Parish News Summary

We are all saddened at the death of Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh on 9 April at the age of 99. We received the following message from the Diocesan office:

Bishop June Osborne expressed sadness on hearing the news of the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. On behalf of the Diocese of Llandaff, Bishop June offers her sincere condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and will keep members of the Royal Family in her prayers.

Bishop June asks that parishes pray for the Royal Family at this time and give thanks for long public service of the Duke of Edinburgh.

A prayer on the death of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh on behalf of the Diocese of Llandaff

Loving God and heavenly father,

we give you thanks for the life and service of Prince Philip,

for his love of our country and his devotion to duty.

At this time we especially pray for Her Majesty the Queen and for the Royal Family in their loss.

As we entrust him now to your love and mercy , strengthen our faith in your eternal kingdom of justice, hope and peace.

Amen.

Sadly, it is not possible in these restricted Covid times to open a local Book of Condolence. All who would like to do express their condolences are asked to do so via the National Book of Condolence which can be accessed via this site: https://www.royal.uk/books-condolence .

Special prayers will be said on Sunday, 11 April to give thanks for the life of Prince Philip and the tenor bell of Christ Church will be rung on its own, half-muffled, at 12 noon Saturday 10 April for about five minutes.

At noon in Christ Church, Radyr, on Tuesday, 23rd March the church bells were rung and a service held by Rev’d Vicki and Rev’d Belinda to remember those who have died in the last year. Candles were lit to commemorate all those known to have died in the Parish. .

On Wednesday, 16th September, Reverend Gareth Rayner-Williams was Licened as Assistant Priest in the North-West Ministry Area.  Gareth has provided the following introduction:

Hi everybody.  I’m really looking forward to getting to know you over the coming weeks..

Just a very brief introduction to say that I am from North Wales originally, from a little village called Llysfaen on the coast.  I came to faith in my teenage years and began attending church, on my own, from about the age of 12. After school I headed off to university to study economics politics and theology and followed this with a postgraduate degree In Political theology at Hull University. I trained for the ordained ministry at Westcott House Cambridge and, after curacies in North Wales, came south to work at the University of South Wales. I’ve also worked at the theological college in Llandaff and was for a short time vicar of Roath. I then retrained as a secondary school teacher of religious education and was Head of RE at Hawthorn High School in Pontypridd and then Assistant Head at The Bishop of Llandaff High School where I might well have taught your sons and daughters. Currently, I work at Saint Teilo’s High School as the community priest and a member of SLT.

I’m married to Darren who works for Apple as a Business and People consultant for London and the South East.  We live in Llandaff with our three year old Dachshund, Gideon. We have three adult sons: James who is a counsellor, Benjamin who is an assistant manager of a pub in Cardiff and Samuel who is doing his Masters degree in music at Kings College London.

If you were to ask me what I thought the church was all about, I’d say it was about loving each other into holiness and kindness and helping to make the world a more just place for others.

Thank you for your kind welcome and I look forward to all that lies ahead for us in the coming years.

(Gareth can be contacted at G.rayner-williams@stteilos.com)

Welcome to The Parish of Radyr Online Open Gardens. Please help us raise funds for Christ Church, Radyr and St John’s, Danescourt

The Radyr & Morganstown May Festival normally has a lovely Open Gardens event which shows off some lovely gardens and also raises money for Charity. We hope that that event, organised by Gill Evans, is able to be run later in the year. However, in the meantime, Vicki asked us to take pictures of our gardens and interesting features so that we can enjoy seeing them digitally whilst we are socially distanced from each other.

Since the closure of our churches we have seen a significant loss of income both from the hiring of our halls and from collections received at regular church services as well as baptisms, weddings and funerals. Whilst our income has fallen (especially at Easter) the costs of caring for our historic buildings and serving the wider community remains.

During the summer we usually hold a parish fete and this helps us to give to local schools and charities. Please consider making a donation to The Parish of Radyr to enable us to continue our work both now and when our churches open.

If you are able to help us by giving to Radyr Parish funds please click on the

GoFundMe link

which will take you to a donation page. Every donation made will make a difference.

Do have a browse through these pictures.  And, if you would like to add to them, please send further contributions to parish@radyr.org.uk.

Parish Gardens

View this gallery on Flickr

Following the announcement on 23/03/2020 by the Prime Minister all churches are now closed to slow the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID19)

There will be no weddings or baptisms in church until further notice.

Funerals will be conducted at the graveside or in crematoriums, but only in line with the Prime Minister’s Statement.

To assist those who wish to help you deepen your faith and remain part of the wider church community at this time the Church in Wales is building a set of resources for those staying at home.

Our prayers and care for the parish continue

It has been the most extraordinary week. Many of us are confined to our own accommodation, church services have ceased and panic buying at some shops has made some essentials difficult to get hold of. The only good news is that, at the time of writing, it has stopped raining and the sun is shining.

• 2020-03-21_Vicars-letter

Those on the Parish electoral role should have already received this by e-mail. If you haven’t please contact parish@radyr.org.uk to be added to the distribution list.

Representatives of the Parish have been working with members of the R&M Community Council, the RMA and other interested parties to discuss our community response to the Coronavirus crisis.

Clearly, there is a limit to what a Community Council can do, but we all want to do what we can.

As a first step, we decided to publish postcards to help those people who are able to offer to look after their neighbours if they’re self-isolating.

The Community Council are arranging to print our Radyr and Morganstown postcards as quickly as they can – and will keep you updated on the supply and distribution through www.radyr.org.uk and local Social Media channels. The first small batch were ready last night (18 March 2020) and so some should now be in circulation.

We will let you know where you can pick up a supply of our cards, to distribute to your neighbours. We want to keep this very local – so we will encourage people to take no more than around 20 cards – and post them to people who live nearby. In this way, those who are self-isolating can be confident that they will be dealing with people they can trust.

A short while later, we will set up a system to enable those who haven’t received a card to let us know. We can then try to find volunteers in your area. At this point we are hoping that those who are able within our Parish community will assist further by enlarging the areas they are prepared to support.

In the meantime, the postcard is as shown below (click on it to enlarge).

If you want to crack on with this, you can visit the Community Council website to download the card, which you can print out.  The card includes instructions for use.   Bilingual and Welsh versions are avaiable on the Community Council Website.

Update 17 March 2020

In accordance with the latest guidance from the Bench of Bishops in Wales, all church services and gatherings for public worship are no longer taking place. This includes our regular Sunday services and weekday services.

We are awaiting further information from the government, which will help us all to measure and reflect upon the gravity and potential duration of this cessation. However, given the information we have available to us at present, the ceasing of public worship and gathering is the prudent course of action.

The full guidance can be seen at – https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/clergy-and-members/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance/

To assist those who wish to help you deepen your faith and remain part of the wider church community at this time the Church in Wales is building a growing set of resources for those staying at home including an address from Bishop June bringing compassion and hope in uncertain times.

Statement from 14 March 2020

In recent days,  we  have all viewed the  escalating coronavirus outbreak with growing alarm .We  have read our Governments advice about washing our hands and being sensible if we are unwell as we enter the delay phase of  our country’s response.

We are concerned to limit any risks to our congregation. To this end, whilst following Church in Wales guidelines our normal Holy Eucharist Services are to continue with sensible precautions e.g. Not offering the peace physically or using the Chalice.

In addition, to minimise any risks to all of us but especially the young, elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions we are cancelling Sunday Club, Confirmation Classes, Bumps a Daisy, Lenten Discussion groups and Lenten lunches. Also we will not be offering refreshments after any of our Services.

We have not taken this decision lightly and hope the situation will improve soon and we can get back to our usual activities.

Margaret Smart & Cheryl Evans

Churchwardens

Our five year strategy to grow faith and transform our church communities.

Because faith matters.

The vision of the Diocese of Llandaff (of which the Parish of Radyr is a part) is that all may encounter and know the love of God through truth, beauty and service, living full and rich lives through faith.

Transforming lives through living and bearing witness to Jesus Christ is our calling. We seek to do this in a Diocese that is strong, confident, alive and living in faith, engaged with the realities of life and serving others in His name.

Our profound belief in the sovereignty of God means that we will look to continue Christ’s church and mission by telling the joyful story of Jesus, growing the Kingdom of God by empowering all to participate and building the future in hope and love.

Our shared aims

• Telling a joyful story.
• Growing the Kingdom of God.
• Building our capacity for good.

Find out more

You can read more about the Diocesan Strategic Vision and our combined progress towards it at – https://llandaff.churchinwales.org.uk/diocesan-strategic-vision/

Or for a deeper background download the Strategic Vision Document

The Parish of Radyr PCC will be bringing their ideas for the local interpretation of this vision to the Parish Easter Vestry on Sunday 5 April 2020 at 19.00 in the New School Rooms.

Diocesan Vision Prayer

Today (6 March 2019) we have received updated guidance from the Church in Wales on actions relating to Coronavirus.

We pray for all who suffer, including at this particular time those infected by the new coronavirus, (now renamed Covid-19 by WHO) around the world, for those who care for them, for health specialists and authorities who are combatting the spread of infection, and of course for all who at this time are feeling anxious, especially for those with friends and family in areas most at risk.

In particular our Parish practice relating to Holy Communion will change until further notice:

Receive Holy Communion in one Kind. It is, and has long been, Anglican teaching that to receive the sacrament in one kind only (ie. just the bread) is to receive the sacrament in its entirety. With the recent increase of Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom, we are now advising that public administration of the chalice should cease in the Church in Wales until further notice. The Chalice must continue to be prepared and consecrated in the usual way, but the celebrant alone should receive from the Chalice.

We are now strongly advising that physical sharing of the Peace be discontinued until further notice. When we exchange the Peace we express our desire to come to the holy table as a community which has been reconciled to God and one another through the work of Christ, and whose members are ‘in love and charity’ with our neighbours. Although customary in many churches, handshakes or other physical touching are not mandated in our liturgical rites and are not required at this point. Non-physical means of exchanging the Peace are encouraged – such as saying ‘peace be with you’, preferably whilst making eye contact. Similarly, non-physical alternatives to shaking hands when greeting people entering and leaving church should be used.

The full guidance and any future updates can be read at https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/clergy-and-members/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance/

Our Open the Book teams have been busy again visiting Radyr Primary, Bryn Deri Primary and Danescourt Primary Schools. This time they shared the story “Jesus is Baptised”.

• Read more about our work with Open the Book

This week Sunday Club told the story of Following in St Paul’s footsteps which is illustrated with figures holding hands in unity showing Joy, Peace and Love.

On joining the congregation in church, the young people very proudly showed off their work and explained the message before sharing in a pray. The photos were also taken by one of the group ready for sharing here on the website.

Find out more about Sunday Club at St John’s which meets each Sunday morning in Term Time at the Parish Hall adjacent to St John’s Church, Danescourt at 09.15

Are you interested in exploring taking your faith further? Do you think you would like to make a commitment of Faith through Confirmation into the Church?

The Parish are starting a new group to explore faith with the aim of preparing for Confirmation by the Bishop in April 2020. It will meet in Christ Church each Thursday, 19.15 – 20.30 from 9 February for 8 weeks and a further 2 sessions in April 2020 to complete the course.

This group is open to anyone wishing to explore the possibility of confirmation but please speak to Rev. Vicki first to express your interest in attending.

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped to make such a busy and vibrant celebration of the Christmas season across the Parish run smoothly. It was great to welcome new, returning and regular faces to Worship at the various occasions across the Christmas season.

A special thank you goes out to all those who invited a friend or neighbour to come to church for Christmas. New cards will be available shortly to invite someone for another occasion in the life of the church.

Christmas 2019

View this gallery on Flickr

A huge thank you to all of the groups that presented trees for our Christmas Tree Festival at Christ Church, each based on the theme of a Christmas Carol. A marvellous display of the variety of community groups that we have across the Parish.

The festival was opened at our Christingle service and, as well as being open each day for everyone to have an opportunity to visit the trees, they also served as a perfect decoration to the church through our services for the Christmas season.

Christmas Tree Festival 2019

View this gallery on Flickr

What a wonderful Christingle service at St John’s! Church was packed with families and we all had hot chocolate and cake afterwards in the parish Hall and raised lots of money for the Noah’s Ark Appeal. Thank you everyone!

The trees wlll remain in St John’s until after Chrtistmas so why not join us for one of our special services and take the opportunity to see our trees too.

The Christingle Service at Christ Church to mark their start of their Christmas Tree Festival will be this weekend (Sunday 15 December 2019 at 17.00)

Thank you to all who came to our annual Get Ready for Christmas at Christ Church, yesterday. It was great to see so many in church. The hot turkey rolls sold out in record time and Powerful Puppet Praise kept those of all ages entertained.

Thank you to all from across Radyr, Morganstown, Danescourt and beyond who filled a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. We blessed over 200 boxes on Shoebox Sunday and they have now been sent off for sorting ready to be palleted up and sent off around the world.

Read more about our work with Operation Christmas Child

Thank you to everyone who came and helped make the first in our series of Concerts@ChristChurch a success.

The combined orchestra from the Primary Schools sounded great as did our soloist, double bass player Connie Francis.

Overall we raised £225 for Bobath Wales.

The next concert, involving Radyr Comprehensive School pupils will be on Friday 13 March 2020.