Gwahoddiad i Wasanaeth Lladin yn Eglwys Teilo Sant
, 17 Mehefin 2010
Byddwn yn cynnal gwasanaeth Lladin Canoloesol yn Eglwys Teilo Sant wythnos nesa.
Mae'r nifer o lefydd sydd ar gael yn fach, felly gaf fi ddechrau gan argymell eich bod yn galw'r swyddfa addysg yn Sain Ffagans ar (029) 20 57 3424 i archebu lle. Bydd y gwasanaeth am 11.00 ar y 24ain o Fehefin.
Hwn fydd y gwasanaeth Lladin cyntaf yn hanes Eglwys Teilo Sant ar y safle hwn. Cyn ei symud o ardal Pontarddulais, byddai'r math hwn o wasanaeth wedi bod yn gyffredin yn oes y Tuduriaid. Mae'r gwasanaeth ei hun ar agor i'r cyhoedd, ond mae'n angenrheidiol eich bod yn bwcio lle. Mae'n cael ei gynnal gan arbenigwyr sy'n dod i'r amgueddfa o bedwar ban byd i gwrdd a thrafod hanes Canoloesol. Y nhw sy'n gweithio gyda llawysgrifau, archaeoleg a phensaernïaeth y cyfnod i greu darlun mwy cyflawn o fywyd tua 500 mlynedd yn ôl. Fe fyddwn ni yn arbrofi gyda'u damcaniaethau, a mae croeso i chi ymuno â ni!
Mewn ffordd, bydd cynnal y gwasanaeth yn ffordd o brofi os ydy'n gwaith ni yn ail-adeiladu Eglwys Teilo Sant yn gywir. Byddwn hefyd yn gallu helpu'r ymchwilwyr i brofi, neu gwrth-brofi, eu damcaniaethau nhw am sut oedd y gwasanaeth yn gweithio. Yn anffodus, does dim Tuduriaid o'r cyfnod ar ben arall y ffôn, felly wrth geisio arbrofion fel hyn y byddwn yn cael darlun cliriach o fywyd pobl yn y Canol Oesoedd. Tan i fi adeiladu peiriant amser, dyma'r peth agosa' gewch chi...
sylw - (2)
You pose a very interesting question. I suppose I've got used to calling rites of this kind 'performances' as this is the way they're referred to in most academic writing on the subject. So apologies for that!
Of course, there are layers of meaning to what's going on at St Teilo's this week - a 'performance' is only one way of describing it. We are very careful not to 'play at worship', and the service itself will be carried out by multidenominational ordained clergy. We do however have some ethical puzzles to solve because the church is part of the national collection now, as well as a religious building, though it was de-consecrated (on paper) in the 1970s.
As a brief example, the kind of ritual we will be performing/enacting/iterating* will be a Tudor one, taken from Catholic manuscripts from the period. These rituals are no longer sanctioned by the modern Catholic Church - and the building itself is not a modern Catholic church either (in fact, it was donated to us by the Church in Wales). It is a reconstruction of a 1500-30 interior in a church which has been moved 50 miles, which dates from between 1100 and 1700. We chose to pick this particular point in history to re-create due to the age of the murals we found, and the age of most of the masonry.
All the reconstructions, if they cannot be based on physical examples from the building, are the result of informed compromise between a network of academics, clergy, curators and archaeologists. This 'enactment' of a Latin service is devised in a similar way, following informed debate and very detailed research.
The conference really aims to address these strange questions, with academics coming from all over the world to discuss the ethics and practice of studying liturgy. We only really learn by doing - by trial and error - whether something really 'works' and so this performance (if that's what you want to call it) will question and test the academics' theories about how exactly the service would have happened.
If you're interested in attending, please do let us know on the number above as we only have a limited number of tickets. Thanks for your question - hope it wasn't a rhetorical one, considering my long answer!
*take your pick!