pavilion was located at People’s Park with concerts at the Hippodrome Theatre. The programme is surprisingly bilingual with a forward from the King’s secretary that the Eisteddfod was to receive ‘Royal’ patronage – that would raise some eyebrows today!

TV coverage brought to us all the main competitions as well as the pageantry of the chairing and crowning ceremonies. Eisteddfod ‘Garreg Las’ hosted hundreds of competitions and performances including poetry, music, dance, drama and visual arts. What a wonderful ‘window to the world’ showing the impressive talent which we as a nation have contributed to the world from drama, music, actors and singers such as Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Jones and more recently Ioan Gruffudd and Matthew Rhys. On a holiday in the USA some years ago what a joy to attend a church service in Chicago where two Welsh tunes ‘Cwm Rhondda’ and ‘Hyfrydol’ were among the hymns sung!

According to the dictionary ‘talent’ is ‘a marked innate ability for artistic accomplishment’ Most of us would willingly recognise that our abilities may never hit the headlines and we will certainly never wear the Eisteddfod crown or sit in the Gorsedd chair. Indeed, there may be times when we feel inadequate and nothing to offer in terms of our own abilities. Not so – the Bible affirms that there is a value on every life and we all have something to give especially when it comes to helping and supporting others. Jesus said that when we give even a cup of water to someone in need we are exercising our God given ability to care. He spoke of a nameless Samaritan who helped a dying man while the ‘religious’ leaders passed him by. It’s when we show love, care and compassion and go that extra mile we help make this world a better place and exercise the God given talent in which we can all excel!

Rev.David Jones