New Swansea Church

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ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN
CONTACT WALES
Father Luke Holden

occwales@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 01554 755690

11 New Rd
Dafen
Llanelli
SA14 8LS
Wales
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Visitors Since Sept 06

In January 2010 Father Luke, Michael Sandford and David Sage met with the Bishop of

Brecon and Swansea (Church In Wales) and his team .The Orthodox community was

offered the use of a church that has just become redundant. The plan is for the

Orthodox to share the church. We will be the main group using the building, and the only

community using the building on a Sunday. This means that we will be able to set our

own times for the services. We will also be able to set out the building for Orthodox

worship and keep everything set up on a permanent basis.

The building we were offered is Saint Matthew’s church on High Street, Swansea (near

the train station, across the road from the tax offices.) We used this church during Lent

several years ago.

The Church in Wales will continue to own the building, and will look after the structure.

They will also be using the church a bit during the week. Twice a month Saint

Matthew’s is also used by Coptic Christians on a Saturday. Apart from that, we have

the chance to develop this as an Orthodox centre. This will be exciting for the future of

the community.

Father Luke and the community board have circulated this news to everyone, and

consulted with as many people as possible. It was made clear that everyone would have

to contribute realistically to the cost of running our church. Costs for rent, heating and

insurance will have to be met every week. Members of the community have agreed that

the move to St Matthew’s Church should go ahead.

Now we have that decision, we are moving all our belongings to the new church. After a

trial period of 6 months we will have to reach agreement on a realistic contribution for

using the church and for the heating. We will also have to start paying towards the cost

of insuring all our community belongings. There are long- term discussions for improving

the heating system in the church and making it less expensive. Eventually we will be

signing a more permanent arrangement with the Church in Wales, for using Saint

Matthew’s for many years to come.

Now that we have moved to Saint Matthew’s, we will start celebrating our services

there every Sunday. We will be more relaxed, with no rushing about to set things up

and put them away. In the long run we will need more people attending services, and

more people paying properly for their church. This means real commitment. It will be a

great improvement but a challenge as well.

We have moved to Saint Matthew’s Church.