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REPORT OF THE 22nd A.E.C.W. ASSEMBLY

Date Added: 01 Jun, 2009

The annual Assembly & Conference of Associating Evangelical churches of Wales was held on Saturday 16th May at Newtown in mid-Wales. Over a hundred attended the day, representing forty churches, of which thirty seven were AECW members.

The first session of the day regularly deals with more formal business matters. Among these the Chairman Peter Milsom presented an application by Ebenezer Evangelical Congregational Church Pontnewydd, for AECW membership, which was unanimously approved. It was reported that a meeting helping AECW churches and others to register as Charities would be held in the autumn and that from 1st April 2009 new regulations require all churches to immediately register all property owned by the church with the Land Registry. The meeting agreed that the next Annual Conference would be held on 15th May 2010.

After refreshment thankfully provided by Newtown Evangelical Church the main session speaker, Rev Ian Parry from the Bay Church spoke. He took Mark 7:1-23 as his text in a challenging message on “Applying the Bible - church and tradition in a changing world.” He stressed the importance of understanding tradition particularly the dichotomy of the love and hate extremes among Christians. The way we obey God’s commands give the church an ethos but are they the beginning of traditions? He pointed out that the value of tradition varied with new churches having few traditions yet others could have more than a century of tradition. Historical traditions such as the Reformation and Revivals are powerful and significant roots and we are custodians of a great context.

The importance of evaluating traditions was emphasised as often the commands and traditions are not easy to distinguish. Mark Chapter 7 shows that we need to analyse the scriptures and assess them against our practice and not to be comfortable with our unrefined present position. Ian pointed out that Mark points out three common failures.

(1) A tendency to equate traditions with God’s commands

(2) A tendency to displace commands with the traditions of men

(3) A tendency to use traditions to determine who is for or against us and therefore a test of fellowship.

The result is that often traditions replace God’s commands and link churches rather than the proclamation of the gospel. There is also the need to evolve traditions with theological tradition amended to incorporate one-to-one evangelism and pastoral support. We need to add to a Pastor’s curriculum vitae “reformation and revival Christianity”. Finally the message stressed the need to eclipse tradition as we focus on our Lord Jesus Christ so that styles of music & worship fade into the background. We must remind ourselves that our God is the Lord of every tradition and culture.

After a break for fellowship over our lunch boxes, news from Wales & beyond was shared. Encouraging reports were presented by Richard Davies of a successful church strengthening ministry in Machynlleth, by Nicola Edkins working purposefully within a diverse community with the Bay Church in Cardiff while Alan Davey reported positively on the recent establishment of a Reformed Evangelistic Church in Bordeaux where he shares the preaching and the beginning of evangelical work among 100,000 student on the university campus. Short reports were given on the progressing North Wales Pastor’s Fellowship and a new training programme with the North West Gospel Partnership.

Following prayers in seminar groups, members discussed their chosen topic. Five themes were offered:

1. Applying the Bible - Ian Parry,

2. The Working Mother - Pat Norbury,

3. Mentoring to-morrows leaders –James Sercombe,

4. Reaching men - Andy Christofides

5. Helping each other as churches - Owen Griffiths.

Those attending the seminar groups commented very favourably on the usefulness of their discussions and the range of valuable contributions built on personal experience. These provided practical action plans, which could be adopted in local churches.

The conference closed with worship and Peter Milsom’s poignant parting words “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Let us take the living God to the people”.

Report by Dr. Vernon Williams, from Ebenezer, Swansea.