Churches of St Fagan, St Luke & St James, Aberdare

                Aberdare St Fagan Parochial Church Council Annual Report for 2021   It is fair to say that the year 2021 was a very mixed one in the life of our parish. On the one hand, it was another challenging year following the extraordinary events of 2020. For much of the year, Covid restrictions were still in place, which put severe limits on what we were able to do. Despite this, the life of our parish continued, and in many areas, flourished. On the other hand, and as always, there were moments of great joy and celebration, especially when the remaining restrictions were lifted in the latter part of the year.   The year began in a mood of some gloominess. In response to rising Covid rates, the Welsh Government imposed a third lockdown just before Christmas 2020. This meant that schools would remain closed after the Christmas holidays, and non-essential retail, pubs, cafés, restaurants, gyms and other indoor services had to close....

  Welsh Disestablishment: Comments and chronology .                          Hywel J Davies When the Church of Ireland celebrated its 150 th anniversary in November 2019, it was done with aplomb and public participation. However, it has been the misfortune of the Church in Wales that when it sought to celebrate its centenary in 2020, its plans, like so many this year, were laid low by the Covid-10 pandemic. For the record, it is worth noting that the Church in Wales had a programme read to go. In April 2020, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was to visit Wales, as he did Ireland last year, to highlight the celebrations. On June 7 th all six of the Welsh cathedrals were to host a liturgical commemoration. At the National Eisteddfod, to be held at Tregaron in August, there were plans for a panel-led discussion, which would have included the ...

Here is the second in the series of magazine articles on the Nicene Creed. This one was originally published in November 2019. In this article we begin looking at the second, and largest, section, which considers God the Son, Jesus Christ. The lines of the Creed I’m looking at are as follows:   We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.   Whenever we read or say these lines of the Creed, it is as though we are going back in time to the controversies that raged within the Church in the 300s AD. I said in the introductory article in September that a key reason for the writing of the Nicene Creed was to combat the heresy of Arius. He taught that Jesus was begotten (or created) by God in the beginning. The teaching made Jesus a created being (the most pre-eminent being, to be sure, but still a ...

As promised, here is the first in my series of articles on the Nicene Creed, first published in the parish magazine in September 2019. This month I begin a new series of monthly articles for the parish magazine. In the past, I have looked at the letters of the New Testament and the Lord’s Prayer. Now my attention turns to the Nicene Creed, the statement of faith that we recite every Sunday during the Eucharist. Clearly the Creed is important, as it sets out what we as Christians believe. But how often (if ever) do we stop to actually consider what it is we are saying, what the words mean, and why they are important? It will be my aim to do this in this series of articles, as we examine the Creed section by section.   In this first article, I want to set the scene by considering why we have a Creed in the first place. Who wrote it, and when? Who decided what should be in it? Why do we recite it during the Eucharist?    In the early days of the Church, there was a lot ...

Welcome to the Parish of Aberdare St Fagan blog! I am Fr Richard Green, the Vicar of the parish, and you will probably be reading quite a bit from me on here, but I'm hoping other members of our parish may contribute as well. The idea for having a blog came to me when I found myself - quite by surprise - actually missing writing the monthly Vicar's letter for the parish magazine! Normally we print a magazine once a month, but publication has been suspended during lockdown. Despite sometimes feeling anxious as the deadline approaches each month, I actually quite enjoy doing the Vicar's Letter. But when lockdown started, and the magazine stopped, I did allow myself to think "well at least that's one less thing to do!". But then, as I've said, I started to miss it. Some while back I adopted the practice of doing a "series of series" of articles, if you get my drift. So, I would choose a topic and do a series of articles on that theme over several mo...