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Join us on Saturday, May 9th at our Spring Fair from 11am to 1pm. Selection of stalls and games including cakes, books, pocket money toys, crafts and gifts and lots more. Join us for a cuppa and refreshments.
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Bible reading: 2 Peter 1:16-21.
Message.
The White Queen remarked: “I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.”
“I can’t believe that!”, said Alice.
“Can’t you?”, the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes”.
Alice laughed. “It’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things”.
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”.
Did you recognise that? It’s from “Alice Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll.
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Bible reading: Luke 24:1-12.
Message.
“Do not allow the testimony of women to be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their gender … as it is probable that they may not tell the truth, either out of hope of gain or fear of punishment”.
Those aren’t (you’ll be pleased to hear) my words; they were written by the first century Jewish historian, whose aim was to justify Judaism to cultured Romans. Along the way he provided the earliest independent reference to Jesus and also wrote about “the brother of Jesus, called Christ, whose name was James”. Josephus is clearly a useful person for us to know about, but he did seem to have a problem with women – probably because he wanted to make his Jewish culture palatable to the macho-minded Romans.
Read more “Minister’s Message – Easter Day 2026”
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Message.
I wonder how many of us shut our eyes while we’re watching the news on television? I do, and it’s not necessarily because I’m nodding off. No; it’s because I cannot bear to see many of the horrific scenes that are shown. Quite apart from the tragic consequences of earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters, we have seen so many scenes of warfare: apartment blocks – peoples’ homes – toppled in a single blast, hospitals amazingly still treating the maimed and blinded in the most appalling conditions, the pathetic queues of people in cars, lorries and donkey-carts laden with possessions seeking to find a place which might just be a little safer … you’ve all seen them, you don’t need me to spell out the details. What I find most chilling of all are the aircraft cockpit videos: we might see a lorry trundling along a road or a small boat chugging across the ocean when – wham! – it is obliterated. One has to remind oneself that it’s not just equipment or hardware that’s been destroyed; we are seeing human lives being wiped out. It is, of course, good to know what’s going on in our world: but should we be watching this as we munch our dinner, or is that slightly obscene?
Read more “Minister’s Message – Good Friday 2026”
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Bible reading: Matthew 21:1-11.
Message.
Demonstrations, marches and protests seem to be a common feature of life today – but perhaps that’s nothing new. Here in Wales we had the Newport Chartist Rising of 1839, which sadly led to the death of up to two dozen demonstrators and the arrest and transportation of the movement’s leaders to Tasmania. Nearly a century later, in 1936, about 200 men or, as they called themselves, “Crusaders”, marched from Jarrow in the north-east of England to London, taking a petition to the British government which sought the re-establishment of industry in the town following the closure of its main shipyard.
Read more “Minister’s Message – Palm Sunday 2026”