Coffee and Chat Afternoons
Please join us at our Macmillan Coffee Afternoon on Tuesday, September 26th at 2.00pm. A warm welcome to everyone to enjoy a cuppa, cake and fellowship. Donations in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Minister's Message
Bible Reading: Matthew 18:21-35.
I’ve never been to St Gwynno’s church in the village of Vaynor. It’s a quiet, rural place within the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, yet only about three miles, as the crow flies, from the industrial world of Merthyr Tydfil. In the churchyard there is a huge gravestone, reputed to weigh ten tons and surrounded by railings. It’s the last resting place of Robert Thompson Crawshay, who inherited his family’s Cyfartha ironmaking business after his brother drowned in the River Severn.
Read more “Minister’s Message – September 17, 2023”
Minister's Message
Bible reading: Matthew 16:13-28.
John McEnroe was one of the greatest male tennis players of his day. He won seven Grand Slam titles including three at Wimbledon and was No.1 in the world for 170 weeks. Today he is a respected senior commentator on the game, but back in 1981 he was just 22 years old and known as known as “Superbrat” because of his fiery temper. For many people he has always been defined by one brief moment during that summer, when he argued with the umpire over a line call and said, “You cannot be serious!”. He was fined £750 and narrowly escaped disqualification. In later life he said, “I’d call it a mixed blessing but more positive than negative, ironically. it was the only time I said it in my 15-year career; then all of a sudden when I played on the Seniors’ tour, I got paid a bonus if I said it!”
Read more “Minister’s Message – September 3, 2023”
Minister's Message
Bible reading: Matthew 15:21-28.
When I was a child, playing “Cowboys and Indians” was all the rage – probably fuelled by Wild West comics and television programmes. We loved to dress up in cowboy clothes or Indian feathered head-dresses, we’d brandish (and shoot) our cap guns and bows and arrows. And, if we couldn’t play outside, there were always model cowboy and Indian figures to arrange on the kitchen table – although the horses had an annoying habit of falling over! It was pretty innocent fun.
Read more “Minitser’s Message – August 20, 2023”
Minister's Message
Bible reading: Matthew 14:22-34.
There’s an old children’s hymn – some of you will know it – which goes like this: “Jesus’ hands were kind hands, doing good to all; healing pain and sickness, blessing children small; washing tired feet and saving those who fall: Jesus’ hands were kind hands, doing good to all”. I’m sure that the line about “healing pain and sickness” makes us immediately think of Jesus’ miracles, such as enabling lame people to walk, giving sight to those who could not see, healing a woman who had a persistent bleed, curing those with leprosy or other disfiguring skin conditions, even restoring life to people who had died. All these actions weren’t just signs that Jesus was the Son of God; they also demonstrated his care for people. For the folk he touched weren’t just cured medically but “made whole” and brought back into the mainstream of society which had often shunned them in the past.
Read more “Minister’s Message – August 13, 2023”
Minister's Message
Bible reading: Matthew 14:13-21.
I can’t remember when I last ate at McDonald’s – it may have been when our son Alastair was still a child. Although I know that many people love tucking into a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder with Cheese while their children enjoy a Happy Meal (they must do, otherwise there wouldn’t be 40,275 branches around the world), I dislike the whole experience and certainly wouldn’t call their outlets “restaurants”. To be honest, I prefer the chaos and hilarity of the Maelfa fish bar!
Read more “Minister’s Message – August 6, 2023”
Minister's Message
Bible reading: Romans 8:18-27.
I’ve never found it easy to pray. Monks and nuns seem to spend entire days in fasting, prayer and meditation, John Wesley rose long before dawn so he could spend several hours in prayer before his busy day of ministry, Jesus sometimes went off to isolated places so he could spend an entire night praying to his Father. But I struggle: I soon find my mind drifting, I start repeating myself (or, alternatively, running out of words), or else I simply drop off to sleep. If you want to know what a good prayer life is like, don’t look at me! – although I do try.
Read more “Minister’s Message – July 30, 2023”
General
Thanks to all who have donated to the Defibrillator Fundraising Appeal. We will be giving a blessing for the newly installed defibrillator and a huge thank you to the community which has supported it at this coffee morning at the church hall on Saturday, August 5th at 10am.
Minister's Message
Bible reading: Isaiah 44:6-20.
Every Sunday, millions of Christian around the world, perhaps using thousands of different languages, say these words as they recite the Apostles’ Creed in their worship; “I believe in God”. To be honest, most of them probably take the familiar words for granted and are unlikely to pause and think about them: they are simply the introduction to this great and ancient declaration of faith. (The complications come later, when they get to the bits about Jesus and the Holy Spirit). Yet those four simple words, which we find so basic and obvious, are in fact quite remarkable. Even today, huge numbers of religious or believing people would find them very strange.
Read more “Minister’s Message – July 23, 2023”
Minister's Message
Parable of the Sower, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
I doubt if many people these days remember Kenneth Horne, the radio entertainer. His first great success was “Much Binding in the Marsh” which began in 1947; he then went on to star in “Beyond Our Ken and “Round the Horne”. These were very daring programmes for the period, packed full of suggestive lines and doubles-entendres. Somehow they managed to evade the BBC censors – perhaps Horne’s posh accent lulled them into a false sense of security!
Read more “Minister’s Message – July 16, 2023”