Bon Voyage

Dan & Kirsty Jones joined us here at St Catherine's over seven years ago, and have become an integral part of our lives: leading our worship with their amazingly beautiful music, and advancing the children's work beyond all recognition, as well as bringing world-class concert guests and being the spark behind such creative endeavours as "Romans and Bach", they have blessed us time and time again.

Flo is now five, and Sam came along this year and was baptised just weeks ago. This morning Dan spoke movingly of how their time here has changed them and brought their faith in Jesus alive.

But now they are leaving us, moving to the Dordogne where they hope to set up a family tourist business and where Dan will engage in some guitar tutoring. We prayed for them during this morning's service, their last service with us, and presented them with a Welsh Love Spoon in the shape of a treble clef to remind them of all our love. Afterwards we shared cake and champagne and couldn't quite believe it!

Eight years ago, we had no idea of the blessing that we were about to receive the weekend they first joined us. There is some little church in the Dordogne in that position today. And though we will feel their loss personally, and of course in our music ministry, we send them with our love and blessing, praying that God will bless them as a family now more than they have the faith to ask (and others through them) and that we too may be blessed in ways we cannot imagine with gifts beyond our imagining!

Latest Grant Application For Church Hall Renovations

The work on the church hall, where all our community work with children and older people is focussed, continues apace!

It seems like we have been preparing for this for ever, but a scheme like this is so large and so important for us and for our town that we have to get every detail right: plus it takes a while to draw all the finance into place.

The next step on that front is our latest application, back to the Big Lottery, and if we are successful, this will take us all the way to our grand total. The picture is of what the application pack looks like on the kitchen table!

Big thanks to Esther for putting in so much work, to Marcus for all his contributions, to David Harvey our architect for so much detail, to Thomas Pinhorn for advice along the way, and to countless others without whom an application like this would simply be impossible.

BUT NOW - we need everyone to join in. It's time to pray! The turn around on an application is six months, and we need to own this now, to make it our regular prayer, to bless the folk at Lottery and seek the Lord's face that he would look with favour upon us and grant us favour in the eyes of those whose job it is to examine all the claims that come across their desks. If we have missed things out or just made mistakes, we need opportunity to put that right; and if there are questions we need to make clearer, then we need chance to do so.

Most of all, we really desire to be successful with our bid because we long to make this building project a reality so we can serve more and more people in Pontypridd, and make life better for them. Let's pray!

Applications Closed

Thanks to the very many people who applied for our post as Community Worker at St Caths Plus. The closing date for applications was Friday July 2nd, and we have now shortlisted for interview and will be interviewing the successful candidates on Monday July 12th.

St Caths Plus Community Worker Post - Re-advertisement

St Caths Plus Community Worker Post

St Catherine’s Pontypridd are seeking to employ a Community Worker to head up their St Caths Plus project, reaching out to serve older people in the community of Pontypridd.

The St Caths Plus Community Worker will be responsible for developing our work with the range of older people in Pontypridd, from those who retire young to centenarians. This will include meeting their physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs. Working with older people throughout the wider community, the post holder will aim to enhance people’s older years by developing a range of social activities from lunches to tea dances, concerts and trips away, as well as putting on a variety of daytime clubs offering everything from Welsh lessons to keep fit, and ensuring a strong pastoral care network. Much of this work will be based in the Community Hall we own in the centre of Pontypridd.

St Catherine’s is a growing church with a simple desire to see people’s lives made better. The St Caths Plus Community Worker is a key leadership post at St Catherine’s and needs someone with creativity, initiative and a real desire to serve older people.

The post is a three year appointment, with a salary of up to £20,800 depending upon experience and qualifications. For details of the job description please click here, and for an application form please click here.

Please apply to Revd Marcus Green, the Vicarage, Gelliwastad Grove, Pontypridd, CF37 2BS, vicar@st-caths.org

Swydd Gweithiwr Cymunedol St Caths Plus

Mae eglwys St Catherine Pontypridd am benodi Gweithiwr Cymunedol a fydd yn arwain ein prosiect St Caths Plus gan estyn allan i wasanaethu pobl hŷn yng nghymuned Pontypridd.

Bydd Gweithiwr Cymunedol St Caths Plus yn gyfrifol am ddatblygu ein gwaith ymhlith yr ystod o bobl hŷn ym Mhontypridd o’r rhai sydd yn ymddeol yn ifanc i’r bobl ganmlwydd oed. Bydd hyn yn cynnwys diwallu eu hanghenion corfforol, cymdeithasol, emosiynol ac ysbrydol. Gan weithio â phobl hŷn ledled y gymuned ehangach, bydd deilydd y swydd yn anelu at ehangu blynyddoedd pobl hŷn trwy ddatblygu ystod o weithgareddau cymdeithasol o giniawau i ddawnsiau te, cyngherddau a theithiau yn ogystal â chynnal amrywiaeth o glybiau dydd yn cynnig popeth o wersi Cymraeg i gadw’n heini a sicrhau rhwydwaith gofalaeth fugeiliol cryf. Bydd mwyafrif y gwaith hwn wedi’i leoli yn y Neuadd Gymunedol rydym yn berchen arni yng nghanol Pontypridd.

Mae eglwys St Catherine yn eglwys sydd yn tyfu ac y mae gennym awydd syml i wella bywydau pobl. Mae’r swydd Gweithiwr Cymunedol St Caths Plus yn un arwain allweddol o fewn eglwys St Catherine ac y mae gofyn am rywun creadigol, dyfeisgar sydd â gwir awydd i wasanaethu pobl hŷn.

Penodir i’r swydd am gyfnod o dair blynedd a chynigir cyflog hyd at £20,800 yn dibynnu ar brofiad a chymwysterau.

Cliciwch yma am fanylion y disgrifiad swydd. Cliciwch yma am y ffurflen gais.

Dychwelwch geisiadau at: Y Parch. Marcus Green, The Vicarage, Gelliwastad Grove, Pontypridd, CF37 2BS, vicar@st-caths.org

APPLICATIONS TO BE RECEIVED BY: JULY 2^nd 2010

New St Caths Plus Community Worker Post

We are now seeking to employ a full time Community Worker to head up our St Caths Plus project, taking over from Esther who has been working two days a week since the summer, reaching out to serve older people in the community of Pontypridd.

The new full-time St Caths Plus Community Worker will be responsible for developing our work with the range of older people in Pontypridd, from those who retire young to centenarians. This will include meeting their physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs. Working with older people throughout the wider community, the post holder will aim to enhance people’s older years by developing a range of social activities from lunches to tea dances, concerts and trips away, as well as putting on a variety of daytime clubs offering everything from Welsh lessons to keep fit, and ensuring a strong pastoral care network. Much of this work will be based in the Community Hall we own in the centre of Pontypridd.

St Catherine’s is a growing church with a simple desire to see people’s lives made better. The St Caths Plus Community Worker is a key leadership post at St Catherine’s and needs someone with creativity, initiative and a real desire to serve older people.

The post is funded by the Lottery, and in our first round of advertising, we omitted to advertise in Welsh which we had promised to do. We apologise for this, and have agreed to re-advertise in order to keep the terms of the grant which the Lottery have very generously given us for this work. The new application date is July 2nd, and interviews will be on the weekend of July 17th and 18th, though if this is a problem candidates should simply let us know and we will find a way around it! The new links to more details, and to the Welsh version, will be here soon. For now, if you are interested, contact Marcus at vicar@st-caths.org. We hope the new holder of the post will begin with us on September 1st.

Happy Easter

A very happy Easter from St Catherine's! From our Maundy Thursday meal, with David Tazzini-Lloyd providing excellent entertainment with his superb magic show, and Lesley & Esther arranging a wonderful evening for all of us, through to Good Friday's profound and moving afternoon service led by Aled Edwards, not forgetting our prayer breakfast on Saturday morning and our read through of St Mark on Saturday evening, before all our Sunday services, we had a terrific Easter!

Easter Sunday was truly wonderful. The usual warm and caring 8am congregation heard a lovely Resurrection sermon from Gill Tuck, and were treated to breakfast afterwards by Val.

The 11am service had a little of everything - Trish spoke movingly of the power of Resurrection, and finished her talk with her daughter Gemma singing to us from John 3:16. Beautiful. The music, led by Dan, was excellent throughout - it's good to have the full band back!

At 6pm Marcus wove themes from across St John's Gospel into his Resurrection talk, with Gill and Andy leading us gently on closer into Jesus' presence. We also prayed for Karsten, back with us for the weekend and now hoping to be selected to train for ordination, and it was good to have Emma show us her sash and crown as Miss University GB before the service started too! Her work for the Joshua Foundation, serving children suffering from terminal cancer, is something her watching grandfather (and vicar's warden!) is rightly proud of.

Thanks too to all who worked so hard preparing the church for the weekend - providing flowers, cleaning the place, and setting out the amazing Easter bonnets from the children of Maes-y-Coed Primary School. Thank you all!

Above all, we were reminded again and again of the powerful love of God. Love that goes to any and every length that we might not be trapped in the brokenness of this world, but lifted up with the Rising Jesus to know God, the author of all love; love that is big enough to fill a universe, and personal enough to be just for you and just for me.

Funding Success!

Crack open the champagne because CFAP have awarded St Catherine's Church £300,000 towards the Church Hall renovations and link project. The money comes after many months of waiting and praying. Our application was successful on the second attempt; the difference being the fantastic support from the local community. So to all of you who signed the petition and wrote letters about the work we're doing, thank you!

We celebrated on Sunday by having a glass of Bucks Fizz and the children made this banner to praise God for his wonderful provision.

This money is only the beginning for us. The total target is £750,000. Wonderfully, we already have £50,000 left to us as a bequest from Miss Heather McGreggor who was a member of the church. We are in the process of applying to other funds for the remaining £400,000 - with nearly half the money secured, we are in a good position to get this.

But please keep praying! God has given us the vision to do something great for the community. We want to be a church who engages with our community and provides for people. Having a the right building to work from is essential and will enable the work to grow.

Have you seen the video mock-up of the architect's plans?

Click here to go to the youtube video and get a good idea of what it'll look like.