Sunday morning saw Deacon Laura leading us in our Harvest Festival Service.
We gave thanks to God for all we have been given and to those who provide, while also considering the inequalities in our world and the need to care for its resources.
The Church family brought gifts of food and toiletries which will be taken to the Trinity Centre for distribution to those in need.
The lessons were read by Emmie and Avril, (one about 10 times older than the other!).
Laura then asked us to consider the ingredients needed to make bread (as seen amongst the items on the communion table), and to see how small things can make a difference to lives and to our world.
The Church family at Conway Road Methodist enjoyed an action packed afternoon on Sunday 7th November looking at the story of Noah.
During the afternoon we made exploding bees out of balloons, origami frogs that refused to jump and bread dough hedgehogs. We installed an incredible bug mansion in the garden where all sorts of bugs will be able to live – definitely a five star residence! We heard the story of Noah and his Ark and during the afternoon finger painted a rainbow to go on the hall notice board to remind us all of God’s promise.
This was all followed by a sumptuous tea – all in all a great afternoon!
As of January 18th I shall be on sabbatical for three months. It is a requirement of the Methodist Church that ministers should have such a sabbatical in the tenth year of their ministry and every seven years thereafter. This represents an opportunity for study and reflection as well as being an opportunity to chill away from the demands of normal ministry. I hope to chill by reading some decent literature and history whilst cheering Manchester United all the way to winning the Premier league. I hope to engage with a few organisations that bring hope to our communities although the extent of that will at least in part be dependent on what happens regarding the pandemic. My main activity will be to produce a piece of work looking at hope in a time when the world is traumatised. That will be shared with you on my return in April.
As I am going to be local I may bump into some of you and have a chat, However, I am expected to keep away from church activities and considerations. I shall be posting on the sabbatical from time to time through videos at https://www.facebook.com/reverendpaulmartin/videos/ ,
In the meantime, my colleagues Alexis Mahoney and Alana Lawrence will be kindly attending to any needs in our church whilst of course caring for their own churches.
Conway Road Methodist Church opened its doors for Sunday worship for the first time since the start of the lock down on 23rd August.
We had a lively all age worship led by our minister Rev. Paul Martin who spoke to us about the continued relevance of the teachings in the Bible even in today’s high speed, technicolour world.
It was great to be back and wonderful to meet as a community again. God bless you all!
On Sunday afternoon, 15th March, Conway Road Church family got together for a fun filled afternoon of activities, stories and songs. There were sunflowers to plant, flowers to make, seeds to collect and plant at home and bread to bake – great fun for all.
We then all went up into the church to put our beautifully constructed flowers in the Church for all to enjoy, followed by a grand rendition of the parable of the sower from our minister, Rev. Paul Martin. We then sang an action packed version of ‘this little guiding light of mine’ to finish.
Then downstairs for the usual afternoon tea – which was fabulous as ever.
A brilliant afternoon enjoyed by all ages – many thanks to all who helped to make it such a lovely event.
Conway Road Church celebrated its 150th birthday on 1st December 2019. A fabulous year ended with a family party for all ages in the Church hall. Younger members enjoyed energetic family games while others took time to chat and catch up.
The afternoon ended with an afternoon tea and a special celebration cake – cut by some of our longest serving members, one of which has actually been coming to the Church for over eighty years – awesome!
On 6th July, the Lutheran congregation met at Conway Road to say goodbye to Pastor Albrecht Köstlin-Büürma and his wife Harmine. Pastor Albrecht is retiring and they are returning to Germany.
We
have very much enjoyed sharing worship and social events with all our German
friends and we wish Albrecht and Harmine a very happy and blessed retirement.
On Saturday 13th July Conway Road Methodist Church went to Barry Island. Attended by 13 children and 17 adults.
We hired a large beach hut with electricity and all arrived
in the morning for lunch. It was a
lovely warm day, with plenty of tea, sandwiches and home baked cakes.
There were two groups of the people, those who were sat in close proximity to the kettle in the beach hut and those who set up camp on the beach with the kids.
The children decided it was important to rid the area of all stones, so they all set about digging and filling buckets full of rocks. They had a system and everyone had a job to do – very inventive to watch.
There were quite a few swimmers amongst us who braved the
water and of course commented on how it was ‘not that bad once your in.’
Then there was rounders.
Some of those from the beach hut left their teacups and came to join us
on the beach. Gracie took position of
bowler and we all had 3 bats each, at first it was a little chaotic with many
children not clear on the rules. Coco
wanted to run from 1st to 4th base missing out 2nd
and 3rd base. While Morgan wanted
to keep on batting & just running, when he should have been fielding. Once we had got into the swing of it, we all
enjoyed the game, but we weren’t quite sure which team won.
Some of the children found the spraying jets and boulders,
they jumped from one to the next trying not to get too wet from the spray,
which was to no avail. This warranted
another costume change, it was a good job all the parents seemed to have
brought their children at least 3 outfits to wear.
There was a lot of laughter and everyone enjoyed themselves,
and of course at the end of a long day of fun in the sun a cold ice cream was
enjoyed by all. Lets hope the church
Barry Island trip becomes an annual event.
On Sunday 30th June Conway Road Methodist Church hit the park.
There we had a wonderful bring and share picnic, played a hard fought game of rounders, (goodness you’re a competitive bunch). followed by a vast array of races – everything from the sack race to wearing a bean bag on your head.
Congratulations to all the winners and hope you’ve warmed up now Heulwen.
Conway Road Methodist 