Saturday 9^th June 2018
Sandfields Methodist Church,
Western Avenue, Port Talbot, SA12 7NF

Come and learn this exciting and enjoyable musical by Roger Jones, based on the story of Mary Jones and her Bible, which inspired the founding of the Bible Society. Learn and rehearse during the afternoon and then perform it in the evening at Sandfields Methodist Church. Rehearsals begin at 1.30pm, to be followed by a performance at 7.00pm. Even if you have never sung in a choir before, come and have a go. It will be a great experience. Please bring a food contribution towards a faith tea. It costs just £3 for adults and £1 for under 18s to take part.

If you cannot take part, then come and enjoy the performance at night. “Greater Than Gold” will be led by Helen Pollard and a team from Christian Music Ministries. For further details, please contact Chris or Viv Gray on 01639 644404.

For those who enjoy listening to Radio 4 early in the morning, the Synod Chair, Rev. Dr. Stephen  Wigley, will be leading Prayer for the Day at 5.43am for the week beginning Saturday 21st April. (For those who don’t rise quite so early, these prayers can also be heard using the BBC iPlayer.)

This is a day that is looking at fostering positive identity and mental wellbeing in the Methodist Church in Wales. If you are associated with the Methodist Church in Wales, you are very welcome. Please ensure that you pre-book a place by emailing
bennettg@methodistchurch.org.uk.

8th May 2018, 9.30am – Trinity Methodist Church, Prestatyn, North Wales

13th June, 9.30am – Capel y Nant, Clydach, Swansea, South Wales

This Sunday’s Celebration service on BBC Radio Wales at 7.30am on March 18th will be led by the Synod Chair, Rev. Dr. Stephen Wigley and will take as its theme, ‘the Victory of the Cross’.

Another successful Come and Sing took place at Whitchurch Methodist Church in Cardiff in February.

More than 120 singers joined Ben Pinnow as the musical director and Ben Teague as the organist with the St Woolos Synfonia, in rehearsing and presenting the Coronation Anthem, Zadoc the Priest by G. H. Handel and the Gloria in D by A Vivaldi.

The guest soloists for the day were Sarah Jane Griffiths, soprano and Matthew Farrell, counter tenor. After almost four hours of rehearsal and a very enjoyable afternoon tea, the performance was attended by a large appreciative audience. The church was again filled to capacity for a musical event that it hopes will be repeated in the future.

The popularity of the Come and Sing events is growing rapidly and each one welcomes all singers of any ability to come along for a very enjoyable day and the opportunity to sing with a large choir.

Further to an invitation from Synod Cymru to have exploratory conversations about the possibility of creating one Synod of the Methodist Church in Wales which was shared with members of Y Cyngor in November, the Wales Synod Leadership Team recommended, and the Synod Policy Committee meeting on 10th February unanimously agreed that we enter into such exploratory conversations.  Further information will be shared with the SPC as conversations develop, but in the meantime should anyone have any comments, they are asked to contact Mr. Graham Illingworth, the Assistant Synod Secretary.

Dear Friends,

‘How lovely on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news…’ In this season of Advent we will be hearing again those wonderful prophetic passages from Isaiah and others, offering ‘tidings of comfort and joy’ and proclaiming the good news of God’s coming. I can resonate with this as I do a fair bit of travelling across hillsides myself at this time, and the Beacons, the Berwyns and Snowdonia itself become very familiar – in all kinds of weather.

However, I’m conscious it’s not always good news that I hear while on my travels. There’s anxiety about Brexit and concern about the future of the United Kingdom let alone relations with Europe; there’s the challenge of Climate change and the need for alternative economic models to secure a stable future for our planet; and the threat of violence seems all around us, from local acts of terror to the prospect of wider conflicts. It’s easy to be anxious and worried.

I’m also conscious that I’m not always a bearer of good news, and that in many of the various meetings I attend, we face some serious challenges. That’s true as we reflect on the picture of the Church offered by our statistical returns and consider how to respond in terms of ‘Our Calling’. It’s also very evident in terms of the stationing situation, and I know we’re going to face some real challenges in the coming years in terms of the deployment of our ministers.

But it’s out of a similar background that the prophets offered their word of hope and promise. They saw in the events around them the possibility of new beginnings. For Isaiah, an imperial power struggle led to the promise of restoration for God’s people. Perhaps in our own time, an internal coup may yet offer new hope of freedom for the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe.

For Advent speaks of a God always ready to do a new thing in the most unlikely settings. One of the most encouraging events I attended recently was the ‘Re-imagine Church’ conference at St Julian’s in Newport. There on a grey Saturday in November, more than 150 people from across South Wales (and I know there was a similar event in Prestatyn) gathered together to share their hopes and dreams for a different kind and way of being church. It seems to me that this is a pointer to the same hope of which the prophets speak, to the God of surprises at work in all our apparent crises, wanting to make them opportunities for his Kingdom to break in.

May I wish you every blessing for this Advent and a joyful Christmas to come,    

Stephen