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Jim Stewart
Gweini Issue 53 - 21st October 2008
It’s Gweini Post 53!!!! In this edition we have….
Events
News Events
- Bethlehem Church Life Centre are holding their annual conference in Cefn Cribwr, nr Bridgend on Saturday, November 8th on ‘The Challenge of Change’. The speakers are all house-hold names for many – Julian Richards (Gweini Prez), Paul Hocking (Thornhill Church & Cardiff Gweini Chair) and Bill Chapman (Myrtle House & Elim Llanelli) as well as BCLC’s own Rob Jones, Mike Holmes and Heulwen Webb. The combined experience of the speakers is immense and it promises to be an awesome time. See here for more info on the conference and here for the booking form & directions.
- In time-honoured fashion, and just like Cardiff buses, you wait ages for a good event and then three come at once: also on November 8th is a Romance Academy Training Day at Glenwood Church from 9.30 to 4.30pm. The Romance Academy team were involved in the BBC2 documentary ‘No sex please we’re teenagers’. The programme, which is designed to train and resource you to set up and run your own Romance academy for young people in your area, will include youth workers from the local Vale Romance Academy team together with Academy Graduates who will tell their story. For further information and to book your place, contact Ruth Stubbs on 020 8416 7344 or email her on
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.
- A third event on November 8th is ‘The Stand’, which is being held in the NEC in Birmingham, and is to highlight the growing problem of trafficking and slavery around the world, presented by ‘Hope for Justice’. To see the speakers and bands line-up and for more info, click here.
- The fourth November 8th event is Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s London conference, held from 11.00 – 4.00pm at the Emmanuel Centre. CSW campaign on behalf of the persecuted church. Click here for further info.
- Gary Swart from Tearfund’s international group will be speaking at Albany Road Baptist Church, Roath, Cardiff on Friday November 7th at 7.30pm. He will talk of Tearfund’s work with HIV sufferers in Mozambique. For further information, call Miriam on 01248 723 086.
- From Fame to Freedom – Audience with Yazz at Lisvane Memorial Hall, Cardiff on Saturday October 25th at 7.45m for 8pm. The event is hosted by Lisvane Baptist Church and tickets are £7 (concessions £4). Contact Amanda Coombs on 02920 76 40 23 for further information.
- Cardiff Christian Healing are holding a three-day healing conference on 6-8th November at Woodville Christian Centre, Crwys Road, Cardiff from 10am – 5pm & 7pm – 9.30pm each day. Click here for further in formation on speakers (Henry & Grace Falany of the Mariposa Revival Center in California, Conrad Lampan and Erik & Mary Fok) and booking or ring 029 20 190 113.
- Mobilizing Faith-Based Volunteers is being held at Duckpool Road Baptist Church, Newport on behalf of Newport Gweini & Churches Together in Newport. John M Evans, Gweini Research Director & Jim Stewart, Gweini Policy Director will be looking at the findings of March’s ‘Faith in Wales’ report for Newport, while the possibility of starting a Street Pastors in Newport will be discussed. The event will be from 12.00 to 1.30pm and lunch will be provided. For further information, ring Laurence on 01633 677 881 or email
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.
News- Hope UK is a Christian charity that enables young people to make drug-free choices. They currently have 12 Educators in Wales but are hoping to increase this number to 50, so that every Welsh community has access to drug and alcohol education. Read their success story here, which includes details on how to get in touch with them if you’d like to be receive training to become an Educator.
- John M Evans, our Research Director has been whizzing around presenting the results of Faith in Wales: Counting to Communities to appreciative audiences in Scotland (who are thinking of doing the same thing for haggis-eaters) and the WCVA Third Sector Research Network. Some interesting stuff he has come back with is that luncheon clubs (a speciality of Churches) have just been hailed as really effective in combating one of the worst ills of our society - loneliness. In addition, visiting people in hospices has been found to increase their life-spans. The benefits of community action by churches really are immense - much more than the £100M we were able to measure. Och aye the noo!
- Our friends at Faithworks announced recently that there will be are-structuring of the organisation to focus on new ways of achieving its strategic priorities in the current challenging economic climate. A key aspect of Faithworks’ strategy will be the new “Charities’ Parliament”, which is intended to enable debate and dialogue between churches, charities, faith groups and government. Read more here. Sadly, four of their gifted staff are being made redundant in the restructuring as several income streams have come to an end – please pray for our friends at this time.
- The Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson gave a robust defence of the Corporation’s engagement with religion this month at the 2008 Public Theology lecture, hosted by our friends at the Christian think-tank Theos. Read more here.
- This month has also seen the long-awaited re-launch of the South Wales Branch of the Christian Police Association. Read about the ‘CPA’ here. Just to clarify - there are no secret hand-shakes to learn that will get you off speeding or parking fines from Christian police officers!
- Gweini Policy Director Jim Stewart has just returned from a trip to Ukraine in which he was looking into the Ukrainian churches’ involvement in politics and social action. See here for a four-minute video clip recorded by team member Rhys Llwyd of Pastor Anatoliy Kaluzhnyi on the church’s role in the 2004 Orange Revolution.
- One of our astute members brought to our attention a few weeks ago that the WVCA’s Volunteering in Wales Fund had in its guidelines that evangelical organisations could not apply. We have since been in touch with the WCVA and they have removed the phrase and stressed unequivocally that they did not wish to deter any faith-based organisation from applying. We regularly feature news and events from the WCVA on Gweini Post as they are doing a great job!
- Which brings us seamlessly to the next item – the WCVA have recently published an article and guidance on the effects of the credit crunch on Welsh charities. Read it here.
It is only fitting that we finish this edition with a tribute to Tony Ford, who served tirelessly as Gweini Chief Exec over the past three years, and brought Gweini to hitherto unimagined levels. Tony is a good friend and much loved by us all and he simply felt that he had completed the task that he had been brought in to do. If you would like to send him any words of encouragement, email me on
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and I’ll forward it on to him.
For further information on any of the above, ring or Jim Stewart on 07921 080 464 or email us at
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GWEINI: The Council of the Christian Voluntary Sector in Wales
Jim Stewart
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