Carmel Baptist Church, Llanharan

06/06/2026

Rev. Stephen Pare will lead our Service on Sunday June 7th at 11.00 a.m. We will share Communion during this service.
Reading: Matthew 9:9-13 and 18-26
All mid week meetings will be held as usual.
Wednesday 10.30 a.m. Tea/Coffee and fellowship.
Friday: 10.00- 11.30 Coffee morning and toddler fun in the schoolroom. All ages welcome.
Friday: 9.15-11.15 FoodBank.

We remember all who are sick and unable to join with us for worship in person and for those who care for them.

This week’s message from Stephen:

Disciples/Apprentices

On Sunday I talked about us being disciples and that one writer likened us to apprentices. I spoke about the cotton mills in Lancashire where the new recruits would ‘sit alongside Nelly’. Would sit by Nelly as she worked at her loom and watch and learn and then sit next to Nelly so she could practice whilst still watching and learning. Then she might move to sit behind Nelly still close enough for help but getting on on her own the vast majority of the time. As disciples/apprentices, of Jesus we begin by sitting alongside Him in our reading about Him from the gospels, by sitting alongside Him in worship and our times of prayer. We too sit alongside our sisters and brothers in Christ in the pews at worship, in Carmel on Sundays and Wednesdays. In many ways Wednesdays is more like sitting alongside Nelly as we get a chance to share our thoughts and views, which I believe is an important part of our discipleship. You don’t have to contribute but hear more voices than just mine on Sunday as we explore whatever has been read at the start of our time after our worship of hymns chosen by those present.

All this helps us grow in faith and as disciples, and as we grow closer to Jesus and experience the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit we can begin to contribute to the outreach of the fellowship as we live our daily lives of faith among the communities in which we live and share during the week.

As a church we too reach out through our outward giving, the notice board at the back tells of £3,500 given to the SW Baptists and the Baptist Missionary society, this as well as at least £2,000 more last year sent to other charities in the name of Carmel Baptist Church. This outward giving is a testimony of our belief in reaching out into the community to meet needs as well as share faith. As Jesus reminds us ‘In so far as you did it to one of these my children you did it to me’.

May we each continue to seek to grow in our faith as daily, we read our Bible, share our life with God in prayer and worship with the fellowship week by week. May we too continue to hold each other in our prayers, especially those with particular needs, and pray around our Church too asking our Lord to fill the pews that sit empty week by week.

With my love and prayers

Stephen

23/05/2026

Rev. Stephen Pare will lead our Service on Sunday May 24th at 11.00a.m.

Reading: Acts 2 : 1-21

Friday 9.15-11.15 Food Bank

Please note that for this week only as it is half term there will be no other midweek meetings.

We continue to hold in our thoughts and prayers all who are sick and unable to share fellowship with us and for those who care for them.

This week’s message from Stephen:

Another from Erica the ‘Farmer Girl’, this week on Prayer

It’s Friday again, which means it is time for Prayer Request and Praise Friday. Honestly, I think sometimes we forget just how absolutely insane it is, in the best possible way, that we can literally talk to God whenever we want. Like...the Creator of everything. The One who spoke stars into existence, designed every living creature, keeps the universe functioning, and somehow still has time for us, including when we are an emotional disaster, running on caffeine, sleep deprivation, and questionable decision making.

And He does not require an appointment. We do not need a perfect script. We just get to go to Him. Anytime.

That kind of freedom is something I think we far too easily take for granted. Because through Jesus, we are not standing outside hoping someone holier can pass along our message. We are not waiting nervously, wondering if God is too busy. We are His children, and that means we have direct access to our Father at all times. Good day, bad day, devastating day, exhausting day, “I am currently hiding in the bathroom for five minutes of peace” day...He is there.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Confidence.

Not fear.

Not “once I get myself together.”

Not “after I stop struggling.”

Confidence.

Because prayer is not about performance. It is about relationship. It is not about having perfect words. Sometimes prayer is eloquent, and sometimes it is, “Lord, I genuinely have no idea what I am doing right now, please help.”

And both matter.

Sometimes I think one of the greatest freedoms we have is that no matter what is happening in this world, no matter what diagnosis hits, what bills pile up, what heartbreak crashes in, or what burden feels unbearable, we can always go directly to Him. No illness can block that. No financial strain can take it away. No grief is too heavy, no situation too messy, no exhaustion too overwhelming.

And this week, I would really love prayer for...........

Who are you praying for at the moment,on Friday, or on any day?

With my love and prayers Stephen

09/05/2026

Sunday May 10th Rev.Stephen Pare will lead our Service at 11.00a.m.
Reading: John 14:15-21
Wednesday 10.30a.m. Tea / Coffee and fellowship.
Friday 10.00- 11.30 Coffee Morning and Toddler fun in the Schoolroom.All ages welcome.
Friday 9.15-11.15 FoodBank.

This week’s message from Stephen:

What is God like?

That was one of the questions Jesus answered in our reading last Sunday, Jesus said ‘I only do what He sees the Father doing’. So if you want to know what God is like read the Gospels, not just once. One man whose books I have read some of, says he read the Gospels only, for four years and thought that by then he had a pretty good idea what Jesus was talking about. Of course Jesus came to live among us as one of us, because in the Old Testament we only get glimpses of God, who He is and how He is and there is some of man making God in his own image. At times it looks like they are upgrading a king to see how God lives and judges and rules, and some of the kings of Israel fell well short of what an earthly king should be.

In Exodus chapter 3 God tells Moses that His name is Yahweh, (Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh in Hebrew). The name means ‘I am who I am’, but could be ’I IS or I Are’. I Am who I Am is putting God outside of time and space. God is not constrained by the limitations of time and space that we are, so after His resurrection Jesus was able to appear in a locked room, disappear from the presence of two disciples in Emmaus, something you and I cannot do, for yes Jesus is God, come to earth constrained by time and space until He rises from the dead.

The name of God is special therefore and so special is it to Jews that the Orthodox Jews rarely say the name of God, in case they say it wrong, and instead use Adonai, 'My Lord' in English and in many bibles you will find in the Old Testament the word LORD printed in small capitals, this is where out of respect for the name of God, Adonai is read, or spoken by the reader.

We are privileged to know God through Jesus, or Yeshua in Hebrew, we are privileged to use His name without fear of mispronouncing it, for He, having lived as one of us, is our brother as well as our Master, Lord and King and as our brother, He tells us to call God Abba, Daddy. We are as Paul reminds us adopted, “You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children” (Romans 8:15, NLT). In Roman law the adopted child had all the same rights and privileges as a child born to parents - as indeed they do now. So we, by God’s Spirit are adopted and Jesus is our brother.

We are truly God’s children!

With my love and prayers

Stephen

02/05/2026

Rev. Stephen Pare will lead our Service on Sunday May 3rd at 11.00a.m. We will share communion during this service.
Reading: John 5 : 19-29
Wednesday 10.30 a.m. Tea/Coffee and Fellowship. All welcome.
Friday 9.15-11.15 FoodBank.
Friday 10.00-11.15 Coffee morning and toddler fun in the school room. All ages welcome.

This week’s message from Stephen:

Good Shepherd Sunday

Last Sunday we had John 10:1-10 as our reading - again! We had that reading on March 8th and the second part following on from those verses a week later. This last Sunday was also Vocation Sunday in some denominations, and the two actually fit quite well together. For we are all sheep of the same flock and fold following the same Good Shepherd and being cared for and fed and watered and rescued by Him.

As sheep of the shepherd, we all have a calling from the shepherd. Our first call is to faith, a call we all share with every Christian across the world and down the ages. There is another call many of us share and that is into relationship, marriage. Each of us, within a Fellowship, a community of faith, a Church family, will have another vocation. That may not be one that stays the same throughout our life, or time within a fellowship. As a child I was an altar server, then a chorister in the Choir where my Dad was Dean, then back to being a server. The I was entirely convinced my call was to be a teacher, spent 4 years training and only 3 years teaching before coming to Wales to train for ordained ministry, another call, where I really have also been a teacher, a chorister and a server, but first and foremost a Priest, Vicar, Minister.

I am not alone in that calling by God, each one of has been given gifts and talents, we each have a vocation that expresses our faith. That could be an officer within the fellowship, secretary, treasurer, reader, it could be deacon. Equally it could be using baking talents, cleaning talents, flower arranging talents, welcoming others into worship, be they regulars or new, welcoming with sweets! We have seen recently the results of painting and tile repairing talents in the Baptistry. Running and supporting the Foodbank, helping with maintenance and repairs in Carmel and so many more. Each a call from God for us to share our gifts, talents, with the faith community and out into the local community. My lists above are far from exhaustive, but be assured YOU have a part to play in, through, out from Carmel, for which God has equipped you.

With my love and prayers

Stephen

25/04/2026

Rev.Stephen Pare will lead our Service on Sunday April 26th at 11.00a.m.
Reading: John 10:1-10
Wednesday 10.30 a.m. Tea/Coffee and fellowship.All welcome.
Friday 10.00-11.30 a.m. Coffee morning and toddler fun in the schoolroom.All ages welcome.
Friday 9.15-11.15 FoodBank. ( please note new time for FoodBank)

Our thoughts and prayers are with Carl Teisar and all his family on the death of his wife. We trust that our Lord will bless and comfort him and his family at this difficult time.
Please continue to hold in your prayers all who are unable to share regular fellowship in person with us and with those who care for them.
Prayers too for our young people who will be sitting important exams in the coming weeks.
This week’s message from Stephen:

Drain and radiators, walls and bridges.

The window cleaner arrived today with ladders, squeegees etc. Whilst they can, if we are out, use ladders to get over the fence around our back garden, it is easier if I unlock the gate, remove the barrier! That and a friend’s post on Facebook, about her holiday and walls and bridges, which she - being a vicar - turned to ask the question what are the walls that prevent people coming to church and what are the bridges that enable them. That took my thinking back to my Dad - also a vicar - who asked the question, are we as people drains or radiators. Perhaps in some way, though not entirely those two thoughts are related.

The walls people have to climb to come into church may not even be visible to us. I remember, when I was in the Llantwit Ministry Team, arriving from another church to St Illtud’s Llantwit Major, to help with the second part of the service. As I walked in the side entrance to the graveyard, I paused a man was walking down the main path to the entrance, he paused when he was almost there and and turned and started walking back. I walked onto the main path and asked if I could help him. ‘I know it sounds strange’, he said, ‘but I want to go into church but am not sure what I will find and what I should do?’ The man was in a suit, and I later found out was a professional used to dealing with people. I said I was going in and would go with him, and thankfully he came with me and enjoyed his time with us. What other peoples walls are, well could be anything. That is where we need to be radiators rather than drains. We need to be warm in relation to people, rather than be a drain on them, we need to be bridges to Jesus not walls in the way. I am sure that is what we all want, but I know there are times when I am not that radiator to someone, I am a wall rather than a bridge.

Jesus was most definitely a radiator of love, care and compassion and even watched after the rich young man and loved him, even though, he saw Jesus instruction to remove that which stood between him and God, to give away his wealth, as impossible, as a wall, when Jesus was actually offering a bridge. Indeed there may be times in our lives when what seems like a wall may just be a bridge!

May we pray that we are bridge builders and central heating engineers for Jesus, as individuals and as a church

With my love and prayers

Stephen

17/04/2026

Rev. Stephen Pare will lead our Service on Sunday April 19th at 11.00a.m.
Reading: Luke 24: 13-35.
Sunday School: The Road to Emmaus.

Wednesday 10.30 a.m. Tea/Coffee and fellowship.
Friday: 10.00-11.30 a.m. Coffee morning and toddler fun in the schoolroom. All ages welcome.
Friday 9.15-11.15 FoodBank. (Please note new time).

Please remember in your prayers those that are not enjoying good health at the moment, for their families and for those that care for them.

This week’s message from Stephen:

Worship

Sunday was another lovely day of worship for me, twice, in very different styles. In the morning I was with, as you know, the Carmel family and Michael prayed with and for me before the service, and the congregation are called to three or so minutes of quiet prayer before the service. This is traditional worship, but with 3 hymns and 2 choruses, so a bit less traditional in that sense. We heard scripture read to us, spent time in prayer and hopefully had some more understanding of the bible reading we had heard.

In the afternoon I was leading the worship at a service called Central@4 in Nolton Church Hall, an informal time, trying to reach out to those who don’t attend church. That begins with coffee and biscuits and ends with sandwiches and cake. The worship runs, as the morning did for an hour, but people gather during the half hour before the service, drink tea and coffee and chat and then continue chatting after the service over the refreshments. Before the ‘doors open’ the team who have set up the hall, brought the refreshments, are ‘welcomers’ and musicians spend 10 or so minutes in prayer The service begins with prayer and then twenty minutes of modern worship songs led by, on this occasion, a guitar, me, a keyboard and either a tenor saxophone or a flute, provided by friends who used to be part of the worship band in my last parish. Then there is a reading from scripture and then the sermon, which came with pictures on the TV screens at the front (and one towards the back and the creche). After prayer the worship concludes with two or three more worship songs.

I am not offering these for comparison, because both are worship, authentic worship, Christian family sharing together in God’s presence. Neither was better than the other, they were different offerings to God of His worth (worship is about us proclaiming God’s worth, that is where the word originated).

I guess I am lucky that I enjoy both, not everyone will necessarily and I know how fortunate I am to be involved in the running of these different styles.

For me what is important that worship is about coming to meet with God and family, to entrust our days ahead and our lives into the enfolding and secure arms of God, meeting Jesus and seeking the ongoing tutelage of the Holy Spirit. For as the preacher in the afternoon reminded us, and it wasn’t me, we cannot do life right without the Holy Spirit’s presence and guidance. Paul in Ephesians 5 verse 18 tells the Ephesians, and us, ‘be being filled with the Holy Spirit’, he uses the present continuous tense, his instruction is not a one off, but an ‘always be being filled’. We need to begin each day afresh and invite the Holy Spirit to be our guide and our guard

With my love and prayers

Stephen

05/04/2026

05/04/2026

Rev. Stephen Pare will lead our Easter Service on Sunday April 5th at 11.00a.m.
We will share communion and Elaine will be baptised during this Service.
Reading: John 20:1-18 ( I am the resurrection and the life.)
Friday: 10.30-12.00 FoodBank.
Please note there will be no other midweek meetings this week.

This week’s message from Stephen:

Lent - Holy Week - Easter

What a journey this is, beginning on Ash Wednesday running through Lent, with Sundays to celebrate the Resurrection, and in our case focus on Jesus ‘I Am’ sayings. We have done six and just have ‘I Am the Resurrection and the Life’ to come to on Sunday when Elaine makes her statement of faith in the Resurrection and the Life that Jesus offers us over the three day event which is Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Day. Lent is quite a while but for me it has been a good time to look afresh at my prayer time and reading. Holy Week I always love, a chance to pause and reflect more closely on Jesus His teaching and His living out of that teaching in His ministry and living. Good Friday always brings me face to face with the unimaginable cost of my relationship with God through Jesus Christ, made real by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

In our Good Friday worship we focused in the Gospel reading our prayers and four other readings, on the cost for Jesus and the consequences of that cost for us. We leave church on Good Friday with Jesus being laid in the tomb. DO we realise how fortunate we are to be living this side in history, of the Resurrection. Good Friday evening and Holy Saturday, or Easter Eve, are for us days to get ready for Easter Day, for those first disciples they were days of loss and bewilderment, days of despair, that which they hoped for had been dashed before them, though only one of the 12 stood at the foot of the Cross.Hope had gone, their future vanished. Jesus had, of course, told them of ALL that would happen, but they had not heard Him.

That ‘not hearing,’ does each year make me pause and think, what have I not heard Jesus saying during the past year, or during Lent, what have I not paid full attention to in reading scripture, especially the Gospels, in prayer time, in worship, in conversations with others about faith? May this Easter be for us a new revelation of the love and presence of God in our lives, a time to continue the things we started during Lent, or an new opportunity to do something to draw us closer to Jesus,

With my love and prayers and every blessing for a wonderful and truly blessed Easter after the horrors of Good Friday.

Stephen

28/03/2026

Rev. Stephen Pare will lead our Palm Sunday Service on Sunday March 29th at 11.00a.m.
Reading: John 15:1-17
Wednesday April 1st Tea/ Coffee and fellowship
Friday 10.30 - 12.00 FoodBank.

Our Good Friday walk of witness commences at Brynna Methodist at 1.00 We will walk call into the Church at Llanharan for a short time of reflection before ending our walk at Carmel with a Communion Service at approx 1.45 . Following the Service at Carmel we will enjoy tea/ coffee and hot cross buns.

Please note that as it’s school holidays, there will be no coffee morning for the next two weeks.

A reminder that during our Easter Sunday Service at 11.00a.m. Elaine will be baptised.

A gentle reminder to put your clocks back an hour on Saturday night. Don’t want you missising out on Stephen’s Sermon on Sunday morning. For those unable to be at Carmel for the Service, the Sermon is usually recorded and available for you to listen to in our WhatsApp prayer group. Thank you Stephen for sorting this.

This week’s message from Stephen:

Palm Sunday and the Holiest week of the year

This Sunday we remember Jesus arriving in Jerusalem on a donkey, (who have a cross on their back) surrounded by a crowd of followers and disciples who have branches from the palm trees and are waving them, laying their coats on the ground, some have used them too as a saddlecloth for the donkey. Jesus arrives on the animal kings rode when they come in peace, they went to war on horses. Through another gate in Jerusalem Pilate, on a horse and the Roman Garrison marched, as Passover meant hundreds of thousands of Jews arriving and the threat of revolution was heightened. The Religious authorities were not happy at all the Hosannas being shouted for Jesus, hosanna means ‘save us’. He also upset them, according to Matthew Mark and Luke’s accounts, as He entered the Temple and threw out the moneychangers and others selling there, saying that they had made the Temple a den of thieves. They had a monopoly, to change daily coinage into half a Jewish shekel for the Temple tax cost another half shekel. If you brought your own lamb as sacrifice it would most probably fail at least one of the 39 tests so ‘buy from the Temple!’

Jesus spent most of this week staying with Lazarus, Martha and Mary in Bethany, he spent Monday to Wednesday teaching in the Temple courtyard, on Thursday he organised His disciples to prepare the Passover Meal they would share and He would transform into Communion for all of us post resurrection. After that meal and a time of preparation and prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was betrayed, arrested, taken to a night time Jewish trial, which was forbidden by Jewish law, retried at daylight and then off to Pilate, Herod, Pilate again where he was condemned not least as the crowds now were shouting for the release of a rebellious murderer. It is interesting that Jesus, who had claimed to be the Son of His Father in heaven, which in Hebrew would be Bar-Abbas!

The thing to note about all of this week, including the events of Good Friday, is that Jesus is always in control as some of our Good Friday service will indicate. This week known by many as Holy Week, the Holiest week of the year, is a week, which includes the defining moments of our future, both in this life and the next, but at what cost to Jesus, to God.

With my love and prayers for a good Holy Week

Stephen

This Sunday’s reading John 15:1-17 I Am the True vine

Easter Day’s reading John 20:1-18 I Am the resurrection and the life.

Also Elaine’s baptism.

Sent from my iPad

21/03/2026

Rev.Stephen Pare will lead our Service on Sunday March 22nd at 11.00a.m.
Reading: John 14:1 - 11 I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Wednesday 10.30 a.m. Tea/ Coffee and fellowship. All welcome.
Friday 10-11.30 a.m. Coffee morning and toddler/ baby fun in the schoolroom. All ages welcome.
Friday 10.30 - 12.00 Food Bank.

Advance notice Good Friday, those of us who can walk will meet at Brynna Methodist at 1.00 p.m. for a walk of witness finishing off at Carmel for our Good Friday Service during which we will share communion. (If joining us at Carmel, we expect to begin the Service at approximately 1:45pm)

Our Easter Sunday Service will be a baptismal Service. Please pray for Elaine who will be baptised during the Service. All welcome.

This week’s message from Stephen:

Two weeks left of Lent

How has your Lent been? Did you give something up or take something on? However you did Lent so far, we have two weeks left. This coming week, which will lead us to the last Sunday in Lent, Palm Sunday and to the start of a week often called Holy Week, a week we will look at in a bit more detail in next weeks post.

For me, Lent has been spent starting the day with Lectio 365, an App available for all phones, I used it last year and intend to continue using it throughout the coming year. It is a guided time with the Bible and some thoughts and reflections from some insightful people, it is thoughtful, thought provoking and at times challenging, but for me as well, it has rooted my day more firmly with God, it has been a good discipline. I have also been reading a book based on Archbishop Michael Currie’s ‘Way of Love’, the book asks the question ‘How do we live the Way of Love.’ It is written by Bishop Curries fellow American bishop Mariann Budde who delivered the sermon at the prayer service around Donald Trump’s inauguration. She outlines seven practices, to Turn, focus our attention on Jesus, to Learn, to spend some time each day with scripture, especially the Gospels, to Pray the result of turning to Jesus and looking at His teaching. The fourth of these practices is to Worship Sunday by Sunday, meeting with the people of God to do so, then we go out from worship, fed by the first four practices, the fifth is to Bless, to share God’s love as we have found it in Him with those we meet, in words of kindness and similar actions. The sixth, which she admits is the most challenging for most, is to Go, as she puts it: “to cross boundaries to cross the borders of our familiarity in order to better understand the experience of another.” Finally we Rest, again something we may find difficult. This says Mariann Budde is essential: “To rest is to remember that we are not alone and that not everything depends on us. We can lay our burdens down and make space in our lives for renewal and the things that make for joy. Scripture teaches that sabbath isn’t something we earn; it is our birthright as children of God.”

I now need to be able to keep this reading going as well after Lent, and have Selva’s latest book and one on Revelation to challenge my thinking.

With my love and prayers

Stephen

Next week’s reading: John 15 : 1-17