A message from the National Director 

Dear leaders

A Happy New Year to you all. Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Once again it was my privilege to meet many of you during 2014 – thank you for your support,

encouragement and prayers.

It is now over fifteen years since I took up my post as National Director of Evangelical Alliance Wales and articulated the vision and mission God has given us:

Uniting for mission to proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel across Wales by:

·          Engaging with the National Assembly and Media through a united voice of Evangelicals

·          Enabling the evangelisation of individuals

·          Enabling the transformation of communities

What’s been happening? …

I’d like to take this opportunity to update you with some of the ways in which God is

answering prayer in fulfilling this mission:

·         Jim and I have been representing the evangelical constituency on the

‘Faith Communities Forum’ since 2005. This is a twice-yearly meeting of the First Minister with the representatives of the main religions in Wales and affords an opportunity to raise important issues with politicians.

·         Through Jim, Evangelical Alliance Wales also provides the Secretariat for the Assembly’s

‘Cross Party Group on Faith’ chaired by Darren Millar AM.

·         Media opportunities have continued with invitations to participate in Radio interviews as

well as writing for some of the national newspapers and issuing press releases.

·         The National Prayer Breakfast of Wales along with Evangelical Alliance Wales

presented a facsimile of the William Morgan Bible in Welsh to the Assembly

which was received by the Presiding Officer and will be on permanent display in the Pier Head building in Cardiff Bay:

Elfed, Watcyn James, Dame Rosemary Butler AM and William Graham AM

·         In preparation for the Assembly Elections in 2016 Evangelical Alliance Wales and Gweini have produced a

manifesto in consultation with over 300 Christian leaders across the nation to be presented to each of the main political parties.

We have continued to develop strategic coalitions with organisations, denominations, networks and churches across Wales that help extend the Kingdom of God in our nation www.eauk.org/wales  …

(Evangelical Alliance Wales working with Care, Tearfund,

Cornerstone Church, Housing Justice, CAP, Hope, Care for the Family and Prospects) www.gweini.org.uk

Cymru Institute for Contemporary Christianity (Evangelical Alliance Wales working with the Bible Society

in Wales and the South Wales Baptist College) www.cicconline.org.uk

Canon Holmes of India who years ago said to most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate, but he remains personally unknown to the individual.  He must be they say therefore we believe he is. 

Tozer  :The bible is a self-evident fact that men can know God with at least the same degree of immediacy as they know any other person or thing that comes within the field of experience.

(extract from Pursuit of God by Tozer)

Fiona Bruce MP has this week laid an amendment to the Serious Crime Bill, which makes clear that abortion on the grounds of sex is illegal, and provides an opportunity for the Government to make regulations aimed at combatting the practice. If selected, it will be debated at Report Stage in a few days’ time.

Vine Centre,Bridgend,CF31 1LW

Thurs 29 January 10am-3pm

The first such roadshow to be held in Wales. Here is an opportunity to find out more about the work of Housing Justice and to learn how churches can be part of the solution to the housing need.

Grace will disagree with our sense of Justice

Grace puts our sin into perspective

Grace looks to restore & not condemn

(EG)

In 2008 Parliament passed a law that that gave Government the power to introduce regulations allowing three parent embryos. The Government made an assurance that regulations would only be considered once it was clear that the scientific procedures were safe.

The Government asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to assess the safety and effectiveness of the procedure. The HFEA concluded that evidence did not indicate that the techniques are unsafe although it accepted that there was little evidence. This would appear to be an extremely inconclusive  statement.

Prof. Stuart  A Newman, a world-renowned expert in this field, has described the proposals as ‘inherently unsafe’

We do not know the long-term consequences and the HFEA has stated that children should be monitored for a long time after birth.  This sounds like experimentation with a child’s life!!

The world health organisation has stated   “germ-cell therapy, where there is an intention or possibility of altering the genes passed on to the next generation, should not be permitted in the foreseeable future.”   The Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine explicitly prohibits these measures.

Imagination is not faith. The two are not only different from, but stand in sharp opposition to each other. Imagination projects unreal images out of the mind and seeks to attach reality to them. Faith creates nothing; it simply reckons upon that which is already there. (A.W.Tozer)