Eirian Kelly

Minister’s Message – August 15, 2021

August 15, 2021

One of the most famous – and most fascinating – figures of the First World War was T.E. Lawrence, known of course as “Lawrence of Arabia”. Although he was bitterly ashamed of the way in which the Arabs had risen in revolt against the Turks as a result of fraudulent British promises of self-rule, Lawrence led them in a guerrilla campaign which revolutionized the art of war. His principal target was the Hedjaz Railway, the lifeline of the Ottoman Empire; some of the abandoned locomotives still lie where they were sabotaged over a century ago.

Minister's Message

Minister’s Message – August 8, 2021

August 9, 2021

One of the accusations made against the first Christians was that they were cannibals. It was said that they gathered in secret and took part in abominable rites which included the eating of human flesh and the drinking of blood. Both the Romans and the Jews were horrified, especially one writer who alleged that a baby would be laid on the altar, ritually killed and then torn from limb to limb before being eaten. I’m sure that, if these accusations were being made today, the BBC would carry out some investigative journalism, social media would be full of horror stories and questions would be asked in Parliament!

Holiday Bible Club

Holiday Bible Club 2021

August 7, 2021August 8, 2021

Calling all ye Landlubbers!

We will be running a face-to-face Holiday Bible Club this year for children aged 5-11 and in primary school. Places are more limited this year than usual and we will be running for 3 mornings rather than 5.

Contact us to find out more: youthclub@christchurchunitedcardiff.org.uk or via our Facebook page: @ChristchurchUnitedChurch.

Book now to avoid disappointment as many spaces have already been filled!

Minister's Message

Minister’s Message – August 1st, 2021

August 2, 2021

To most people, Chorleywood is just a leafy suburb of outer London, a stop on the Metropolitan Line into Baker Street. But it is also an extremely important place in the history of bread-making. For, exactly 60 years ago, three scientists working for the British Baking Industries Research Association there invented a process which revolutionised the baking industry. Now, I can’t pretend to understand how it works. But it apparently allows bakers to use lower-protein wheat and speeds up the time required to make bread, which now takes about three-and-a-half hours from the basic flour to a sliced and packaged loaf. This is a highly-mechanised process which can only be used in large factories.

Minister's Message

Minister’s Message – Sunday July 25th, 2021

July 25, 2021

“The problem with Chinese food is that it fills you up nicely but lets you down later. Halfway through the evening you start to feel hungry again”. I wonder if you’ve ever said that, or heard anyone else saying it? It’s probably not true, anyway – it’s more likely that eating Chinese food is simply a different culinary experience to fish and chips, roast beef with all the trimmings, pizza or chicken tikka masala.

Minister's Message

Minister’s Message – Sunday July 18th, 2021

July 18, 2021

I wonder if you’ve ever heard about the “Right to Disconnect”? It’s a campaign being waged by “Prospect”, the trade union for scientists, civil servants and other professionals. They claim that remote working has led to people working for longer each day, which increases their risk of stress and burnout and makes it harder for them to draw a clear line between ‘work’ and ‘leisure’ time. The union is calling for the government to give employees a legally binding “right to disconnect” which would ban bosses from routinely emailing or calling their staff outside set working hours. It could even lead to messages sent at these times being automatically deleted in order to deter off-duty staff from constantly checking their inboxes.

Minister's Message

Minister’s Message – Sunday July 11th, 2021

July 11, 2021

I’m sure we’ve all made promises which we’ve regretted and have come back to haunt us. You know the sort of thing I mean: there’s that boring couple you met on holiday and rashly invited for lunch “if they’re happen to be in the area”; there’s the offer of a car and driving lessons dangled before your son or daughter if they do well in their A-levels; there’s even the threat that “we won’t go to the pantomime if you’re naughty” which we might make to a small child, even though we’ve already bought the tickets. What do we do if that couple does show up, or our teenager excels in their exams, or if that toddler keeps on having its tantrums? We may feel we want to break our promise – but we’ve given our word. To go back on it may seem to be sensible, but we don’t want people to think that we’re weak or can’t be trusted. So we take a deep breath, put on a brave smile, and keep the promise we’ve made.

Minister's Message

Minister’s Message – Sunday July 4th, 2021

July 4, 2021

Although the Scottish actor Richard Wilson had done a lot of work on stage and screen – notably as the rock band manager in the drama “Tutti Frutti” – he was relatively unknown to most people until 1990. For that was when the series “One Foot in the Grave” began, starring Wilson as the irascible character Victor Meldrew. Wilson had initially turned down the part, thinking that at 53 he was too young to play the 60-year-old Meldrew; but it brought him national recognition. The series ran for over 40 episodes until Wilson decided that he “was getting a bit fed up of trying to find ways to be angry”. In the poignant final episode, Victor Meldrew is killed in a hit-and-run car accident.

Minister's Message

Minister’s Message – Sunday June 27th, 2021

June 27, 2021

One of the biggest differences between men and women is the way they behave when they’re ill – that’s what Moira, my wife says, so I dare not argue! According to her, men get a little snuffle of a cold (but call it ’flu), behave as if they’re dying, take themselves off to bed with a hot toddy, and expect to be waited on hand and foot by their loving wives. Women, on the other hand, can catch both malaria and typhoid while they’re suffering from a broken arm and a severe migraine; yet they grit their teeth, get the children ready for school, do a full day’s work (complete with shopping on the way home), cook the evening meal and generally carry on as normal. Well, this picture is clearly a stereotype perpetuated by women in order to demonstrate their moral superiority over men. So it pains me to say that it might, just possibly, contain an element of truth!

Minister's Message

Minister’s Message – Sunday June 13th, 2021

June 13, 2021June 14, 2021

Ground Elder – otherwise known as Goutweed, English Masterwort, Bishop’s Weed or Snow-in-the-Mountain – is a plant that you really don’t want to have in your garden. True, its tender but pungent-tasting leaves are edible and were used during the Middle Ages as a spring vegetable, especially in soup. It has also been used to treat gout and arthritis, acts as a mild sedative and has a laxative effect. But ground elder, which can grow to a height of about a metre, is also a thug and a pest. For it grows from underground stems or rhizomes which spread through the soil, sucking the nutrients out of it. It spreads rapidly, crowding out other plants. And it is almost impossible to eradicate: you can try to dig it out but a new plant will grow from even the tiniest fragment of rhizome that’s left in the ground. In other words, it is a persistent and invasive species.

Author: <span>Eirian Kelly</span>

Calling all ye Landlubbers!