About Us 

 

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Croeso / Welcome


Bethania is a lively and friendly church community in Leeswood (Coed-Llai in Welsh) in North East Wales. Leeswood is a village of approximately 2,000 people located three miles south of Mold, close to the border with England.

The chapel we meet in is named after a village in Israel that Jesus often visited over 2000 years ago. In Biblical Hebrew, 'Bethania' means ‘house of the poor’. That's appropriate. By global economic standards, we in the West are well off. But Jesus often spoke of people being poor spiritually as well as economically. We feel that the need to learn to become rich in the things Jesus valued: forgiveness, compassion, justice and the love of God is a priority. Indeed, someone has said that many Western people are so poor that all they have left is money!

Jesus said: "Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the Kingdom of God" (Luke 6:20)

Here in Bethania Leeswood, we are seeking to be a community centred on Jesus and the things that make us truly rich. We are varied in age, background, and, to some extent, theological outlook, but at heart, we are Baptist, ecumenical, and evangelical. More on these a little later.  

We are closely involved with the Community in Leeswood through several activities. These include a baby and toddler group, weekly assembly talks in our village school, representation on the Board of Governors and other community groups. We run groups and activities, i.e., a children's group, a young people's group, a puppet group and an age-friendly Community Café. More details are in the site's 'Church Life' section.

 


People and Organisation


We are a small church whose members love God and have a big heart for helping those in need. 

We have twenty-seven members plus several regular and occasional attendees. We try to be inclusive, so you don't have to be a member to attend services or be part of a team.

We currently have a Leadership (Deacons) Team of four members, with numerous helpers brought in when needed. We are seeking to increase the size of the Leadership Team. We manage the work of the Church by dividing responsibilities into sub-teams. A member of the Leadership Team oversees each sub-team. 

The sub-teams are:
  • Children and Families
  • Outreach – which includes the puppet group.
  • Worship—arranging preachers, the music for services, communion, children's talks, etc. This includes our technical team, who prepare and operate the audiovisual equipment.
  • Fellowship and Care – We have a Care Group that looks out for anyone attending Bethania or not by offering prayer and practical support. We have a WhatsApp Group called 'Confidential – Pray for …', which enables those within the group to bring people and topics for prayer from many sources. The number of group members is increasing all the time. We are a very 'caring' church community. 
  • The Building – cleaning, upkeep, repairs, arranging, and planning.
  • Communication – website, notices issued by email, Facebook, and Leeswood and District News contributions. 
We encourage both members and non-members to be involved in some way, whether large or small, in the Church's life. This helps foster feelings of belonging.
 


Sunday Worship

Our weekly worship begins at 10:15 a.m. – usually 20-30 people attend. We have adopted a relatively informal style with various service leaders/preachers from within the church membership and outside. We use various music types, including traditional hymns, contemporary hymns and songs, and upbeat children's songs. The congregation sings Karaoke style with the words projected on the screen. Prayers, scripture readings, etc., are similarly projected.

Communion is usually celebrated on the second Sunday of each month after the main service.

We have occasional all-age family services (we want to increase the number of these); otherwise, children have their own time in another room. We emphasise the family, with mums, dads, and children encouraged to attend.

We are considering introducing a prayer/ bible study meeting but are unsure of the best time yet.

 


Weekday Young People's Activities


Bethania has several mid-week activities. All these existed pre-COVID, but changes to leaders and 'how we do things' have occurred post-Covid. These are:

Friday Morning: Bright Sparks, our baby/toddler group. Weekly attendance is between 5 and 10 babies/toddlers and 8 to 12 parents/grandparents/carers. Parents, playgroups, and health visitors hold this work in high regard. It is an effective "feed-through" to our children's and young people's activities.

Wednesday's Evening: High 5's —Reception through to Year 5. Current attendance is between 8 and 10 children. Activities include Bible stories, crafts, and games. The children are delivered and collected by their parents, so this provides an opportunity to get to know the parents. To support this work, we have 6 junior helpers (in years 7/8 at High school) who help us with the sessions on a rota basis. This is a new initiative that is working well. 

Wednesday Evening: Lazers – for young people from year 6 upwards and includes youth club activities, an opportunity to buy "tuck", and a brief teaching input. Attendance varies between 8 – 12.

When recently asked what they like about church activities, our children and young people said:

            Lazers "talk with friends, play pool, taking part in the bible reading and praying, learning/talking about God"

            High 5s"the games we play, bible stories, colouring, being a junior helper"

            Bright Sparks "Toby loves playing with the toys."

 
            "Adults in the Church are nice to us and involve us in things, e.g. taking up the collection, answering questions, doing bible readings, encouraging us to take part in prayers, and stopping arguments."

Many of the children's parents attended these activities as children themselves, so our groups are well-known in the village.

We partner with the Urban Saints organisation for High 5s and Lazers, which supports us with encouragement, resource material and the opportunity for our young people to meet others in N.E. and N.W. Wales.

School Assembly – We have an excellent opportunity to hold an assembly in our village school once a week. The school staff are incredibly supportive, and the children are very attentive. 

We also partner with Open the Book and other local churches and Christian organisations to share this work with us. 

 


Puppet Ministry


Our team comprises three adults, 2 young people and our "roadie group". Previously, our puppets have taken part in special services at Bethania but have recently agreed to appear more often – by popular demand! They also perform at village carnivals and a local club for disabled young people. A recent comment from their leaders: -
 
The "Bethania Puppets is run by an amazing group of people who give up their time to put smiles on people's faces, whether that be a child, adult, or people with special needs. Our Contact Club love it when the puppets come to visit."

Bethania takes safeguarding very seriously. Urban Saints support us with all our relevant policies and procedures. These are kept up-to-date and in line with best practices.  
 


Caffi Heulwen – The Sunshine Café. 


This takes place on Thursday mornings - The Caffi is not "owned" by Bethania, but most volunteers are members here. It began about 5 years ago with a regular attendance of approx. twenty, closing as COVID restrictions were imposed. Once we were allowed to re-open, our numbers soon grew to thirty. Our current attendance is sixty to seventy, and our highest attendance has been from eighty-five to too many to count. It is inter-generational and a real weapon in the fight against social isolation. We are open one morning a week. The work was recently recognised by the High Sheriff of Clwyd's Award. Comments from our customers include:
 
Coming to the Café on Thursday has helped me to re-integrate with the Community since the loss of my husband.

It is nice to have the Sunshine Café to go to, meeting up with friends at our table; customers would be lost without the Café.

It helped us get to know the village after moving here. Staff always cheerful and welcoming. 

great/first class service, Staff dedicated and committed, 

Following my visit to the Caffi this morning, I just wanted to say how uplifting and positive it was to see so many of the Community attending. It was lovely to see the various age groups that attend, which shows what a supportive and close-knit community you have. I also wanted to say a huge well done to the volunteers – I know it was hectic that day. Still, you did a fantastic job serving everyone, and Anne's freshly baked cakes looked delicious.
Nia Wyn Jones, NEWCIS (a carers organisation.)
 


The Building     


The original Sanctuary was built in 1870 and is still used, but it has been altered.

The extension was added in the 1980s, providing a kitchen and meeting room with an audio feed. Wi-fi is available in the Church, and a heated baptistry replaced the original below the platform.

It was further refurbished in the early 1990s to provide a flexible space that utilises stackable chairs. It will seat 80-90 people. Toilet and baby-changing facilities were added, and the wooden sanctuary floor was replaced and levelled. The pews were replaced with more comfortable seating. The sanctuary is now a more airy, pleasant place.

The main problem with the building is that it needs to be bigger, but we endeavour to keep it in good repair. Mid-week activities are all held in the multipurpose sanctuary. At the rear is our technical desk, where sound and projection are managed. 

The stage area is a small step above the general floor. Puppets perform from here.


 

Wider connections    


Baptist:  The Church is in membership with the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Baptist Union of Wales

Local Associations: North West Baptist Association (and its offshoot North Wales Baptist Union) and the Denbighshire, Flintshire and Meirioneth Association. (Baptist Union of Wales). Support is regularly given to both Home Mission and the Baptist Missionary Society. 

Other regular missionary support includes Open Doors, Wrexham Street Pastors, Vale of Clwyd Missionary, Overseas Missionary Fellowship (Andrew in Korea), and, more recently, individual support to Kreativity in Ukraine.

The Church is a member of the Evangelical Alliance for Wales, and we partner with Urban Saints, Wales, to support the work of our children and young people.

Ecumenical (Local): The Church is part of Churches Together in Leeswood and District (CTLD), which, in addition to ourselves, has consisted of the Christ Church Pontblyddyn (Church in Wales), the Leeswood Wesleyan Methodist Church, and the English Congregational church in Pontybodkyn. Before Covid, three joint services were held each year, but there has been no formal collaborative activity since restrictions were lifted. We would like to see this revived.

 

Ecumenical - Churches Together in Leeswood and District (CTLD)

The terms ecumenical and ecumenism mean different things to different people. Here at Bethania, we take it to mean:

  1. A commitment to inter-denominational communication and cooperation between the local Christian churches, i.e. Baptist, Methodist, Congregational and Anglican, in Leeswood and its surrounds.

    In practice, this has meant a standing invitation for church members to attend organised services under the auspices of CTLD in each other's church buildings. Here, the intention is for all to participate in joint services for special occasions, which should be seen as an expression of our solidarity in Christ through worshipping.

     
  2. Recognise the validity of different expressions of Trinitarian Christian faith and, in so doing, reach out for a closer communion between different Christian denominations.
     
  3. Concentrate on what we have in common, which is far greater than our differences in doctrine and practice, and tolerate those differences as far as we can. Convincing respective church leaders in the area of the need to celebrate our common ground has not been problematic, but convincing church members has, though! This has been evidenced by poor attendance from all churches.

Folk at Bethania would have problems associating fully, or maybe even at all, with an over-arching organisation that is a. non-Trinitarian, b. extremely Liberal or c. encourages Universalism, i.e. all people of all faiths or no faith will end up in Heaven. Our evangelicalism does not exclude, though, nor does it wish to exist in isolation as some evangelicals prefer. Indeed, isolationism and/or separatist tendencies today are sometimes seen as contradictory to and counter evangelical objectives and intentions. However, identifying clearly non-Biblical false doctrines as fundamental as this would be very problematic.
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Evangelical