Organists !!

I don't want this to become a rant, but there are a few things I want to get off my chest, and this is probably the safest way of doing it.

Facebook friends will know that I have commented on organists a couple of times this year - usually after a service in which I have wanted to vent my spleen because at least part of the service was ruined by the organist.

Now, before I go any further, I have to make a few things clear. I am not against organists. Indeed, I am an organist myself, it is just over 26 years ago that the organist of my home church gave me my first lesson, the organ was my instrument when I took my music 'A' level and it has given me great pleasure ever since. Also, as a preacher and minister, I have worked with some excellent organists over the years - their sensitive playing in relation to the theme / mood of the service has been much appreciated and helped with the general atmosphere of worship. That said, there are others at whose playing I have had to grimace, even leaving me to wonder if I should say something during the service.

In the circuit where I currently serve, there are some capable organists around the churches and chapels. It is a joy to work with them. There are also some less than capable organists around the churches and chapels, and it can be a strain to work with them.

First of all, the question as to whether or not people should be playing the organ. On a good number of occasions, I have had people say to me, "Well, I play the organ for services, but I'm a pianist really". In that case, will you please play the piano. If that is the instrument you are used to, that is the instrument that will help you play to your fullest potential. I could not believe that a few months ago I was having to explain to one of these pianists who has been using the organ as a glorified piano what an 8 foot stop is for !

To some extent though, the blame is not with these musicians at all, but with the members of the congregation who worship the organ and make it into an idol. To them, anything else is, at best, second-best and if it's not on the organ, well, "It's not the same" but they seem to explain how exactly it is different other than the use of a different instrument.

Do people not realise that organ music in church is a relatively modern concept? How on earth did the church survive and grow for 1800 years before the Victorian age? Before then, for the most part, in the local church, music would have been provided by a small band, not unlike today's praise bands. OK, perhaps not electric guitars (!) but maybe a violin, flute, bassoon etc would provide the musical accompaniment. Yes, there may well be an organ in the cathedrals and other particularly large churches, but this was rather rare, it was the exception rather than the rule. So, in many ways, using a variety of instruments in worship is simply going back to an earlier tradition.

Then there's the question of tunes. if Methodism was born in song, it died when somebody changed the tune. Hymns have set tunes for a whole variety of reasons, musical, poetical, even theological to name but 3. True, in some cases there are alternatives, the hymn "Love Divine, all loves excelling" can be sung to either "Love Divine" or "Hyfrydol" as well as its most popular "Blaenwern". That said, sometimes hymn have just one set tune, it is a marriage made in Heaven and let no-one put asunder. why sing "Guide me O Thou great Jehovah" to anything other than "Cwn Rhondda"?

So if a hymn has a set tune, can we please play the set tune rather than just search for a tune of the same measure. To me, changing a tune just because "we don't know it" is musical sloppiness. There have even been times when the tune that has been selected in place of the set tune is not of the same meter at all, does not fit the words and the result is just an un-dignified mess.

You might have gathered that I'm coming at this from a Methodist perspective, and a Welsh Methodist perspective at that. Within Methodism, and I'm sure the same is true of other denominations, certainly other Protestant denominations, there is a great emphasis on training and further training for preachers, ministers and worship leaders. Yet it totally ignores the fact that the people who lead worship in our churches week by week are the organists, and there is no hint of further training for them. This is not good. Whilst the odd gaffe here and there is something we've all done and can cause amusement for the right reasons if handled correctly, not being up to it is a far more serious matter. This is where it gets difficult. I know our organists give what they can, but if there are some relatively easy tunes that they cannot play, what happens next? I don't ask that question lightly, but as there are pastoral procedures in place for ministers, preachers and worship leaders who are not up to it - usually based around training and encouragement, should not the same apply to musicians?

I like organ music, I love the great hymns of the church. I enjoy praise bands, I get excited about contemporary hymns and hymn-writing. They all have their place in the church. Long may this be the case. But may we also have musicians who are able to meet the challenge of worship today to the glory and praise of God.

Well, I suppose that's one way to set the cat among the pigeons.......!! Thoughts / opinions / comments are welcome, either below or on the Facebook link which will be provided in just a moment.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord (Psalm 150)

The Men of Harlech meet mud, mud, glorious mud !

The weather has worsened and taken a turn for the cooler and wetter. With occasional exceptions, this is how it is going to stay for the next few months. The shorts have been replaced by walking trousers, and there's every need for an extra layer on top as well!

I was glad of the extra mile last time - it gave me a bit of a start today and meant that I was able to finish a little sooner than expected, and, given what the weather was doing later in the day, that was not a bad thing.

After retracing my steps to Minffordd station, it was along the road, turning right at Penrhyndeudraeth. This junction was significant as it allowed me to cross the Mawddach estuary via a road and rail bridge, and means that after walking west along the north Wales coast, and then east along the southern side of the Lleyn Peninsula, I am now heading south. Broadly speaking, it's going to be south to Aberystwyth, then south-west to Pembrokeshire, but there is a lot of walking to do bef9ore that stage is reached.

Just a word about the bridge - there's not a lot of room for vehicles and pedestrians - it can be done, but drivers and walkers alike need to take extra care. Fortunately, it's not exactly the longest bridge in the world, and at Llandecwyn the road starts to lead down the coast whilst the footpath heads into nearby fields.

The off-road conditions underfoot have changed somewhat since reaching Minffordd almost a month ago. It is now squishy and muddy. My footwear could cope with it, but when I finished. I was very surprised to see just how much mud had splashed onto my trousers. Fortunately, they are walking trousers and are machine washable for this very reason, but all the same, I looked a sight !

Why can't paths be more clearly marked? The map did help, but some markers at the edge of the fields would also be useful. In the end, after covering some distance in this manner, I gave up and headed back to the nearest road. I had been trying to get onto the sand dunes to the north of Harlech. Last time I was here, just over a year ago, I had been to Harlech with friends, and we had walked north along the beach after looking round the town. However, then we have accessed the beach from Harlech itself. Trying to do so from further north is not easy. For one thing, at the estuary mouth, tidal conditions can make it difficult, not to say dangerous, and for another, there is some private, inaccessible land further down. Eventually, I settled on a compromise, following some minor roads / farm tracks down the coast as near to the dunes as I could comfortably get before reaching Harlech.

Whilst I did have a map, there was one particular way in which it was not needed. Ever since crossing the bridge earlier, the outline of the castle looms on the horizon and it gets larger with every step.

The weather was not particularly kind today - there had been heavy showers throughout the walk, and it became more or less constant when I reached Harlech. The original plan had been to have a look round the castle and the town, getting a bite to eat somewhere along the lines. With the weather being cold, wet and miserable, that was amended. I did have a look round the castle (I have just renewed my membership of CADW, so this helps me get my money's worth), but then I decided to call it a day and get the train back a good 2 hours earlier than planned.

A successful day's walking, but a bit of a miserable ending.

The extra mile

Today was meant to be from Criccieth to Porthmadog. Things started well and got better. The way out of the town is easy to begin with, it's simply follow the path along the railway line until you get to a hill, Graig Ddu, or Black Rock. There is then a choice of ways to go round the hill, but as the easy way was blocked by cows that I was not going to try and argue with, I had to stick to the coastal route and do a bit of scrambling. At least that is what the guide-book said. As it happens, it was not as bad as that. Yes, there were places where I had to put my hands on the rocks to steady myself, but I was not in serious danger of losing my footing at any point, it was for back-up more than anything else.

Once round the rock, the next bit is easy and glorious - right along the sands, and the scenery of the Mawddach estuary is stunning. Indeed, if I dare admit this, being a grown man in my 40s, there were times I almost wanted to cry, it was so beautiful. Before I run out of superlatives, I did realise that I would need to know where to get off the sands, otherwise various streams and rivulets flowing into the estuary could make life interesting.

Oh alright, so I didn't get the exit off the sands *quite* right - and at one point I did have to take off my shoes and socks to get across some flowing water. Not too bad when wearing shorts, as I have on the walk so far, but as I don't think there'll be many more days this year when I can get away with that, life could get a bit more interesting if this happens again in the coming months.

Skirting round the edge of Morfa Bychan seems to be caravan / camp site Heaven. I was more than happy to leave them to it. I was now turning my thoughts to Borth-y-Gest, a place which a friend of mine enthuses about. I can see why, it is a very pretty place and makes for a pleasant stay. My stay was a short one, but it was long enough to stop and have a coffee and scone, which to be honest, I found a bit disappointing.

Looking at the map, I could not believe that Porthmadog was so close. My original plan had been to stop there and have lunch, but as the short walk to the town from Borth-y-Gest got me there before lunchtime, and as I was still feeling a bit full from the scone, that plan came to nothing. So, after a map check, I wondered about going on a little further than originally planned. That is what I did, and following the track of the Ffestiniog Railway, arrived just over a mile later in Minffordd. As there was a train back to Criccieth where I had left the car in 20 mins, I decided that was enough for one day, I had gone a little further than planned and was slightly ahead of schedule.

So far, with the weather, I have been very lucky. But it is now the end of September, and whilst I don't plan to do quite as much walking in the autumn and winter months, I will be doing some. The shorts will almost certainly have to go away, and I suspect that the raincoat and waterproof over-trousers will be making more of an appearance. There's only one way to find out, I suppose.....

Pwllheli to Criccieth

Picking up where I left off last time, today I was accompanied by my friend Alan. The weather was a degree cooler than it had been for the bulk of the Lleyn Peninsula walk, and definitely breezy, but it was not bad once you got moving and kept moving!

The knack to today's walk was not to stick to the A497 too much. There were times when it was unavoidable, but at least in those areas there is a decent footpath running alongside. It was on the main road for the initial stage out of Pwllheli, but we were soon able to drop back towards the beach and follow the path along the sand dunes.

This is an area for holiday parks, and whilst Butlins may be long gone, the idea of it survives with caravan sites and other holiday camps all seeming to offer the same sort of facilities. They may have their place I suppose, but if I go on holiday, I like to see an area, not just an enclave of it.

Basically, it was a case of follow the path close to the beach until you reach Penychain, then back onto the main road. At this stage, I took a detour slightly inland to the village of Llanystumdwy, a village which would simply be a dot on the map were it not the home of the only Welshman to have been Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.

Lloyd George was the great Liberal Prime Minister during the First World War, and after the war, he won the subsequent General Election, formed a coalition Government with the Tories, which unfortunately put the Liberals out of Government until........

It's hard not to spot Lloyd George's connection with the village - there's the school where he would have been educated, the chapel where he would have worshipped, there's a museum decicated to him in what was his home, and just a whisker away from the village is his grave and memorial. That was also the venue for our lunch stop, not on the grave itself, but just alongside, with profound apologies to anyone who feels that too disrespectful. It was certainly not intended to be.

Just along the road from the gravesite, there's a path which drops down back over the road and railway and onto the beach. There, Criccieth Castle is clearly seen ahead of you, and it's journey's end for today's relatively short stage of the walk. A visit to the castle was a must - being a member of CADW, I can get in free. It turns out that both Alan and I had spent childhood holidays here and had visited the castle back then, and it was good to re-lived some of our respective memories. But boy, if it had been breezy on the walk, there was a positive gale howling through the castle grounds. I'll have to go back and have another look when the weather isn't quite so fierce, but I promise that it will not be another 30 years until my next visit.

Arriving in Criccieth also means that the Lleyn Peninsula is now complete. There's a lot more of the walk to do, but it feels that the next stage of the walk will be the next chapter of the story. Indeed, it will, for Criccieth is right down at the bottom corner of the map which has been so useful since Caernarfon.

Thank-you, Lleyn Peninsula, I certainly know where to spend some days out now, but with the coastline of Cardigan Bay in sight, there are more adventures ahead in that direction.