Brand new PodCaths

The Wednesday crew have recorded a new edition of PodCaths - and it's a super edition, based on the healing of Bartimaeus at the end of Mark 10. To access it, go to the PodCaths page in the Media section of the St Catherine's website, or search "Podcaths Marcus Green" at iTunes if you haven't yet subscribed!

It really is a lovely episode, and thanks to all the regulars, and to Geraint for all the technical know-how that enables us to listen in.

Chiari Petition

A member of our church is soon to have neurosurgery to help with a Chiari Malformation from which he suffers. You may at this point be wondering what this is - and that's a reasonable question. Chiari Malformations (CMs) are structural defects in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. And so the surgery will be serious, and we are praying for him, and look forwards to his treatment and recovery.

But he has asked that I sign a petition that asks the government to make information about the condition more readily available. The NHS websites contain little information about the condition, and sufferers not only have to face the illness but also the problems of communicating what it entails to families, friends - and of course employers, and that is once they have had the medical profession spot their symptoms and diagnose them accurately. It is not especially rare, but it does seem to lack focus, and the petition is asking that the oversight on the NHS websites is put right in order to help sufferers. I have gladly signed the online petition at the Prime Minister's Office. Here is the link - you fill the form in, then they send an email which you click onto and your name appears at the bottom of the petition.

If we can do some good for people who need help, we should. I encourage you to take two minutes now and make a difference.

Confirmed

So here are Joyce, James, Mary and Stephen after this morning's Confirmation service. It was a super occasion, with lots of St Catherine's folk joining the congregations of Llantrisant parish and St David's Hopkinstown for the Deanery Confirmation. There were also five candidates from St David's, and Archbishop Barry welcomed all of them reminding them that they are known to God by name and are each special in his sight.

In his sermon, he spoke of how our Gospel is good news of a God who loves all people irrespective of age, gender, background or place in society. He also told of a sermon he had heard in Washington which related an old Cherokee legend of a person containing two wolves that fought each other - one representing the greed and selfishness present in every person, the other representing love and generosity and care and compassion. Which wolf wins? "The one you feed". "But Christianity goes a step further," continued the Archbishop, reminding us that our spiritual life was not simply left to us to get right, but that God gifts us with his wonderful Holy Spirit to bring us the strength we need when we are in danger of feeding the wrong wolf.

The parish of St David's provided a lovely lunch afterwards, and it was a real pleasure to join with other folk from our area in worship, and to celebrate Jesus together!

If any member of St Catherine's wants to know more about confirmation, or is keen to develop their own faith further, we hope to be starting a new Alpha course in the New Year, so watch out for news of this here on the News Blog and in the notice sheet.

Confirmation Reminder

Just a quick reminder that this Sunday (October 25th) in addition to us all having an extra hour in bed (hooray!) because of the clocks, there is NO 11am service at St Catherine's: instead we will all be going to St David's Hopkinstown for the Confirmation Service, where Archbishop Barry will be confirming James & Joyce from the 11am service, and Stephen & Mary from the 6pm service.

Let's all be there to cheer them on and to pray for them! And also to hear what Barry has to say to us. It's good to listen to him and to come together as the wider Anglican church in the area for these services.

At 6pm we'll be holding a special informal communion, with Esther speaking, and perhaps we can encourage a few more than usual to come along and gather back at St Catherine's for this?

PodCaths fame spreads

Today we received an email from Bible Study Magazine, a magazine in the US that encourages people to engage in Bible Reading, telling us that they are running a short news item about PodCaths in their next issue. Here's what they wrote:

Hi, my name is Adam Navarrete from Bible Study Magazine, a bi-monthly publication based in Bellingham, WA, U.S.A, that has regular circulation of nearly, 15,000.

In our forthcoming November/December 2009 issue, which will have an expanded audience of nearly 65,000 readers, we have in place a story on St. Catherine’s “PodCaths” for our In the News section.

The headline reads, “Podcast Bible Study Fields Questions from around the Globe,” with the following story:

At St. Catherine’s in Pontypridd (north of Cardiff, Wales), people from as far as Orlando, Florida are participating in biblical discussions by listening to an audio podcast and submitting questions via email. Anglican vicar Marcus Green leads Bible reading and informal, unscripted discussions that are often filled with laughter. The podcasts, or “PodCaths,” as the group refers to them, are available on the church web site under News at St-Caths.org.

It's good to know that there are folk all over the place who share our love for Bible Study and enjoy our informal approach and fellowship! I've had a look at the magazine's website and read a few articles - & I think they look really excellent. Adam - thanks for contacting us, we're grateful for the interest & wish you well.

November 1st Guitar Concert with John Mills

Earlier in the year we hosted a superb concert with acclaimed classical guitarists John Mills and Cobie Smit. We are delighted to announce that John has asked to come and play here again! So clear your diaries for the afternoon of Sunday November 1st at 3pm and come and join us.

John Mills studied under John Williams as well as taking classes with Andres Segovia and Juliam Bream, and has a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music as well as his amazing work at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. Both John and his wife Cobie have recorded for Radio and CD, and played for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Those who came last time will need no encouragement to return - it was a music making of the highest order; to everyone else, we simply say - come!

CFAP

So today Marcus & Esther delivered our second application to CFAP for a grant to help fund the project to renovate the Hall. 1276 names on a petition, 82 letters from members of the community, a conservation report from Thomas Pinhorn and all our hard work...

We are SO grateful to everyone in Pontypridd who uses the hall and to all who don't but appreciate the work we do there and who have got behind us for this. We think it will be a couple of months before we hear if we've been successful. We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything at all!

New PodCaths

We have some new PodCaths episodes now available online at the St Catherine's website, and at iTunes (where you should search for "Podcaths Marcus Green")! They were recorded at the end of September and beginning of October, and feature the regular bunch working their way through readings from St Mark's Gospel. If you use the St Catherine's link, do give QuickTime chance to download - it may take a minute or so - and if you use iTunes, why not subscibe? Hopefully there will be more in November!

Almost there!

Esther and Marcus are this week handing in the application to CFAP (Community Facilities and Activities Programme from the Welsh Assembly)for the first £300,000 of the money we need for our programme to restore the Hall so we can do far, far more for our community here in Pontypridd.

Thanks to all who have helped. The petition has 1,276 names on it - which we collected in a little over four weeks. In addition, we have received around 80 letters of support from local people and businesses stressing how important the work we do there is. Many of them use the hall themselves, or have family members who do. Then there's the Facebook page with over 200 members - that's ten times the number of people who've joined the church's Facebook page! - and we are so grateful to the whole community for getting on board with this project.

Ponty often comes across as a town filled with despair - an air if "you'll never do that here". It is fantastic to see that we can be part of something where people want to help change things for good - in this case, a hall, so that many, many people will have a place of community and life.

I'll finish for now with 2 anecdotes: one of the mums in one of our toddler groups said yesterday that she is not a religious person, but she found a better welcome at our toddler group than at any of the other ones she went to, and a better atmosphere and her daughter loves it. That'll do me. And secondly, we've had a Wednesday afternoon craft group for a while - parents whose toddlers are now at school. We've also started a group for retired people as part of the St Caths Plus programme on Thursday mornings. The Wedensday people have said - let's all meet on Thursdays, we'll learn from each other, and we think we can bring more people in. That's what we are about - that intangible thing called building community. That makes people's lives better. Young and old, finding a home here.

So now we take our application to CFAP and ask your prayers that this time we'll be successful!

Ignite Hope

Ignite Hope is a fantastic youth event aimed at both drawing young people together to worship & then demonstrating the power of their faith as they go and serve communities in South Wales with practical acts of love and care. Click on their website here for loads of details.

On Thursday this week - October 15th - they are holding one of the launch events for their 2010 event which will happen on the May Bank Holiday. There is a gathering for youth leaders at 11am in St Catherine's, and then an evening celebration open to anyone who wants to come along at 7.30pm. Why not come and find out what's happening and why?

New Website!

It's here! Not complete, so don't worry if you press buttons and nothing happens - we'll get it all working over the next few weeks - but our new website is up and running! Have a look at www.st-caths.org to see the brand new look. Tell us what you think!

Harvest

Harvest weekend at St Catherine's. Always time to stop and work out what there is to give thanks for - and there's always lots.

We had a lovely family gathering for Harvest, a super meal, with loads of people and great food, and again MGQ providing the music. Chris, Dan, George & Evan joined Marcus this week - Tom was moonlighting in another band, and this was the first time Evan has played with MGQ, though of course he's been with the big band that's played in church before. It was great fun. So good to enjoy the music as the family of the church came together. Lesley and her team (Rhian, Julie, Esther & Andy) made sure we were well fed & watered and the Harvest Casserole and Crumble were superb.

And on Sunday, we brought our harvest offerings for Support for Romania, as they prepare to go to help orphanages, hospitals, doctors, prisons and schools next month. In the midst of all the stuff that fills our daily lives, it's good to give thanks and just to give. To give to those who need. To share. Freely we have received, freely we give.

We had a lovely family in for a blessing of their baby in the service, and again, it's a joy to share with such a family the love of Jesus and to tell them of his great love for them. We thought of Jesus blessing the little children and remembered how he blesses all people, no-one excluded.

A great time of thanksgiving. A great Harvest.