2020-12-31-accounts - Cynon Uchaf Ministry Area

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Parish of Aberdare St Fagan Plwyf Aberdar Sant Ffagan

St Fagan’s Church St Luke’s Church St James Church Trecynon Cwmdare Llwydcoed

In the Deanery of Cynon Valley In the Diocese of Llandaff In the (Anglican) Province of The church in Wales

Annual Report for the Year of Our Lord 2020

www.stfagansaberdare.co.uk Facebook : stfagansaberdare Twitter : @AberdareStFagan Instagram : Aberdare_st_fagan

Our Parish Vision

To

Love and serve God

love and serve each other love and serve the community around us, bringing to them the good news of Jesus Christ

Main Parish Contact Numbers Vicar Revd Richard Green 5 Redwood Court Aberdare CF44 8RX Tel: 01685 881435 Email: vicar.stfagans@btconnect.com Associate Priest Revd Peter Godsall Tel: 01685 883697 Parish Office Tel: 01685 877900 Email parishofficestfagans@btintent.com Parish Wardens: Mr Martyn Silezin Tel: 01685 881047 (St James) Mrs Marian Godsall Tel: 01685 883697 (St Fagan) Sub Wardens: Mrs Angela Clarke Tel: 01685 882542 (St Fagan) Mrs Irene Maddox Tel: 01685 873746 (St Luke) Mr Eric Olden Tel: 01685 875881(St Luke) Mr Peter Perry Tel: 01685 886295 (St James) Treasurer : Mrs Jan Williams Tel: 01685 886689 PCC Secretary: Mrs Margaret Harris Tel: 01685 884639

New members are warmly welcomed at our worship, Church groups and activities. If you require any further details of items highlighted in this report then please contact the Vicar or Churchwardens.

Vicar’s report for the year 2020

By any measure, 2020 will go down as the most extraordinary year any of us have ever lived through. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was felt across the whole world, and affected every aspect of life. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the life of our parish was dramatically changed in many important ways over the course of the year.

The first signs that the pandemic was having an effect came at the beginning of March, when exchanging the sign of the peace and sharing the chalice were both suspended in our church services. Then, very dramatically, on 16 March the Bishops of the Church in Wales directed that all public worship be suspended. This was a totally unprecedented move, and many of us felt it very keenly. The public offering of worship to God is the primary duty of the church, and so not being able to do it came as a very hard blow. Along with this move, we also had to suspend all parish activities and close both St Fagan’s Community Hall and St Luke’s Church Hall to the various groups that normally use them. In the days that followed the suspension of public worship, we opened our churches for times of private prayer, but this too had to stop when the first national lockdown was announced on 23 March.

Many parishes, ourselves included, adapted quickly to this strange new reality. Reverend Peter and I continued celebrating the Eucharist together, just the two of us, and we livestreamed the service each Sunday on our Facebook page. In place of the three mid-week Eucharists we normally hold, I started recording a mid-week homily on Tuesday-Thursday and posted them online. In the end this lasted for 19 weeks! We also used the online meeting platform Zoom to hold coffee mornings, quiz nights, our monthly Bible study, coffee after the Sunday morning service, and adult Confirmation classes. We also continued to hold the children’s Confirmation classes, using Google Classroom.

A number of parishioners fell ill with Covid, and one of them, Gareth Roberts from St Luke’s, sadly died from the virus. We give thanks for those who recovered, for the skill and dedication of our doctors, nurses, and all others in the NHS. We remember Gareth with love and continue to hold his family in our prayers. Many people I know felt a great sense of isolation during the lockdown, and we tried to help by phoning around people, delivering the weekly newsletter, as well as prayers and readings for use at home. Many parish organisations and groups adapted their activities to keep in touch with their members. You can read about these excellent efforts elsewhere in this report, but examples

include Caffi Cinio “love-bombing” members with gifts; and the MakeLunch Club and Company at Christmas changing to a delivery system rather than in-person gatherings. We have also used Zoom to hold Youth Services and Messy Church. I am grateful to everyone who worked hard to keep parish life going as much as possible in these trying circumstances.

After the first lockdown ended in July, we were able to open all three churches for private prayer, and then at the start of August we restarted public worship. Various precautions had to be taken, including social distancing, and, as from September, the wearing of face coverings. We decided to hold Sunday services in St Fagan’s Church only, due to its size, and to have mid-week services in all three churches as before. The risk-assessments mean that we have to clean the churches thoroughly after each service, and I am grateful to all those who have carried out this important work. Peta Maidman, occasionally assisted by her husband Neil, has done sterling work answering the phone as people “book-in” for worship – a novel experience for everyone!

We have continued to livestream all services, and I know this has been appreciated by those who still feel unable to join us in person. The numbers of those watching have been consistently good, and we have become interactive, inviting those watching at home to submit prayer requests during the intercessions. This has also proved very popular. I am sure that this use of technology has now become a permanent feature of parish life, and will continue even when things have returned fully to normal (whenever that might be!).

We endured another two-week lockdown in October/November when public worship was once again suspended; but we were pleased then when a third lockdown was announced just before Christmas, in-person worship was able to continue. Despite the fact that we endured three months with no in-person church services (and so no collections), and couldn’t hold any fundraising events, our finances held up remarkably well. I will say more about this in the finance report elsewhere in this report. This outcome is down to the generosity of everybody, who continued to support the parish financially during this difficult year, and for this I am enormously grateful.

As always, I was very proud of the way our parish rose to the challenge of Covid-19 and managed to keep our spiritual and social life going in the midst of very difficult circumstances. I am sure that we shall emerge from this extraordinary time all the stronger.

There were some other non-Covid-related happenings during the year, which I shall now touch upon. At the Diocesan Conference in September, Bishop June announced that she wanted to press ahead with the creation of Ministry Areas – in effect the amalgamation of parishes. She said that all parishes not currently in a Ministry Area would have to form one by 1 January 2022. The Ministry Area we will be part of consists of ourselves, the Parish of Hirwaun, and the Parish of Aberdare. A Ministry Area Council will be formed which will replace the PCCs of the existing parishes. There will be one parish share for the Ministry Area, and one bank account, though each existing church will also be able to keep its own accounts. Fr Robert Davies, the Vicar of Aberdare, was appointed as the Leader of the Ministry Area. The idea is that this will enable the existing three parishes to work together more closely in mission and ministry. Clearly, a big task during the year 2021 will be setting up the necessary structures so we are ready to go at the start of 2022.

In the autumn, it was announced that our Associate Priest, Reverend Peter Godsall, had been appointed as Priest-in-Charge of Hirwaun, and he took up his new post in December. It has been such a joy to have had Peter among us as a deacon and priest for the past three-and-ahalf years, and we have benefited from his ministry enormously. Before that he was of course a Lay Reader in the parish, and before that a parishioner, PCC member, warden, and treasurer. I have loved working with Peter, and he has been a huge support to me. I am grateful for all that he has done, including “holding the fort” when my mother was taken ill and then passed away in October. We will miss him enormously, but are pleased that he is only up the road and we will continue to work with him as the Ministry Area takes shape.

I mentioned above about the death of my dear mother, Josephine, in October. She had been suffering from dementia for a couple of years, but her passing still came as a shock. She and my dad always enjoyed their visits to Aberdare and said that the people here were so friendly and welcoming. Thank you to everyone for the kindness you showed my mum when she came, and for the many lovely messages of condolence and support my dad and I received – it made a huge difference.

As well as my mum, we lost a number of friends during 2020. Gareth Roberts I have also already referred to. We also said farewell to Iris Edwards, Jessie Richards, Lillian Rochester, Iris Walters and Maureen Meenan. We thank God for their lives, pray for the repose of their souls, and assure their families of our love and support.

I would like to finish, as ever, by thanking all those who work so hard in the life of our parish. Since the easing of lockdown restrictions, it has been a joy to welcome Fr Norman back to the altar, and I am grateful for all his support. Peta Maidman, our reader in training, has done a magnificent job during the year. Not only does she look after the bookings for church services, she also reads the lessons at our Sunday services and preaches once a month. In 2020 she also launched an online prayer group, “Space for Prayer” which meets every fortnight, and has become very popular. Thank you, Peta, for everything. John Llewelyn Jones continues to translate my sermon for the Welsh Eucharist, and I am grateful to him for doing this. Thanks also to Fr Hywel for helping out with the Welsh Eucharist during the year. I thank our parish wardens, Martyn and Marian, and our sub-wardens, Irene, Angela, Peter and Eric for all they do, and for the support they have given me over the past tumultuous year. I thank them all for their service. I also thank Margaret, our PCC secretary, for her efficiency and help. I am hugely grateful to Jan Williams our treasurer and for all her hard work. I am grateful to all members of the PCC and church leadership teams for their service during the year. I know we have not had many meetings but I appreciate your support nonetheless! I am grateful to the leaders of all parish organizations who have kept in touch with members during the pandemic, and who have come up with innovative ways of continuing their activities. In 2020 our website underwent a re-design and re-launch, and I am grateful to Catherine Evans for the hard work she put in on this. As mentioned, social media has come into its own during 2020, and I thank all of those who contribute to our Facebook page especially.

Above all, of course, we must thank God that, despite all the challenges, he has continued to bless us during 2020, and has enabled us to get through this extraordinary year. We pray for all who continue to struggle, and that 2021 will be a better year. Please pray for me, as I continue to pray for you all.

Fr Richard Green.

Finance Report for the year 2020

We all knew that 2020, and the impact of Covid-19, would be challenging financially for our parish. However, thanks to the generosity of our faithful parishioners, help from the diocese, and the dedicated work of our team of treasurers, we have emerged in a relatively healthy position.

The main challenge, of course, was the fact that society basically shut down for the best part of the year. Not having public worship meant that people weren’t coming and brining their collection, which is the single biggest source of our income. St Fagan’s and St Luke’s halls had to close, meaning that we lost the income we would normally receive from the users. And of course, we weren’t able to hold any in-person fundraising events during the year.

Against that, a few important facts should be noted. I am hugely grateful to all those who “saved up” their weekly collections and either delivered them to their warden or brought them back to church when they were able to return. Making our regular offering to the church is an important part of our Christian duty and we should be regular in this, even if we have to miss church. During the year, we also set up a “text donation” scheme, where people can donate to the parish by text message. This raised a goodly sum, and I’m grateful to all who contributed this way. The two halls being closed meant that there were very few outgoings (such as utilities, cleaning costs, etc.), so the loss of income was not as disastrous as it might have seemed. And finally, we did manage to hold some online fundraising events, which raised £850 – again, thanks to all who contributed.

On the subject of church collections, I will once again make my appeal for people to sign up to the Church in Wales’s Gift Direct scheme. This acts like a direct debit from your bank account to the parish’s. The advantages of this are considerable:

You don’t have to remember your collection, it is done automatically You decide the amount you give, and you can change it at any time It means that we do not have to take so much cash to the bank each week, which (a) is safer for those doing the paying in, and (b) saves us money, as the bank charges us for every time we deposit cash

The Gift Aid (tax reclaimable) is paid automatically – with cash donations we have to claim it back at the end of the year.

So please do think about signing up for Gift Direct if you haven’t already. You can do so online by using this link: https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/clergy-and-members/gift-direct/ start-donating-your-church-or-parish/

Just remember to click “Aberdare St Fagan” as the beneficiary on the drop down menu.

On the expenditure side, as well as the halls being closed, the churches were also for large parts of the year. This saved money on heating, lighting and “consumables” such as wine, wafers and candles. For some time, we seem to have been paying “over the odds” for the parish office and vicarage telephone lines, so we have negotiated new contracts with BT.

Finally, it should be noted that we have received a great deal of help from the diocese to help with the challenges of the year. From funds made available from the Church in Wales, we received £13,815 in rebates on our parish share of £58,169. In addition to this, we applied for, and received, an extra grant of £9,000 just before the end of the year. Needless to say, we are very grateful for this support.

All of the above means that we actually ended the year with a surplus of income over expenditure of around £3,000. A similar level of support cannot be guaranteed for 2021, however, and we may still face challenges in terms of income. Therefore, we will need carefully to monitor our finances, and think of ways of trying to increase income.

I must record my thanks to a number of people who work very hard to ensure the financial well-being of the parish. Reverend Peter Godsall served as chair of the parish finance committee for many years until his move to become Priest-in-Charge of Hirwaun. His knowledge and advice was always invaluable and we are very grateful to him. Jan Williams our parish treasurer does an amazing job. Looking after the parish finances involves a lot of work, and she does it all excellently. We are so grateful to her. At the start of the pandemic Sandra Price gave up the role of sub-treasurer for St Fagan’s as she was shielding, and we are grateful for all she did in this role. Marian Godsall has taken on the role and we are grateful to her. Irene Maddox and Peter Perry have continued in their roles as sub-treasurers for St Luke’s and St James respectively, and I would like to thank them for their dedication and commitment.

Finally, let us remember why parish finances are important. It is not about enriching the church or simply “keeping the show on the road”. Financial stewardship enables us to carry out God’s work in the world, caring for the needy, offering help to the vulnerable, and reaching out in Christian love to our community. Thank you all once again for your support.

Here is a summary of the accounts for 2020, with a comparison to 2019:

ITEM	INCOME 2020	INCOME 2019
Balance brought forward	23,334.86	26,045.05
Captial works	3,765.60	0.00
Planned giving	33,979.44	40,790.18
Loose collections/dons	4,817.68	52,691.75*
Wedding/funeral fees	2,565.00	2,604.00
Gift Aid	8,066.36	20,876.36**
Parish share rebate	2,700.05	2,596.50
Covid grants	22,815.25	0.00
St Luke’s Hall	368.00	968.00
St Fagan’s Hall	4,504.03	6,893.69
Magazine	1,401.00	1,641.00
Utility rebates	786.00	582.49
Miscellaneous	538.66	23,219.22_***_
Vicar’s contribution utilities	1,200.00	2,038.82
Car park rent	1,915.00	2,630.00****
Grants	2,502.50	23,103.50
Bonus ball	964.50	4,883.00
Fundraising	763.66	6,457.45
Churchyard	1,050.00	197.75
Mission	3,683.56	8,529.72
From deposit account	0.00	17,500.47
TOTAL INCOME	121,721.15	244,248.95

Notes:

Included a donation of £45,000 from the Earl of Plymouth
** Included the Gift Aid on the above donation at 25%

*** Included £20,075.06 from sale of vicarage land

**** Included back pay for previous years’ under-payment ^ Included St Fagan’s porch and doors project

Fr Richard

Stfagansaberdare.co.uk Statistics for 1 January– 31 December 2020

The website continues to play a vital role keeping people informed and enabling us to communicate with a wide audience. During the year, the website was migrated to a new platform and completely re-designed. New content was also introduced to help people participate in services during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pages about livestreamed services, Coronavirus news, and Coronavirus prayers were the most popular on the site.

Social media

The Parish Facebook page continues to go from strength to strength. This year it was used for livestreaming services which enabled people to worship together regularly throughout the pandemic. The page now has 1518 followers (up from 1223 followers this time last year). Each post reaches an average of 366 people, with the livestreamed Sunday Eucharists getting the highest levels of engagement. The Twitter account further widens the reach of the Parish. The account is building slowly with 550 people now following the Parish on Twitter (compared to 483 people this time last year). In 2020, the twitter account made 172,900 impressions (peaking in July-September). The Instagram account now has 204 followers, compared to 153 this time last year. The YouTube channel has seen a big growth in subscribers to 58, up from 21 this time last year – videos of Father Richard’s school assemblies are the most popular content. Many thanks to everyone who keeps the website up-to-date and contributes to the Facebook page

St Luke’s Church Report

2020 2020 was surely one of the most difficult years we have known for many years. No services during lockdown, no fun bingo or any other fundraising events which we all enjoyed so very much. We were able to hold one Lent Lunch where we raised £185 for Air Ambulance. Let us hope that everything will improve for everyone over the coming year. Thank you to all who have given their weekly envelopes during the past year, enabling us as a Parish to cover our many commitments. God Bless.

Irene

St Fagan’s Church Report

In the history of St Fagan’s Church, I doubt whether the Church has ever been closed for in person worship for so many months as we experienced during 2020. The escalating covid virus forced us to close our building from March until August. We continued to be able to join in worship from our homes thanks to the stoic efforts of Fr Richard and Rev Peter.

August saw restrictions being lifted and in person worship being allowed under the strict social distancing regulations. St Fagan’s was the only building big enough within the parish to accommodate larger numbers for our Eucharist service on Sundays. When the need arose, we established the pattern of two services being held one at 9.30am the 2nd at 11.30am. The Welsh Eucharist also continued monthly. The Church was risk assessed to ensure compliance with current regulations and agreed by the Archdeacon. Safety of everyone was foremost and the Church officers ensured this was maintained for all services.

The working party continued to regularly meet each Monday evening from Spring to Autumn the main task to maintain the churchyard grounds. Social distancing proved easy as the grounds are so vast.

We still endeavoured to ensure our Church provided a spiritual place within the community, be it in a different setting, in which we have been accustomed in past years.

Marian Godsall (People’s Warden)

St James Church Report

This year has been an exceptional one for St James as we have not been able to celebrate much due to the pandemic. During the lockdowns the Tuesday service continued for a time but, quite understandably, the attendance was really low. Nevertheless, we were very pleased to provide the venue for the parish baptisms and were glad to welcome so many new people into the family of the Church.

We were also very pleased to be the venue of the Wednesday night Lenten services whilst St Fagan’s had their heating repaired and it was so good to see so many people there. Hopefully, we look forward to the return of everyone when the restrictions lift.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Mair Perry who, after a bout of illness, finally stood down from her duties as the ace reporter for St James in the Parish magazine. She was a fixture for many years and we shall miss her reports. Hopefully, she will make a full recovery and we wish her all the best for the future.

Martyn Silezin

Diocesan Conference 2020

The conference took place online over two days and followed the theme of “From Vision to Reality” where we explored how to make the Ministry Areas a reality. As usual, the conference started with a look at the diocesan finances. Despite correctly predicting a loss this year, it was not as great as originally planned due to the better-than expected investment returns. It is expected to reach a balanced budget within 5 years.

The conference was informed of the relevant appointments that were made this year and Matt Batten gave an oversight of the various highlights form the Diocese’s Communications and Outreach plans. These included 8,000 visitors a month to the website, Facebook reaching 20,000 people, Twitter reaching 158,000 people and Llandaf Matters having 813 subscribers.

The conference was also treated to a number of stories and hope from around the diocese that included, food deliveries, online worship, wider community contact, Citizen Church opening their new coffee shop and other stories.

Bishop June’s address focused on the need to accelerate the Ministry Areas if Parish life is to thrive. She talked of the need to adapt in order to meet our rich Anglican tradition and to deliver the Diocesan vision. The rest of the conference focussed on the Ministry Areas and included a presentation by James Laing as to how we will deliver our vision through the Ministry Areas and a shared learning exercise delivered through Archdeacon Mike Komor, John Gambles and the Venerable Andrew Jones. We heard accounts from the diocese of Bangor and St Asaph regarding their experiences but also from Pontypridd.

Following a quick question and answer session, we broke out into our own Ministry Areas to discuss the opportunities there. This was ably led by the Rev Richard Green. Following the summing up it was identified that two themes had emerged, being; Ministry areas allowed ideas and resources to be more easily shared Ministry Areas are at different stages and so there will be a need for tailored support

The Conference closed in prayer led by Reverend Doctor Angela Cooper

Martyn Silezin

Area Deanery Conference

During the year there had been no Actual Deanery Conference. With ministry areas being implemented in January 2022, we had a meeting of The North Cynon Valley representatives to discuss the proposals. During 2021, a shadow ministry area will be set up.

Marian Godsall (Deanery representative)

St Luke’s Sunday School

BLAST 2020 started off as successful as any other year with a growing Sunday School. However, due to the start of the pandemic in March we could no longer continue. It has been great to see so many of the children and parents continue to join the online services and since social distancing has allowed services to recommence, the return of these families to our Parish church. We look forward to welcoming you back in St Luke’s when restrictions are lifted further .

Karen

St Fagan’s Mothers Union

Like all aspects of life 2020 has been a very different year for St Fagan’s Mothers Union members. We had devised a varied and different programme of events for 2020 in the hope of attracting more members in a younger age range. As things turned out, with worsening COVID numbers and restrictions, this wasn’t to be.

In January 2020 Mrs Marian Godsall stepped down as group leader, a post she had held for many years. Mary Wynne continued as secretary and Alison Jones as treasurer. As no one came forward to act as group leader Mary and Alison together undertook to move things forward as best they could.

As a group, we are so grateful for Marians leadership and guidance over the years. Her tireless work in promoting and sustaining the group is appreciated beyond measure.

We met as a group on three occasions. Our successful post Christmas dinner, our AGM in February and a very entertaining speaker evening in March. We hope to continue with at least some of our planned programme in the coming year if we are allowed and if our membership feel comfortable to participate in events which we always hope will be well attended.

We currently have forty members down from forty three in 2019. One person has moved away and we were all deeply saddened by the loss of Miss Lillian Rochester and Miss Jessie Richards, both of whom were long standing members who gave so much of their time and experience to Mothers Union. We miss them both and remember them with fondness.

Many of our members have friendship groups within our organisation and I know all have kept in touch and supported each other in the spirit of Christian sisterhood and fellowship. I thank them all for their resilience in what has been for some, very difficult circumstances.

Alison Jones

Parish Pastoral Visiting Team

The team continued to be an important outreach to those of our congregations who for various reasons are unable to worship in our churches. We were only able to meet once that year, but all our Nursing Homes within the parish were also visited on that occasion. We have strived to keep contact with our housebound members by phone calls, letters etc. Sadly, a few of those we visited have died during the past year. May they all Rest In Peace.

We were all saddened by the death of Lillian one of our Pastoral team visitors who had been so committed to visiting the sick and housebound throughout the parish.

Marian Godsall (Coordinator)

PCC Secretary’s Report

This Year (2020) has been exceptional one for the PCC, as we have not been able to meet in person only on two occasions. We were fortunate to have one PCC meeting via zoom. These meetings were well attended and the effective running of the three churches was discussed.

Once again I am sure you will agree that we must thank all members of the PCC as they continue to work so hard with the general running of our churches.

Thanks must go to our Treasurer Mrs Jan Williams for her effective guidance in our decision making as well as her constant ability to balance the books” so efficiently.

Thank you also to our very own Fr Richard, who has once again been a wonderful leader and has shown us how good it is to support one and other and the people throughout the community.

Margaret Harris PCC Secretary

St Fagan’s Community Hall

At the start 0f 2020 the hall continued to be widely used by a variety of groups with an age range from the very young to the more numerically challenged. Children's party bookings were still very popular. The hall users were still a regular feature of the timetable with regular classes including Camera Club, Sewing Class, Crafts Class, Theatre Group, Dance Class, Labour Party, Welsh Learners and the Altzheimers group ”singing for the brain”. We had been able to access a grant of £360.00 from the ICF OLDER PEOPLE GRANT, for the Tea and Toast Club which we had used to buy a new coffee machine, a large teapot, an electric tin opener, new chopping boards and a supply of jams. Unfortunately before we could benefit from these items, in late March, Covid 19 forced us to close the hall and it remains closed to this date. We were able to redirect our supplies of jams tea and coffee to a charity and the unspent money remains in the church account. Although the hall is closed to all user groups some office activities are taking place for example the printing of the parish magazine, printing of service leaflets and other activities based on community outreach which I have to say, I personally have not been involved in. Let us hope that 2022 turns out to be a better year.

Sandra

Social Committee

The events of last year put paid to nearly all of our social and fundraising activities which took quite a big hit financially. When the Social Committee met in January, we had arranged a full and varied programme of events for 2020. When lockdown happened everything had to be put on hold. No summer fete last year and no Christmas Fair etc. However, thanks to Fr Richard and some of our more technically able parishioners we were able to hold Zoom Quiz nights. Very entertaining they proved to be. . Let’s hope 2021 will enable us to get together with fun and fellowship.

Pat Davies

Caffi Cinio

The same as other activities affected by Covid, the parish’s Thursday lunch club, Caffi Cinio, has not been able to meet during lockdown. In fact the last time we ate together and enjoyed each other’s company was March 12 2020 . A look back at our records showed we had gammon with parsley sauce, vegetables and apple crumble with custard! Those were the days!

In an effort to keep things rolling the ‘committee’ - Ann, Rosalind and yours truly, have ‘lovebombed’ our lunchers with cards and gifts, periodically, and Connecting @ Christmas were generous with gifts too. The year has not been without sadness. Lillian, a founder member of Caffi, and kitchen supremo, unexpectedly passed away. She is one truly irreplaceable, for many reasons. Jessie Richards, another of our regulars, sadly died.

The question on the lips of all our guests when we distance-give our gifts is, ‘When do you think we’ll meet again?’. We don’t know but an out-doors picnic is an idea being explored. Watch this space!

Elizabeth

Parish Magazine

We usually produce 10 copies of the magazine every year, however 2020 will be a year we will all never forget. The Coronavirus pandemic caused disruption to all our lives, and we were unable to produce all the 10 copies. The last copy to be produced was the March edition. However, not to be beaten, we started back up with a joint August/ September edition. It was a way of moving out of the feeling of isolation created by the pandemic lockdown. A big thank you to everyone involved in distributing to the magazines to people’s homes. Thank you to everyone who sends in articles for the magazine.

Pat Davies

Faith Factory

Faith Factory due to COVID restrictions has not met in the past year, all work has been transferred to posting on line in the face book group with the exception of some Easter videos on you tube. We do not as yet have a date when Faith Factory can reconvene.

Angela

Company at Christmas

The tradition of a Christmas Day meal at the hall could not occur this year but instead was replaced with Connecting at Christmas . This was a joined up project with Make Lunch and Cafe Cinio and we delivered “Bags of Joy” to recipients with the same Ethos of sharing Christmas Love and Joy in our community. We received fantastic support from Tesco and Asda.

These Bags containing a handmade stocking, a knitted pudding cover over a chocolate orange , Christmas chocolates and goodies, and hygiene essential These so well received by the recipients and delivered by a band of community volunteers some in fancy dress, all activities were carried out Socially Distanced. We were also able to facilitate the provision of Bags to other Churches in the Deanery. In total we delivered over 120 bags. We were able again to outreach to the community at Easter and delivered over 100 Easter eggs in the same way.

Angela

Messy Church

Messy Church has not been able to meet in person this year due to COVID, but has been run over ZOOM as Messy Church at home for Harvest and Easter, and supported with activities and videos on the Facebook page for Advent and Christmas and Remembrance Sunday. All families who participated with Messy Church at home had an activity pack delivered to their house with everything they needed, whilst observing COVID requirements .

Angela

Nab Youth Club

Unfortunately, due to the restrictions in place and with the pandemic we have been unable to hold any sessions. We have not had the scope to be able to get online with them. The plan is to apply for some funding and take this opportunity relaunch with hopefully some new equipment and a fresh new start.

Jan Vardon

St Fagan’s Holiday Lunch Club

Although we have not been holding sessions we have been reaching out to our families with our boxes of hope. This is a food parcel that is contributing to feeding their families. We have also been part of a food surplus scheme, which means we have been able to provide significant amounts of food but at no cost to us. We have 21 families on our books at the moment. We are hoping that we might be able to return to holding sessions towards the autumn.

Jan Vardon

Tea and Toast 2020

The tea and toast morning at St. Luke’s was as popular as ever for the beginning of the year until covid prevented us from meeting. There was an average of twenty four people regularly attending. Pam, Margaret Julie and Janet helped to provide this service. The tea, coffee, biscuits and toast are free but everyone generously gives a donation which we are saving to buy items for the hall.

Margaret Lloyd

Welsh Worship

There was no absence of worship in the Welsh language during the 2020 lockdown, in St Fagan’s (The Holy Eucharist in Welsh is celebrated on the last Sunday of the month, in the afternoon, in the parish church.

Early lockdown meant the service was live-streamed only but when churches were allowed open again, under lighter restrictions, in person worship was enjoyed, albeit no singing was possible, The hearty singing of well-known and much-loved traditional hymns has always been a popular feature of the Welsh service and is much-missed. Live streaming of the service continued, in addition and attracted many viewers.

Fr Richard continued to present and preach at the Eucharist and his mastery of the language continued to impress. The service uses bilingual copies which can be followed by learners as well as proficient Welsh speakers and a very important aspect of Y Cymun is that it welcomes worshipers from all denominations, many of whose chapels have suffered closure.

Restrictions on numbers , no singing or readings, affected the usual annual ‘set piece’ of the Christmas Carol Service, which in 2020 therefore, had to take a different format. And the much-looked-forwardto visit of the Revd Sion Rhys-Evans , from North Wales as guest preacher, suffered compromise as it could be enjoyed only virtually.

It is hoped that 2021 will see normal service resumed but llangyfarchiadau i pawb for maintaining such a valuable and appreciated act of worship during such difficult circumstances.

Elizabeth.

Teddy Bear Service

Unfortunately due to the current restrictions, we have not been able to hold any services this year.

We have missed the children, parents and the bears very much and hope that we will be able to start again soon. Stay safe everyone

Christine Jones

1st Aberdare St Fagan’s Scouts Report Overview of 2020

How do you start to describe the last 12 months? It has been like no other year that anyone can remember. Many of us spent a great deal more time at home and in our gardens.

Fortunately, the year started well! During the month of January, we had activities planned for all sections within the group. It started with the Scout section taking a trip to Cardiff Museum to visit Dippy the Dinosaur. The plan had been to travel to Cardiff by train, but this was changed at the last minute due to engineering works between Aberdare & Cardiff. The scouts were fascinated with the size of the dinosaur and why they had become extinct.

The weekend of 24th to 26th January was the camp for Cubs & Beavers at Dolygaer Outdoor Centre. This was to be the first time some of the Cubs and nearly all the Beavers had spent a night away from home. As the Cubs are older, they stayed for the two nights and Beavers stayed only overnight on the Saturday. During Saturday we had planned a hike, and luckily the weather was fine and dry. We stopped halfway for a packed lunch. During the evening, activities were planned to keep all Cubs & Beavers busy. Also, on the same Weekend the Scouts section had a Sleepover in the Hall to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Moving on to February and for the weekend of the 14th to 16th the Scout section had booked Dolygaer Outdoor Centre for a camp. During the weekend Storm Dennis decided to make his presence felt. This was no reason for group leaders and hardy Scouts to have their plans disrupted, so the hike went ahead with the storm gathering strength. All arrived back safely at the centre although thoroughly soaked. During the night, the power was lost to the centre and all had to manage using torches. This added to the excitement of the camp. While packing up on the Sunday Morning ready to return home, news came through that the main road had been blocked by a landslip. This meant taking a detour to return home via Talybont on Usk and Brecon. Thankfully all the group arrived back at the hall safely having thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I would like to take the opportunity at this point to thank the leaders, Kath, Sean, Sharon, and Millie our young leader, for all their hard work over that weekend to ensure that all the Scouts remained safe.

March arrived and a Cynon District Sponsored walk was organized for Saturday 14th for all sections. The walkers set off from outside Aberdare Library, and proceeded along the lower road into the country Dare Valley Country Park. The shortest walk, for the beavers, took them just to the visitor’s centre. Then the Cubs continued as far as the top lake and walked around the lake a few times before returning to the visitor’s centre. Scouts had to walk up to the Welsh flag on top of the Darran and back. Refreshments were provided for everyone at the end of the walk. March 16th was the last time the Scout section had a faceto-face meeting, all other meetings had to be cancelled due to advice from the Scout Association on the COVID 19 pandemic.

This has not stopped our Scout section carrying on with their badge work! Within a week Kath had set up Zoom meetings via our Facebook page. This not only enabled the Scouts to interact with each other via Zoom but meant they were able to complete activities at home towards their badges. A virtual stay at home camp was planned to celebrate VE Day, and all who participated in this camp enjoyed the experience. Many activities have been completed during the year which has helped the scouts feel that they are doing something close to normal. One activity which had an impact to people outside the group was the “Care for The Care Homes” activity. For this each scout designed an individual piece of bunting with a message of kindness to a resident of a care home. When this had been completed all the individual bunting was joined together to make a long chain, this was then given to the residents of the Laurel’s Care home. Activities have been posted on the Facebook page by Yvonne for the Beavers. They have not taken part in any Zoom meetings.

As I write this there is hope that things will one day get back to some sort of normality! As yet we have no date on when we will resume face to face meetings but until then we will still use Zoom meetings as and when necessary. There will be many challenges ahead when it is safe for us to resume meetings, and if anybody would be interested in helping with group, please contact me.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and well

Kind Regards. Geraint Davies Group Scout Leader

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PARISH OF ABERDARE ST FAGAN INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT FOR THE ACCOUNTS YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2020 I have examined the accounts for the above period and have found them to be correct. Signed MR GARETH MORRIS 24/3/21