So, I’m on Lefel 2 Her 11… I’m having short verbal exchanges with neighbours… or at least I was until ‘lock down’ last Monday! No problem with following the rules but it does curtail some activities. 
Now… a couple of months ago I met an elderly but active native Welsh speaking woman who has been very prominent in the Methodist Church in Synod Cymru (Welsh speaking district of the Methodist Church in Britain). She resides in Dolgellau - a Welsh speaking stronghold! Ever since we have been having email exchanges in Welsh. (Dwi’n Weinidog Methodistaidd wedi ymddeol). I have been helping to put together some bilingual service sheets to help the Eglwys Methodistaidd yn ardal Nolgellau. As well as this I have been in Welsh communication via email with another Minister in that area.
I am so happy to be accepted as a ‘functional’ Welsh communicator and its great to be able to help in this small way during the pandemic.
The moral of the story…? Small actions - making friends with local Welsh speakers and interacting on their terms wins respect and in my case has not only helped my Welsh language ability but proved to me beyond any doubt that when we take the difficult step to move into unfamiliar territory we are received with warmth and respect! Diolch yn fawr iawn i Cymry Cymraeg a pawb!
Great! Dw i’n gweinidog baptist yn Loegr, so thanks for helping me find the word for “minister”!
Edit: I just realised it should be “dw i’n weinidog baptist”…
Gwych! Dw i’n meddwl bod ‘Bedyddiwr’ yn cywir (gweld Geiriadur yr Academi). Great! I think that ‘Bedyddiwr’ is correct, according to the Welsh Academy Dictionary. So a Baptist minister is: Gweinidog Bedyddiwr. You can also say: Gweinidog Bedyddiwr dw i. Or: Dw i’n Weinidog Bedyddiwr. Even Google Translate appears to understand that! So it must be right!!!
Edit: Thanks for the mutation comment - I have edited my original script . I think that the capital letters are in order as we would usually have ‘Methodist Minister’ or ‘Baptist Minister’ as it’s a title or office. I am fortunate that the Methodist Church has a bilingual ‘Worship Book’. It was from that I discovered the correct expression…I had questioned folks at Saith Seren, a Menter Iaith in Wrecsam but they were thinking along the lines of ‘Priest’ which is not what I am 
.
Diolch - I’ve been trying to find the word for Baptist, but Gareth King’s dictionary doesn’t have it, strangely enough!
Now I just have to find out how to say “God bless you!” and I’m all set…
bendith Duw arnat (informal/singular ‘you’)
bendith Duw arnoch (formal/plural ‘you’)
Hi David. I have copied a couple of pages from the Methodist Bilingual Worship book into a pdf. You can access it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c95f374bir3p0td/Blessings.pdf?dl=0
Hopefully that should work. It includes ‘The Lord bless you and keep you…’ and two other shorter blessings.
Thanks. I notice that the blessings appear to use rather formal (old-fashioned) language (using -m for the first person plural rather than -n); I guess that’s maybe fairly common in liturgy (which is often quite old-fashioned in English as well).
Yes, I must admit to being a fan of the more traditional liturgy - so in Methodist terms I am a Wesleyan rather than a Primitive (much more extempore prayer and often shunning liturgy altogether) though, since all the Methodist offshoots came together legally in 1932 with the Deed of Union (Law establishing the Methodist Church in Britain). We, like other denominations, have all shades of Churchmanship (sorry, I don’t think there is a gender neutral term for that ).
The document I copied was produced in 1999. I was just about to take up my Probationary period and my first Churches. The language is a great improvement on the previous version, which was very limited in content. Anyway, what I copied is still current and we have no plans to update at present. Methodist Ministers are free to write their own liturgy and are trained to do so. Anglicans don’t have that privilege…
The response I have had from people outside the Church when I’ve used it has always been positive. But yes, it’s on the ‘Formal’ side. The Church in Wales that I attend in our village has similar liturgy, so I think it is to do with style rather than trying to be colloquial and modern.
I suspect that your use of Welsh professionally is rather limited if you are living and working in Lloegr? I’ve only lived in Wales for almost two years, though we have owned the house for over 16 years and we know the locals well. Da iawn chi a siarad Cymraeg pan y gallwch.
Well, my use of Welsh is rather limited in any capacity, never mind professionally! I’m learning it mainly because I like learning languages, and have never really used it at all; but my daughter is at uni in Cardiff so we go regularly, and one of those days I will use it in some way or another… Until then, I will just continue to bendithio my family with random words and phrases!