Rivertown United Reformed Church

Arthur Balfour, once the P.M. of Great Britain, declared, "The best thing to give your enemy is forgiveness, to a friend your heart, to a child a good example, to a father deference, to a mother conduct that will make her proud of you, to yourself respect, to all men charity."

It takes two to make a quarrel
And both of them are wrong.
Think deeply, speak gently, love much
Laugh often, work hard, give freely, pay promptly,
Pray earnestly, and be kind.

Thank you to Margery for this item.

Catching the vision in Wales

The Rev. Lloyd Vidler of the Uniting Church in Australia is with our Synod from March to June this year as a theological and mission consultant. He is based in Swansea but will travel all around Wales to observe and listen to us and offer guidance as to how we can best develop our work as some of Christ’s people in Wales.

On Saturday 25th June there will be a "Consultation Day" at Builth Wells when Lloyd will give us a first report. There will also be a bookstall, sales tables, Fairtrade stall, information stands and activities for the children.

Traidcraft

Traidcraft is the UK’s largest Fair Trade organisation, established in 1979, consisting of a trading company with sales of over £10 million a year and a charity with income of over £2 million a year. Together they fight poverty through trade. The trading company provides vital income for producers from 31 countries and the charity works to break down barriers that prevent the poor from gaining access to markets.

Traidcraft specialises in offering customers a vibrant and diverse range of products from across the world – as individual and varied as the producers who create them, and sell fine foods, handmade paper and cards, gifts for all the family, home furnishings, and fashion, jewellery and accessories. Traidcraft works with volunteers called Fair Traders and their work accounts for half of the turnover for the trading company, Traidcraft Plc, helping to improve the lives of its producers overseas. Traidcraft is a Christian based organisation, committed to working with all people to offer producers and their families hope for a better future.

My dear friends,

Let me begin by asking you two questions. First of all, I wonder what it is that you find hardest to believe. Out of all the things you believe, which of them demands of you the most faith? I can still remember as a child planting my first packet of seeds in our small garden. It took a lot of faith to believe that some time later lots of brightly coloured flowers would appear. But they did. My mother kept on encouraging me to believe it would happen and, even though I often gave up, it did!

For most people the thing that they find hardest to believe is that a dead person can live again. And that comes as no surprise, does it, because we have all encountered the finality of death. And yet Easter is about a dead person who lives again: but, more importantly, who will never die again! The death of Jesus had certainly been final. He had been tortured and crucified; he had been wrapped in burial clothes and placed in a sealed tomb. Yet, three days later, he was seen by many people and proclaimed to be alive again.