We have a "Friends of St. Tudno's Church" group, which welcomes anybody who would like to be part of St. Tudno's extended family and support the mission, maintenance and restoration of this ancient church. 

Membership costs £10.00 per household per year, and can be Gift Aided, and Friends receive regular newsletters including information on services and events at St. Tudno's, special events for Friends and articles on St. Tudno's and the Great Orme.  Friends are also invited to contribute photographs, reminiscences, etc. to the newsletter. 

Special events for Friends will be held each year and these could include lectures, concerts, meals or fundraising events.

For further details, please see below or contact the Rector or Secretary. 



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Spring Fair, Saturday 17 April
Spring working party, Saturday 15 May
Summer outing, Saturday 10 July
Great Orme history walk, Saturday 21 August.  Meet at St. Tudno's Church at 2.00 pm.
Friends' Fair, Saturday 4 September
Friends' AGM, Saturday 25 September

Further details are given in the April edition of St. Tudno News, the Friends' newsletter which is sent to all members.  Friends may also be interested in other services and events at St. Tudno's.

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Friends of St. Tudno’s Church Fair Saturday  4 September, 10.00 am – 2.00 pm Holy Trinity Church Hall Stalls, refreshments, soft toy bungee jump – is your soft toy brave enough? Sponsor-a-Slate for St. Tudno’s In aid of re-roofing St. Tudno’s Church

In 1855 St. Tudno’s Church was re-roofed and restored thanks to the generosity of one benefactor, Mr. William Henry Reece.  Time and the exposed position of the church have taken their toll and the church once again needs to be re-roofed.  It is estimated that 1000 new slates will be required and there is an exciting opportunity for anyone to be a benefactor by sponsoring a slate.  Sponsor-a-Slate was launched at the Friends' Fair on 5 September. 

For £10.00 you can sponsor a slate and have your name, or that of someone whom you would like to remember, engraved on a slate when the roof is repaired. 

The names will be engraved on the under sides of the slates, and so protected from the weather, but whenever a future generation repairs the roof the names will be clear to see.  All sponsors are invited to enter their names, and any messages, on the application form which will become part of the parish archive and will thus be a more accessible record of contributors. 

If you would like to sponsor a slate in someone's name , a special gift certificate is now available. 

Please use this link to download a pdf version of the application form.
If you require a reader for the pdf file, please use the link below. 

In June 2010 the appeal passed the half-way point, when the Bishop of Bangor, the Rt Revd Andrew John, sponsored the 500th slate.  Please use this link to see the current progress of Sponsor-a-Slate.

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Friends' events in 2009 were as follow and photographs details of some events can be seen below. 
Saturday 26 May - working party at the church, to prepare for the summer season.
Friday 5 and Saturday 6 June - St. Tudno's Day celebrations.
Saturday 11 July - pilgrimage to Ynys Seiriol (Puffin Island), Beaumaris and Penmon Priory.
Saturday 22 August - guided walk with a Great Orme Country Park Warden.  Meet at the summit Visitor Centre at 2.00 pm.
Saturday 5 September - Friends' Fair at Holy Trinity Church in Llandudno, to raise funds for St. Tudno's (see below).
Saturday 26 September - Eucharist at St. Tudno's (11.00 am), followed by lunch (12.30 pm) and AGM (2.00 pm) in Llandudno. The AGM was followed by a slide show of Friends' events and other events at St. Tudno's. 

Some of the Friends of St. Tudno's Church started preparations for Carols by Candlelight by cleaning the church on Saturday 19 December.  The candles and path lights were set out on Sunday 20 December, ready for the services at 3.00 pm and at 5.00 pm.  Despite "severe weather" warnings for the area, both services were well attended and more photographs from the services can be seen on the St. Tudno's Church and Special Events pages.

The AGM on 26 September began with a Eucharist service at St. Tudno's.   Friends had lunch together at the Queen's Hotel, Llandudno and this was followed by the business meeting.  The afternoon ended with a slide show of Friends' events and events at St. Tudno's in the past year.  Friends are reminded that membership renewal is now due.  Please contact the Secretary if you have any questions about this. 




Friends manned the church for the Open Churches Day on 19 September.  Friends offered visitors refreshments, talked about the history of the church and sold Friends' souvenirs. 

The Friends' Fair was held at Holy Trinity Church on 5 September.  The fair saw the launch of Sponsor-a-Slate and sponsors were queueing to sign up, after good coverage in the local press.  The stalls and refreshments were busy and entertainment was provided by Llandudno Town Band.  The soft toy bungee jump was as popular with adults as with children!

A dozen Friends took part in the walk on the Great Orme, led by the Country Park Warden.  Starting at the summit, the route passed the Bishop's Quarry (pictured below), copper mines, Pink Farm and St. Tudno's Church before returning to the summit.  On the way we learnt something about the varied vegetation of the Orme and its management, the fossils and history of the Orme and how to tell the age of one of the Great Orme goats!





Friends on Beaumaris Pier, ready to embark for a cruise around Ynys Seiriol (Puffin Island).  Some of the group landed on the Island, with kind permission of the landowner, while the others returned to Beaumaris where they joined some more of the Friends for a visit to Penmon Priory.


A number of Friends joined the Pilgrimage walks of St. Tudno's Day, Friday 5 June, participated in the services on 5 and 6 June or help with refreshments after the service on 6 June.  There are photographs of these events on the St. Tudno's page. 


Many thanks to everyone who took part in the working party on 16 May, it was definitely a case of  “many hands make light work”.  Friends of St. Tudno’s Church were joined by some parishioners and we were able to: move the benches from the shed to the churchyard for the open air services, clean out the sheds, remove litter, put surplus cushions into storage and so release more storage space, clean the silver, brasses and vases, enjoy refreshments and offer them to visitors and protect some of the plants in the churchyard.  The last job may need a bit of explanation.  During the spring there were a lot of cowslips in flower in the churchyard and quite a few native bluebells, so to enable them to set seed they needed protection during the grass cutting time.  The main clumps were therefore marked with canes and tape and Tim, who cuts the grass, very kindly left these areas uncut (and a few more patches which he spotted).  In the late summer, Tim will also be leaving the ragwort plants, to allow the cinnabar moth caterpillars to feed on them.  In addition to protecting these specific plants, the grass is cut in sections and this seems to be quite a good compromise between safety, tidiness and conservation.  (Update: June 2009 - some pyramidal orchids were spotted in the churchyard and these were given similar protection.)


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Several of the Friends helped in the survey of tombstones in January 2009. All headstones in the churchyard were inspected and loose stones were marked with warning tape.  A list of stones requiring attention is being compiled.

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A number of Friends attended, took part in or prepared the church for the two Carols by Candlelight services on 21 December.  The church was lit with candles inside and path and flood lights outside and there are some more photographs on the St. Tudno's 2008 page and on the 2008 Events page.






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The Friends group was inaugurated at a Eucharist service at the church on Saturday 7 June, at which the preacher was the Dean of Bangor, the Very Reverend Alun Hawkins.  The Rector and St. Tudno’s wardens spoke about some of the aims of the Friends: to enable members to be part of the church family at St. Tudno’s, whether they live in the parish, in other parts of the UK or overseas; to keep members in touch with St. Tudno’s through newsletters and special events; to invite members to participate in the life of St. Tudno’s, e.g. by helping at services or with odd jobs; to pray for the work and witness of St. Tudno’s and for those who ask their prayers there and who may have no one else to pray for them; and to contribute to the restoration and maintenance of the building, so that St. Tudno’s mission can continue to future generations.  Those present were invited to become founder members.   

Dean Alun then inaugurated the Friends with the following prayer.

Heavenly Father, we give thanks for this ancient church, for the beauty of its setting and its great heritage of faith beginning with the coming of St. Tudno.  We remember that we are the living stones of the church in this generation, entrusted both with the care of this building and the maintenance of its mission in worship and in the welcome of visitors and pilgrims.

We ask your blessing on us today as we inaugurate “The Friends of St. Tudno’s Church”.  Prosper this new group as it seeks to support the work of the Parish of Llandudno here at St. Tudno’s.  We ask all this in the name of Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Tea and cakes (baked by Friends) were served after the service, while the Secretary was busy gathering in membership forms and some of the gentlemen started with a rather heavyweight odd job – lowering the flagpole to retrieve a rope which was stuck at the top.  Other Friends helped to clear up after the service and tea and Elly, from the Netherlands, was helping again at the Sunday service. 

Dean Alun has kindly agreed to be Patron of the Friends of St. Tudno's Church and more than half of the founder members come from outside the parish – from Gwynedd, England and the Netherlands.  This follows a tradition of support for St. Tudno’s from people who may live many miles from the church, of whom we remember in particular Mr. William Henry Reece of Birmingham.  In 2005 we celebrated 150 years since he generously paid for restoration of the church, which had been abandoned 16 years previously after losing its roof in a storm, but the roof now needs to be replaced again, to maintain the church for the generations to come.  The Friends' subscription will support restoration of the church and membership forms are available in the church or can be downloaded from this page. 

The atmosphere at St. Tudno’s was summed up by Dorothy, a Friend who visits from England and who had been on both pilgrimage walks on St. Tudno’s Day (see details on the Special Events and St. Tudno's pages).  “Normally I have the church to myself, and that’s wonderful, but these two days the church has been full of people who feel as I do – and that’s wonderful too!”

        
The Dean of Bangor (4th from left) and some Friends after the service, while other Friends repair the flagpole. 

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We all need friends - it’s impossible to imagine life without them. They care for us, put up with our failings, stick with us through thick and thin and are always there for us. Almost two hundred years before the birth of Christ a Jewish scribe called Ben Sira wrote ‘A loyal friend is something beyond price, there is no measuring his worth’ (Ecclesiasticus 6:14). I’m sure we would all agree with that! 

But it isn’t only human beings who need friends. Ancient churches need friends too, they need folk who will care for them, cherish them and protect them.  We are inviting you to become a friend of one of these ancient churches – our own St Tudno's.

On Saturday June 7th at a special Eucharist we are setting up a new group to be called ‘The Friends of St Tudno's’ and we hope that people from near and far will want to join and become official friends of St Tudno’s Church.

For many years now cathedrals and other large churches have had groups of Friends to help in the care of their buildings and their work. More recently smaller churches all over the country have begun to follow suit and we have now decided that it is time that St Tudno's had its own group of friends.

But why do we need such a group? Surely St Tudno's is already well cared for by our parish and is supported in all kinds of ways by large numbers of people from far and wide. Certainly St Tudno’s is a well loved place. I am always being asked if we conduct marriages there, or if someone, often from miles away, can be buried in the churchyard. The comments written in the visitors’ book are evidence of how much this little church means to so many people. What would having a ‘Friends of St Tudno's’ add to all this?

I suppose that what we are really trying to do is to tap in to all this love and goodwill and to harness them more effectively by gathering together those who care for St Tudno's from near and far. It will be a way for people to keep in touch and feel that they are involved in what is going on.

Of course there is a financial aspect to this. The subscriptions paid by those who want to be members of the ‘Friends of St Tudno's’ will help us to look after our ancient church. And the Friends may also be able to help with money raising activities.

But finances are only one aspect of what we hope a Friends organization will be able to contribute. They  will also surely have a part to play in what goes on up at St Tudno's: our worship, our mission to provide a space for solitude, quietness and prayer in a busy and distracted world, and above all our concern that visitors may encounter Christ in that place of holiness founded by St Tudno's back in the sixth century, and which has been a place of worship ever since.

Although 'The Friends of St Tudno's’ will be inaugurated on 7th June and membership application forms are already available much of the work in setting up the group has yet to be done. We will probably have the first meeting in the early autumn to elect officers and a committee, a simple constitution will have to be drawn up, and the exact relationship between the parish and the Friends sorted out. Regular newsletters will have to be produced and events planned.

Meanwhile I invite you to share in this exciting project – come along on June 7th be in at the start! Naturally we would like all our own parish family to be members, but we also hope that members of other local churches and indeed those of no religious commitment who value St Tudno's would also want to join. And then there is the vast army of visitors to Llandudno who have grown to love the place –I'm sure you would agree that there is no shortage of potential members!

The new season of St Tudno’s Sunday services began on 25th May and we are looking forward to St Tudno’s Day on Thursday June 5th when we will celebrate a Eucharist to commemorate our founder and patron St Tudno. Before this service I will lead a pilgrimage walk from Holy Trinity to St Tudno's beginning with Mid-day Prayers at the parish church at 12.15 pm. Do join me if you are able to do this walk. After the Eucharist a small group will then visit St Tudno’s Well, perhaps the place where the saint baptized converts to the faith of Christ.  Then two days later, on Saturday June 7th, the Dean of Bangor will preach at the Eucharist I referred to earlier in this letter when we shall inaugurate ‘The Friends of St Tudno's’. I look forward to sharing these events with you.

(Extracted from the Parish Magazine for June 2008.)


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Please click on the link below to download a pdf version of the membership form.  The two pages make a double-sided, three-fold leaflet. 

Friends' Membership leaflet



If you require a reader for the pdf file, please use this link to the Adobe Reader website to download a free version of Adobe Reader.



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