Spring Term and Easter
Posted on: 02/04/2024 @ 10:26am

World Book Day – it has again been a joy to work with the Yr 4 pupils of Heolycelyn, Hawthorn and Parc Lewis primary schools. The youngsters looked at the life and work of Clive Staples Lewis (C S Lewis) as he responded to his various experiences to write many books for both children and adults – perhaps ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ being one of his most famous ones. The children had opportunities to draw and/or write about a mythical creature, to create a ‘shield’ representing their life stories and to try writing their names with the ‘pen and ink’ which C S Lewis may have used for his writing.

 

Easter Cracked – we spent an afternoon (or morning) working with the Yr 6 pupils of the 3 local schools, looking at the accounts of the last week of Jesus’ life on earth. The children were split into groups to think about Palm Sunday, Passover and the Last Supper, Jesus’ trial and crucifixion as well as ‘meeting’ Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdalene. We also talked about how different people celebrate Easter each year and how the Church celebrates Communion (Eucharist, Mass ..) much more regularly than once a year.

 

Easter Activities Afternoon – On the Wednesday of Holy Week (Mar 27), we held an afternoon of activities and refreshments for children and their families. About 60 people joined in the fun – colourings, art scratching, treasure hunt, egg hunt, ‘throw the carrots to the rabbit’, name the bunny, biscuit decoration etc – as well as watching a short Easter video and taking home prizes etc. and a book explaining more about Easter.

 

Easter Day – after various celebrations of Holy Week in our different churches, it was wonderful for the 30 or so Christians from various churches who joined together at the Rocking Stone on Pontypridd Common at 6.30am to celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection. Rev Andrew McLaughlin led the short service and David Carr led the singing,

We then went back to our various churches to enjoy breakfast and our own Easter Morning Celebrations.

Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen Indeed!

 

Christmas 2023
Posted on: 01/04/2024 @ 7:19pm

We were pleased to be busy working with the Yr 2 children at the local schools on the Christmas Wrapped Up programme again in December. Heolycelyn and Hawthorn came to the church on the 15th and 20th respectively and we went to Parc Lewis school to present it on the 7th as we do not have the minibus any longer to transport them. The children very much enjoyed acting out the Christmas story, making Christmas cards and mince pies, and retelling the story to Luke, the puppet.

 

We also joined in with our regular Christmas activities:- Carol Service on the Green outside the shops at Hawthorn on the 16th; Carols by Candlelight at church on the 17th; Carol Singing around the streets of Hawthorn on the 18th and around the church on the 20th – many thanks to all who gave so generously towards Action for Children; our Christmas Morning Celebration led by Mrs Claire Hughes; and we welcomed in 2024 with a party ending with a short Watchnight Service over midnight.

 

Games Night - 1st November
Posted on: 14/11/2023 @ 10:07pm

During the October half term we decided to run a Games Night for local families. We were pleased to welcome 6 mums and 14 children. The children enjoyed playing several games  whilst people were arriving, then we had our meal - Jacket Potatoes or Pasta with Bolognaise, beans, tuna, cheese, salad etc. We had jelly and icecream and various other bits and pieces for dessert, then we sang and danced along to some childrens action songs on video. After this the children carried on with their games and we had a good chat together.

 

Annual Mission Week 2023
Posted on: 31/07/2023 @ 3:46pm

Annual Mission Week - July 2023

We praise God for a good week - the weather was ok, the children came along each morning and we were able to have the two afternoons down the field and two evenings at church with a good number of families joining us.

New for this year - we had lunch together at church at the end of Friday's Children's Club when the families joined us, we sang a few songs, some children were able to recite memory verses they had learnt and then we watched a video of the main story of the Bible in just 4 minutes - performed by Dai Woolridge a local poet and writer. We then enjoyed lunch together, a lovely ending to a great week.
 

This is the sheet which we handed out to the children at the end to remind them of the stories they heard and the verses they had learned.
 

 

 

Korean Prayer Mission - July 2023
Posted on: 31/07/2023 @ 3:40pm

What an amazing week we shared with Hope Church, Rhydyfelin as we welcomed 12 South Korean Christians to 'live' at our church for a week. Each evening they prayed from 7pm to midnight - that revival would come to Wales again and particularly to the churches in our area. The team had prepared a 45-minute 'assembly' explaining about their food, culture, connection to Wales and also presenting the Gospel of Jesus as a series of colours, which they took to Hawthorn Primary, Heolycelyn Primary, Maesycoed Primary and Parc Lewis Primary - the Taikwondo demonstration and the Musical Dance presentation were especially well received by the pupils. This assembly was also adapted for a Year 9 Class presentation at Cardinal Newman School.

They also visited St Luke's Church, Rhydyfelin; Bethel Baptist Church, Hawthorn; and the building which Hope Church are preparing to use - where they prayed with the church leaders and encouraged them.

On the Thursday evening, we joined the other two teams who were working in Pontypridd for a Praise and Prayer evening at Temple Baptist Church (if you look at Songs of Praise on Aug 20th, you may see something of this) and on the Saturday evening we joined again for a time of Worship in Ynysangharad Park. When they left Pontypridd on the Monday, we joined with the other four teams who had been working across South Wales for a evening of Celebration at Highfields Church in Cardiff - the highlight of which was when the Welsh young people present were called forward to pray for the next generation of the church in Wales.

 

Easter 2023
Posted on: 31/07/2023 @ 3:27pm

We have been able to share World Book Day with the Year 4 pupils at Parc Lewis, Heolycelyn and Hawthorn. It was also very special to share Easter Cracked with the Year 6 pupils at these three schools - some walked to the church and for the others we were able to go into the school - this presentation told the story of the last week of Jesus' earthly life before His Resurrection and then Ascension back to Heaven to be with His Father.

 

2022
Posted on: 31/07/2023 @ 3:19pm

CHRISTMAS 2022

We are delighted to have been able to share Christmas Wrapped Up with the Year 2 pupils at our local schools. This is a 90 min programme where the children act out the Nativity story to explain to a puppet what happened on that first Christmas, they create their own Christmas Card, make a Mince Pie and generally think about the real meaning of Christmas. We went in to Parc Lewis on Friday Dec 2nd, the pupils from Hawthorn walked to church on Thurs Dec 8th and we welcomed the pupils from Heolycelyn to church on the morning of Mon 19th December.

 

We had our Candlelit Carol Service on Dec 11th (to avoid the Football Final on the 18th) but unfortunately the weather was snowy and icy so only very few people braved the weather.

 

We spent a pleasant New Year's Eve together at church, finishing up with a short service to welcome in the New Year.

 

MISSION WEEK - July 24 -31

We had a great week this year! There were record numbers of children in the morning Kids Club - lots of new children, some of whose parents had been to the Mission or Urban Saints many years ago. We had two lovely afternoons down the field, again with good numbers of families.

 
The two evening events went well too - on Monday we had a warm buffet-type meal, a Ukranian family told us a bit about their life before they left Ukraine and the children enjoyed just running around together; on Thursday we had jacket pots/pasta with bolognaise, beans, cheese, tuna and salad,
 
Alun did a 'sketchboard' about how to live a full life, and we had a very successful Quiz Bingo which everyone enjoyed. The two Sunday morning services led by Alun, at the beginning and end of the week, did not have any 'extra' people, but were an encouraging and challenging time for us, especially on the 31st as we praised God for a very blessed week.

 

BBQ Saturday June 18th.

It was good to welcome people to this event, although due to the rain it turned out to be an indoor BBQ - food cooked in the oven and on the hob! Nevertheless, it was good to catch-up with people after a two year break on our Saturday evening events.

 

EASTER - 2022

On Easter Sunday morning we joined Christians from around the town at 6.30am on the Common to celebrate the fact that the tomb was empty on that first Easter. We went back to the church for breakfast at 8am, then we had a celebration at the church at 9.30am. Everyone who came along enjoyed these events, then went back home for a rest!

 

We were pleased to welcome Yr 6 from Hawthorn Primary on Weds Mar 23rd to present a programme called Easter Cracked, where the youngsters travel around the church finding out about

 

2021
Posted on: 31/07/2023 @ 3:16pm

Carol Singing - 2021

On Saturday (Dec 18) we enjoyed a lovely time joining with Bethel Baptist Hawthorn, St Luke's Rhydyfelin and lots of people from the local community to sing Carols around the Christmas Tree outside the shops on the Green at Hawthorn. This event was organised by the Hawthorn Neighbourhood Watch and it was very warmly appreciated by all who attended.

Last December, we decided to invest in a portable speaker to play music to accompany us on our Carol Singing. Unfortunately, because of lockdown, we had to cancel our ’nights out’, but we were still able to send a reasonable donation from our Christmas Day Collection to the work of Action for Children. We are hoping to be back out on the streets again this year on Mon 20th and Weds 22nd December.. 

We actually made it out around Hawthorn on Mon 20th Dec. It was a good time and a few new singers joined us. We collected almost £150 for Action for Children. Unfortunately Tim's family were isolating by the Weds and Howard and Penny were not well, so we were too few to go singing around Rhydyfelin on Weds 22nd - we just pushed the Hope for All magazines through the doors we were due to knock. We  pray that we may be back to normal by next December!! We were still able to send £320 to Action for Children this year - from our one Carol singing night and our Church Christmas Collections.

 

Christmas Wrapped Up - 2021

This year we were again able to run our  Christmas Wrapped Up activities for the year 2 pupils at the local schools. Hawthorn came along to the church, but because of no transport, we went into the hall at Parc Lewis. Unfortunately Heolycelyn were unable to join us this year.

 

Church Roof - Sept 2021 - Over the next few months we are having essential work done on the pine end section of the extension roof. In the New Year part of the ceilings came down in the kitchen and toilets. At last, it has been sorted out what needs to be done, but there may be some disruption in the use(?) of the kitchen and toilets whilst the work is being done. We have started up our regular weekly meetings (Weds eve and Thurs morn), but when all the work is finished we will hopefully be able to arrange one or two '.special' events to celebrate getting back into the building properly after such a long time of only partial use.

 

2021 - During the Summer, we were only running Sunday morning services, except for the week July 19 - 23, when we had a limited version of our regular Summer Mission Week. We thank God that we had lovely weather that week so that we were able to do many of the activities outdoors. The children enjoyed the morning activities and they came along with their parents to two afternoon organis

 

Covid19 News
Posted on: 08/07/2020 @ 9:06pm

2020 News

We were so sorry that we were not able to run our Mission Week this year – we really missed sharing this time with you all. 

 

We were all taken aback by this lockdown, but we believe that Jesus was not. We believe that He wants you to know that He is hurting as much as you are as He sees all the hardship we are suffering. He also wants you to know how much He loves you and how He wants to be a comfort and support to you.   

 

We missed being able to celebrate Easter at church this year, especially not being able to share Easter Cracked with the Year 6 pupils of our three local schools. A time when we remind ourselves how much Jesus suffered when He was on this earth, so that we can be forgiven of all the times when we make God sad by the bad things we say, do and think and the good things we don’t say, do and think.       

 

But we are really looking forward to the time when we will be able to open up the building again for our Urban Saints groups, Parent and Toddlers, Saturday evenings and hopefully for all of our Christmas events.  

 

Keep safe and well

 Keep an eye out on our Facebook page and 'Other Events' page for regular Bible verses and messages of hope.

 

If we can help in any way please contact us:

        Facebook    @rhydmethodist

         Tel:-          01443 205682

        e-mail:-     secretary@rhydyfelinmethodistchurch.org.uk

 

Congratulations
Posted on: 25/09/2019 @ 12:29pm

 Congratulations to Kath and Simon on the birth of their baby daughter on the 28th of August, Lydia Catrin weighed in at 6lbs 6ozs. Like all other babies she has taken over control of the household and Kath and Simon are adjusting to this big change. They have already been to church a few times and we are looking forward to her becoming a full part of the church.