"Five years ago when Father Richard Williams arrived in the parish, the church at Hay-on-Wye would not have been described as a flagship for Anglican worship, having as it did on average half a dozen present each Sunday morning. Now it is not unusual to count 60 people at Mass and the associated churches of Llanigon and Capel y Ffin have their own services the latter with two per month; one of which is Evensong.

The story of how Father Richard turned things around at St Mary's is currently being documented by my husband photographer Jack Tait who, through my involvement at the church, began to see that this was no ordinary parish. Accordingly it was agreed that Jack would start to record the activities as they came and went under the working title of "A Year in the Life of an Anglo - Catholic Parish".

Over ten years ago the Taits and Father Richard were all at Caerleon in Monmouthshire and sharing an interest in the writing of the Anglo - Welsh writer Arthur Machen; an interest shared with the then diocesan bishop Dr Rowan Williams.

When therefore it was decided to work towards a book it was obvious who would be approached to write a Commendation and the Archbishop readily agreed to do this.

It was a small step to decide on Rabbi Dr Sidney Brichto to do an Introduction, connected as he is with Hay where his daughter Anne Adeyman runs three bookshops.

Dr Brichto is a distinguished scholar and theologian and Father Richard is known to him both professionally and socially at Hay. Both our Diocesan Bishop Anthony and the Provincial Assistant Bishop David Thomas have given their support to the project.

We believe that St Mary's is a success story which deserves to be told at a time when so much of what makes the headlines in church matters involves scandal and rifts, which seem difficult for the non church goer to understand.

At St Mary's there has been no concerted attempt to evangelise and increase numbers in the congregation; it just seems to be happening.

We have regular members coming across the border from Herefordshire and down from north Radnorshire to what is of course Breconshire and for a long time one woman was attending from a farm on the Eppynt Mountain near the Carmarthenshire border.

Her decision to leave us was connected with her long term plans to herself train for the priesthood.

An incident which sums up what happens at St Mary's occurred a few months ago when I was coming out of Mass one Sunday.

Several visitors were admiring some of the display pictures, which Jack had pinned up at the back of the church. On an impulse I turned around and went to ask them what they thought of the material.

Their appreciation of the photography was matched by the accolades for the service itself as they explained that two of them ( a married couple) were visiting a sister who lived in a remote Herefordshire village.

On the Sunday morning she announced that she was taking them to "a real church .... Just like churches were when we were young".

So they were driven across the border into Wales. From what they said they would have gone ten times the distance and still considered it worth the trip. This sort of thing happens all the time.

On Palm Sunday the service began, as it always does on that occasion, with an outdoor start for us down at the Login Waterfall near the River Wye.

We had hoped that this year we would have the use of a donkey who we expected to be decorated with garlands and who would have been the subject of many photographs.

Sadly he did not materialise. I took Curate Jimmy down to the waterfall with me and a riple of excitement went around amongst a group of people that I realised were visitors. One stepped forward and asked me whether this was the famous poodle. I was able to assure them that it was. No one mentioned the Vicar.

However the party were from Cardiff and one of their number, a senior cleric himself from Carmarthenshire, seemed to know about St Mary's and presumably the dog.

After Mass was over it was moving to hear how much the service had meant to them all and one of the younger men, whose father he said was a Vicar of High Church persuasion in Cardiff, claimed to have become quite emotional during aspects of the service.

Over the Christmas period our excellent choir visited the Residential Home Cartref and sung to the residents and staff. They also sang in town on Market day to the shoppers whilst Fr. Richard visited the housebound to take them their Christmas Communion.

We had a good attendence at Mass at each of the churches over the Easter period, including my personal favourite, the Mass of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday when the service ends with the church lit only with dozens of candles in the specially created Garden of Gethsemane.

I was honoured to be asked to light them. A rota of people then stay in the church until midnight in a vigil to mark the start of the period from Good Friday to Easter Day.

On the Saturday we had the Blessing of the New Fire. Here the candles are lit from a brazier in the churchyard and carried into the dark church; everyone has a candle to carry and gradually the church fills once more with light and the First Mass of Easter is celebrated.

Once again there was a good attendence and of course at the Easter Sunday Service the following morning; a service which always sees us welcoming many town visitors to church.

The popular Lent Lunches had meant that once again all the congregations from the various churches had the opportunity to meet informally over soup and cakes to chat and raise money for the church. These take place in various houses and are popular and well supported each week.

Apart from the quality of the services Fr. Richard is very high profile in the town itself where the tall, dark haired figure in flowing black cassock & frequently sporting a biretta flies around the streets accompanied at all times by his Standard Poodle, Curate Jimmy.

As striking a figure as his master, the large black animal and the priest are well loved by the people of Hay in general as there are always kind words and a sympathetic ear for the non members of the congregation.

Jack, in pursuit with his camera, himself an agnostic, though probably weakening, says of religion at St Mary's Hay-on-Wye " It does what it says on the tin!"

Because Fr Richard originally trained as on organist and plays that and piano to concert standard the musical tradition at St Mary's is developing apace with a very committed choir who excel in plainsong presided over by head chorister Clare Cross.

The BBC has for many years used St Mary's for recordings of concerts, which are part of the Hay Literary Festival; this year is no exception.

The entire Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle will be performed over several evenings by Bernard Roberts.

At this important time in Hay's year the church also hosts poetry readings and flower festivals with teas laid on. The Visitors' Books at Hay and Capel y Ffin bear witness to the pleasure that people have in being in these churches.

A number of books are now in production involving both St Mary's and Fr. Richard or, in the case of one or two, curate Jimmy himself.

How many other dogs in mid Wales have been mentioned in a Japan AirWays InFlight magazine? The Curate celebrated his fifth birthday recently by seeing off local GP Dr James Wrench on his well-documented bed push to Cardiff in aid of publicity for Bronllys Hospital ( threatened reduction of facilities).

We hope that readers will enjoy this brief account of life at St Mary's, Hay-on-Wye and recognize that we believe that if it is possible for one community to get such spiritual support and pleasure from its church then maybe the time has come when other people will look to deepen and strengthen their own church and its role."

We hope that you will drop by and see for your selves some time. Our church website carries all details of services at our churches.

Article written by Rita Tait