Welcome to Cyncoed Methodist Church

Welcome to Cyncoed Methodist Church

Church Notices for 18th August 2024

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Steward: Sheila Scott

10.30am Anthony Thomas

Readings: 1 Kings 2: 10-12, 3_ 3-14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5: 15-20;John 6: 51-58

At Cyncoed Methodist Church

We are called to tell God’s story by living as God’s people through:

• Preaching and teaching the gospel
• Encouraging spiritual growth
• Outreach in the community
• Responding to opportunities for change

All inspired by God centred worship and prayer.

Sunday 25th August 2024

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time.

10.30am Rev. Cathy Gale – Service at St Andrews

No Service at Cyncoed

Readings: 1 Kings 8: (1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84; Ephesians 6: 10-20; John 6: 56-69

The Ministerial Team:

Rev. Cathy Gale

Tel: 029 2062 8705 gale285@btinternet.com

Rev. Alexis Mahoney

Tel: 029 2030 0321 revalexismahoney@gmail.com

Church Office: 029 2039 3439

cyncoedmethodistchurch@gmail.com

Notices

PLEASE NOTE the Informal mid-week communion has been discontinued until Thursday 5th September.

❖ AUTUMN OUTREACH Contributions toward our Autumn edition will be VERY welcome!! This can be news, poems, prayers, reflections, stories, or anything of interest. Submissions can be left in my tray in the church office. Deadline for submission is Sunday 25th August.

❖ MACMILLAN Coffee Morning on Saturday 21st September, 2024. From 10 a.m. to 12 noon At the general church meeting on the 21st July, it was agreed and the Church gave approval to holding a MacMillan coffee morning on the above date. Keith and Eluned requested this coffee morning and would undertake to do the main organising of this Community Event. The Westminster hall and kitchen has been booked, the event registered with the Macmillan organisation, an account set up, and pamphlets received to assist with the organising of the event. We will need help on the day, but if you cannot help on that morning you can still help by taking flyers to advertise the coffee morning and make cake. Can you please register your help. 1. To help on the day 2. To provide cake to go with the coffee 3. To distribute flyers to your friends and neighbours. We will be pleased to hear from you.

Reflection

Unexpected

Whatever the weather is like as you’re reading this, imagine a bright summer’s day when the rain has cleared. I’m working indoors at a country hotel overlooking the River Wye and eventually the sessions are over for the day, I make my way down to the river where everything smells new and beautiful and I notice some fruit bushes. Blackberries? These look more like wild raspberries – something I have never ever seen before. So I pick one and sniff it cautiously. It certainly smells like a genuine Class One raspberry. But, instead of eating it, I pause. Suppose there’s something wrong with it. Suppose it’s contaminated.

I’m so used to buying shrink-wrapped, supermarket stuff that I’m nervous about eating what is simply there in front of me. Wild raspberries, let’s face it, don’t know about European food directives. But the fruit looks fantastic so I overcome my caution and try. It is almost too good to be true. Eventually, I pick a big handful and tuck in to the best snack I’ve ever eaten.

Later that evening, back in my room, I’m thinking about the experience. It was sensible, of course, to be careful. Eating food that grows wild requires a certain level of knowledge or you can end up in Accident and Emergency. But suppose you never did anything new because you were afraid of the consequences. What a safe but unhappy life that would be.

And perhaps that’s how my faith grew over the years – out of a realisation that, even if belief has a basis in reason, there’s comes a moment when you have to taste it for yourself, you have to take at least a small step beyond the purely rational. Lots of people find that a hard concept to stomach and I don’t blame anyone for that. But if we always hold back from exploring what is new to us, we deny ourselves the thrill of discoveries in all areas of our lives. And, as I found out that day, the best is frequently the most unexpected.

We continue to pray for those members of our Church Family and Friends who are unwell and all those who mourn.