Rhondda Evangelical Church
On Saturday 12 May the opening service of the Rhondda Evangelical Church was held at Salem Church, Llwynypia, Rhondda.
The fellowship derives from the membership of Trinity Calvinistic Methodist Church, Tonypandy, which recently left the Presbyterian Church of Wales. The church has known long association with the Calvinistic Methodist Church of Wales, which, in earlier days, knew God’s blessing upon it in a succession of notable revivals.
The new church continues to hold firmly to the 1823 Confession of faith of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists and their system of church government. Acknowledgement was made of the long and faithful biblical ministry of the pastor, Rev. Hubert Clement.
The opening service was an opportunity to thank God publicly for his great kindness and providential leading of the fellowship to a new location and newly refurbished building.
Thanks were also expressed to the trustees of the former Salem (Welsh Congregational Church) for the gift of this building and their desire to see it continuing as a place of worship in the Rhondda Valley.
Expressions of appreciation were made to the contractors and tradesmen who had worked on the refurbishment. At the same time, church members had worked unsparingly and shown unity of purpose in the work, which, we trust, will continue in the greater task of building and extending the kingdom of God.
The membership was encouraged by the presence of many friends, family members and members of other churches.
Rev. Dafydd Morris, Carmarthen, guest preacher for the afternoon, preached from Acts 4:11-12: ‘This is the stone which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved’.
The service closed with hymn, ‘Christ is the foundation of the house we raise; be its walls salvation and its gateways praise’.
The desire of the new church is that Salem will be a place where the Scriptures are preached faithfully, God’s people refreshed and built up in their faith, the gospel of Christ made known and children instructed in the ways of God, and where God is pleased to dwell with his people.
Huw Kinsey
