Archive (old Website news/Information messages)

28/7/2007 UPCOMING EVENTS Sunday, August 19th at 10:45am Pontardawe Festival Service at Gellionnen Chapel Past, present and future Festival performers (and visitors!) will join together to create music on the mountain at this unique venue. Hope to see you there! 16/4/2007 UPCOMING EVENTS Saturday, May 12th at 10:30am Nottage Unitarian Chapel Annual General Meeting of the South East Wales Unitarian Society and installation of our own Lewis Rees as District President. Sunday, July 1st, 2007 (time and venue to be confirmed) Annual District Rally Gellionnen once again enjoyed an inspiring service from Ken Morgan on Sunday, April 15th. However, he brought with him sad news of the death of John Morse. His name will always be remembered in Gellionnen; it is printed on many of our hymn sheets because of his role as Treasurer of the Cymanfa Ganu. We extend our condolences to his family and (many) friends. 7/4/2007 As well as being a place of solitude and peace in times of sadness, Gellionnen has had the good fortune of being chosen by many people for their marriage ceremonies. Congratulations to Wendy and Wayne, who were married today (April 7th) in Gellionnen. 18/3/2007 Sunday, March 18th was the date of this year's District Cymanfa Ganu, at Wick chapel, where the congregation were guided (and conducted!) by the retiring GA President David Dawson. We enjoyed adding our voices to those of the rest of the District at a very well-attended service (and the equally well-attended tea following the service!) We extend our thanks and appreciation. UPDATE: 7/8/2006 PONTARDAWE FESTIVAL SERVICE 2006 This year's Festival Service will be held on Sunday, August 20th, at 10:45am (ish!) It is a living celebration of Dr. Beverley Littlepage, of Gellionnen Chapel and of the sacred place on which it stands, and is best described by Marian Littlepage's own words: "Gellionnen Chapel has long celebrated Gwyl Pontardawe Festival and looks forward once again to welcoming singers and dancers, pipers and harpers, violinists and melodeon players, or indeed anyone visiting the festival this weekend!" Pontardawe Festival 2006: August 18th - 20th website: www.ponty2006.com NEWSPAPER ARTICLE CONTAINS MIS-INFORMATION An article has been published in the South Wales Evening Post (4th August) which included uncorroborated information about Gellionnen Chapel. People reading the article may be given the impression that the chapel may be closed due to the gas pipeline workings. This is NOT TRUE. Transco's operations have not affected any of our Sunday services (to date); in fact they have been very helpful in ensuring our access to the chapel is maintained, and we have been given no reason to assume this situation will change. FRIENDS OF LLANGIWG The well-attended public meeting showed that this project has the support of the community. The Friends are now carrying on with the process of doing a feasibility study and are still actively negotiating with church authorities to purchase Llangiwg Church. If you wish to speak to some of the Friends, they will have a stall on the Pontardawe Festival craft market on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th August. The Friends of Llangiwg are a group of people who want to ensure that one of the most historic churches in Wales is preserved as a building for the use of the community. Gellionnen Chapel itself is an ancient building which is of great importance to the community it serves, so we can appreciate how great would be the loss of the beautiful building which is Llangiwg Church and want to do everything we can to help. For this reason, from time to time this website will contain information about fundraising events for this cause. 30/06/2006 On the day of Beverley Littlepage's funeral, I think everyone present would agree that we were made to feel part of one family. In the capable hands of Eirion Phillips, we found ourselves part of a service that was both a celebration of Beverley's life and a chance to remember him, with a richness of thoughts and words which were greatly appreciated by everyone present. As a chapel, we extend our thanks to everyone who attended, and for all the wishes that were expressed, including those of the Pontardawe Festival on their website. Beverley was one of the original founder members of the Festival, and his links with them and with Gellionnen will always continue through the annual Festival Service. 15/05/2006 SAD NEWS Today, we have had to say goodbye to a mentor, a friend, a philosopher, a man of great intelligence and wit; in fact, an all-round good guy. Due to ill health, he has not been able to be part of the daily life of Gellionnen for quite some time, but his personality is so strongly a part of us all that we feel he has always been there. On Friday 19th May at 10:30 am, we will join together to say our final goodbyes to our friend, Beverley. Our memories are with him, our thoughts and prayers are with his family. 11/04/2006 FRIENDS OF LLANGIWG CHURCH In our most recent chapel meeting, we discussed what we could do to help the Friends of Llangiwg Church. These are a group of people who want to ensure that one of the most historic churches in Wales is preserved as a building for the use of the community. Gellionnen Chapel itself is an ancient building which is of great importance to the community it serves, so we can appreciate how great would be the loss of the beautiful building which is Llangiwg Church and want to do everything we can to help. For this reason, from time to time this website will contain information about fundraising events for this cause. Anyone who can help is welcome at the next meeting of the Friends of Llangiwg Church, which will take place at the Ivy Bush Hotel in High Street, Pontardawe on May 16th at 7pm. For more information about Llangiwg Church, please visit their website at www.llangiwg.org.uk. SPECIAL EVENT The Midland Union Unitarians are holding a summer outing on June 13th at St Fagans Folk Museum - There will be a service in the small chapel inside at 2pm. Further details can be had from Roger Matthews on 01562 850538 or roger@matthews8763.fsnet.co.uk. PIPELINE UPDATE The marker posts for the LNG pipeline are now in place. We have raised concerns with Transco about the proposed route's proximity to the chapel. The response has been that they cannot foresee any problems at the moment, and that our access should not be affected. SERVICE ROTA UPDATED The Services page has been updated with all available details of services at Gellionnen Chapel, up to September 2006. 23/10/2005 SERVICE ROTA UPDATED The Services page has been updated with all available details of services at Gellionnen Chapel, up to March 2006. 18/8/2005 THANK YOU! All of us at Gellionnen want to give a BIG thankyou to the wonderful volunteers who have given so much of their time to clear the graveyard. We won't name names, but you know who you are! This gallant bunch overcame the 'battle of the weeds' last year, with much sweat and probably a good many tears. Weeds have a habit of fighting back! Despite all their tribulations, they promised to return this year, and honoured that promise. Thankyou again, hope to see you next year! PONTARDAWE FESTIVAL SERVICE As you can probably see, the Festival service is very close. We would like to thank Pontardawe Festival for their help in promoting the service, both on their website and in their programmes. The Festival have always described themselves not only as an international festival, or a family festival but also a community festival. We are glad to be part of that community. We hope to fill the chapel again this year, with both those who like to listen and those who like to perform. Last year, people contributed with their voices, in song and poetry, accompanied by a variety of instruments. If the theme for the Festival Service was not 'Wind and Strings', it could be 'variety is the spice of life'. We look forward to a service with just as much, if not more variety this Sunday! As always, all are welcome. Don't be put off if 10:45 am sounds too early - you're welcome to come into the chapel at any time during the service, and to join us afterwards for refreshments. 28/7/2005 SEND US YOUR PHOTOS! With hindsight, I wish I had more photos of past Festival services to put on the Gellionnen website. I was really pleased to find photos (thanks to mum!) of the 1997 Festival service! Unfortunately I don't recall the group's name, but the dancers on the left are 'Wellie Dancers'. Music was made illegal in their area/country some time ago, so the people expressed themselves by making sounds using the wellies (both with their hands and feet). This inspired me to ask you, the website visitors, if you have any photographs/memories of past Festival services. Please send anything you would like to contribute to the website (and/or the Festival service itself) to our email address, gellionnen@hotmail.com. 12/5/2005 SERVICE ROTA UPDATED The Services page has been updated with all available details of services at Gellionnen Chapel, up to September 2005. 8/3/2005 DISTRICT SERVICE at NOTTAGE UNITARIAN CHAPEL The current President of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, Dawn Buckle, will be giving a service at Nottage Unitarian Chapel, Nottage (near Porthcawl) on Sunday, March 13th, 2004 at 11:00 am. There will be a buffet lunch after the service; donations of food for this will be gratefully accepted. CYMANFA GANU at CEFN-COED-Y-CYMMER The Cymanfa Ganu will be held in Cefn-Coed-Y-Cymmer. More details to follow. 16/1/2005 Our thoughts go out to all who have been affected by the tsunami disaster. If anyone has any messages they wish to post on the site, please feel free to do so by emailing gellionnen@hotmail.com . Swansea Vale Railway recently ran a 'Mercy Train', where funds were raised for the tsunami appeal. 30/1/2005 ROADWORKS Access to Gellionnen mountain (and therefore the chapel) from Clydach is currently blocked off due to roadworks. The other roads up to the mountain, from Pontardawe (opposite the BP garage) and Rhyd-y-Fro (next to the A&M garage), are unaffected and can be used instead. Also, the A474 (Pontardawe - Ammanford) is cut off at Gelligron Hill, again due to roadworks. To divert around this: if you are heading towards Ammanford (or towards the alternative accesses to Gellionnen mentioned above) from Pontardawe on the A474; turn right by Artizan, then, after the fire station, turn left. Continue up the hill then turn left after the bus stop (you will see Cefnllan stores on the junction). Continue down the hill, then turn right at the T-junction. You are now back on the A474 heading towards Ammanford. 25/12/2004 CHRISTMAS MESSAGES If you have something you would like to contribute to this section of the website, for instance a relevant thought or saying, or your experience at Gellionnen (or anywhere else) on Christmas Eve, please send us an email at gellionnen@hotmail.com. Unless you express a specific wish to be mentioned next to your message, your name/email address will not be posted to the Gellionnen website. MERRY CHRISTMAS! NADOLIG LLAWEN! Each Christmas Eve service at Gellionnen is different and unique in some way. Over the years we have had unexpected musical items, poems, readings, wedding proposals (!), and this year was no exception. Mulled wine and mince pies were kindly donated by the family of a couple who were recently married at Gellionnen. Although the lit fires in the chapel took the chill out of the air, the mulled wine turned out to be far more efficient at warming the congregation! We had a beautiful surprise song, and a variety of musical items. - Jamie Nemeth. 12/12/2004 CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE December 24th is fast approaching! The Gellionnen Christmas Eve service is a wonderful way to welcome Christmas. For me at least, the magic begins with the fantastic view of...everything really. Weather permitting, you will see the light from the lighthouse at Mumbles Head, amongst a landscape defined by yellow pinpoints of light. Of course, you can drive up onto Gellionnen mountain on any clear night and see the same view, but somehow it's different on Christmas Eve. Everyone is welcome to join us on the mountain on Christmas Eve at 11:30 pm (or earlier...or later, though hopefully you will make it to the chapel in time to welcome in Christmas Day!) Carols will be sung, musical items will be performed, candles will be lit, readings will be read. Every Christmas Eve service is memorable. Dress warm, and feel free to bring candles and/or lanterns. There are lights in the chapel itself, and we try to illuminate as much of the ground as possible. If you have a torch you may wish to bring it just incase. If you have something you wish to contribute to the service by way of e.g. readings, music, please feel free to bring it with you on Christmas Eve. If you plan to come to the service but need directions to the chapel, please click here, or on 'How to get to Gellionnen' on the sidebar. Or contact us by email at gellionnen@hotmail.com for more precise directions, or to tell us when you plan to come to the chapel - it may be possible for you to follow someone up to the chapel (if you have a car), or have a lift up to the chapel from Pontardawe or the locality. Jamie Nemeth 19/9/2004 NEW SERVICE ROTA An updated service rota is now available by visiting the Services section of the website, and contains information from September 2004 to March 2005. Please notify the webmaster (me) if you spot any howlers, i.e. 30rd, or 1th, or 15nd! (I think I've eradicated all of them!) Apologies for the error on the 4-week service timetable on this (the home) page; the timetable incorrectly stated that September 19th, 2004 was the Pontardawe Festival service, despite being correct last month (the Festival service was infact on August 22nd, 2004). SAME PETROL STATION, DIFFERENT NAME The TOTAL petrol station has completed its transformation to BP. The 'How to get to Gellionnen' section of the website still contains references to TOTAL; these will be corrected soon. 4/9/2004 Pontardawe's petrol station is changing! The TOTAL petrol station is mentioned several times in the 'How to get to Gellionnen' section of the website. The petrol station is now changing to BP. 17/8/2004 PONTARDAWE FESTIVAL 2004 Saturday, 21st August Craft Market stall Sunday, 22nd August at 10:45 am Festival Service at Gellionnen Chapel Good news: official festival programmes are available FREE from the Festival Office at 20 Herbert Street, Pontardawe. Bad news: a 'glitch' has meant that details of the Festival Service at Gellionnen are not included in the programme. The same glitch means that the Flower Festival at St. Peter's Church, Pontardawe, is also not mentioned! This is worth visiting if you are in the area, and runs for the duration of the festival (August 20th-22nd). The festival chairman has apologised for these glitches, many thanks. 2/8/2004 The festival weekend is fast approaching! Pontardawe Festival is going back to its roots, returning to Parc Ynysderw. Gellionnen and Graig will have a stall on the festival field. More details soon. The Pontardawe Festival website can be found at http://www.pontardawefestival.org.uk . 28/6/2004 DISTRICT RALLY (July 4th) The annual district rally will take place at Ysgubornewydd Farm, Manmoel (near Blackwood) on Sunday 4th July. The service will begin at 3:00 pm. There will be an opportunity for a picnic tea after the service. It is advised that you bring folding chairs with you to the rally. CWMWRDU YOUTH CENTRE (July 24th) A day out at Cwmwrdu, Gwernogle (near Carmarthen) has been proposed for Saturday 24th July. NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD (July 31st - August 7th) There will be a Unitarian tent at the Eisteddfod in Newport. 11/7/2004 Errors in the service timetable (orange box, above) have been corrected. There have also been updates to the Services/Events page, resulting in the completion of the service rota (up to the end of September). 4/7/2004 Visitors to the website may have found that, when clicking the link below (for the sketch map to Manmoel), they obtained a box with a small red X instead of the sketch map. This problem has now been rectified. Clicking on the link will open the sketch map in a new window. (NOTE: The sketch map can be found at http://gellionnen.8m.com/drallymap.jpg) 14/6/2004 The service in Penrhiw chapel (St. Fagan's) was filled with Unitarians from chapels all over South Wales, as well as members of the public. There were musical items from the clarinet, violin, Northumberland pipes and guitar. News article and photos soon! 22/5/2004 NEW DESIGN This is a test for a change to the website design. I've only changed this page (home page). Please send comments to gellionnen@hotmail.com - if this change has made the page more difficult to read, the original design will be replaced. EVENING POST ARTICLES Links to articles involving Gellionnen chapel have been added to the News Archive section of the website. 16/5/2004 WINDOW DAMAGE AT GELLIONNEN See News section for article and photos. WEBSITE UPDATES A provisional service rota has been compiled for May - September 2004. This can be seen in the Services section of the website. EMAIL: Problem Solved!! Apologies to anyone who has emailed Gellionnen recently. There have been some 'strange' goings-on, involving genuine emails being automatically sent to the junk mail bin, and an email 'postmarked' January 1970!! If you have sent any emails to the site, and have not received a reply, PLEASE RE-SEND THEM! I have exams at the moment so I apologise in advance if the replies are slow, but I will definitely make sure your emails don't end up being deleted again. 10/5/2004 WEBSITE UPDATES Apologies for the recent lack of updates - much coursework. Serious vandalism has occurred at Gellionnen, involving the destruction of most of the bottom panel on one of the windows. Debris was found inside the chapel, including a large stone, dust and broken glass. News article and pictures coming soon. 28/3/2004 MORE RUBBISH DUMPED AT GELLIONNEN Amongst the rubbish this time were computer games and destroyed items of furniture. A fridge has also been 'delivered' to the side of the track leading to Gellionnen. 8/1/2004 MORE VANDALISM AT GELLIONNEN The congregation arrived at the chapel last Sunday (Jan 4th) to find a buckled gate at the entrance, surrounded by pieces of plastic from car light coverings. Also, window damage occurred just after the Christmas Eve service. DITCHES CAUSE PROBLEMS The ditches that traverse Gellionnen mountain are slumping. This resulted in the entrance to the chapel grounds becoming dangerously muddy on Christmas Eve, with flooding occurring in front of the chapel itself. These ditches were an attempt to enclose common land, in order to prevent motorcyclists from using the land for recreation. Despite the depth of the ditches, this has not stopped the motorcyclists from accessing the land. In fact, it acts as a useful ramp for the bikes to jump the ditch. 15/12/2003 The web design computer is working again (then it was my turn to be ill...)! Normal website maintenance has been resumed. Please report any website problems to the webmaster (gellionnen@hotmail.com). 10/11/2003 The web design computer is out of action. Apologies for the lack of updates, the problem should soon be rectified. 14/10/2003 New thread posted on the Gellionnen Message Board regarding the ditches on Gellionnen. Please post your views and comments. The visitor counter hasn't been working properly for a while (still a puzzle - it's been working perfectly until recently) so I will have to find a replacement! Also, I'm guessing the website has had over 3,000 visitors since I started it in June 2000 (how time flies!). Why am I guessing? Because the latest visitor count has deleted itself!! It was climbing up to 2,900 when I last saw it working, and there have been 125 visitors since then. An updated service rota will be available soon on the Services page. I've also noticed that the Gellionnen banner - which is intended to be the most up-to-date part of the website - is actually a month behind!! This will be rectified shortly. 6/10/2003 DEEP DITCHES ON GELLIONNEN MOUNTAIN. See News Archive. 8/8/2003 Just after an article was written for the local newspaper (but before it was printed) about the vandalism Gellionnen has already suffered, yet more damage has been done to the chapel. A back window and one of the large front windows has been attacked. The front window has had to be completely boarded up. If you are travelling over the mountain and see any vandals damaging Gellionnen, please alert the police and/or us in order that this amount of vandalism can be prevented. Also, a large number of shattered car windscreens were dumped near the top of the track leading to Gellionnen, which could be very hazardous to cattle that roam the mountain. 20/7/2003 The 'next service' bar at the top of the page was not very successful. For this reason, the 4-week service diary has been moved to the top of this page. The service diary on the Services/Events page will instead show all known service details. 22/6/2003 More details on the Pontardawe Festival (Gellionnen stall and Festival service) (see News section). 23/4/2003 More vandalism at Gellionnen - wood panelling has been prised from one of the doors (see News for article and pictures). 2/3/2003 More rubbish dumped at Gellionnen (see News Archive). 23/2/2003 Alan Rushton, current President of the General Assembly, will be at Swansea Unitarian Church at 3:00pm today. 31/1/2003 You may have heard the news regarding the threat of war on Iraq. This has resulted in the Gellionnen website receiving emails and Message Board postings with a very clear meaning...stop the war. Please post your views/responses to the Message Board. 5/1/2003 Dr. Beverley Littlepage has recently been unwell, and we are saddened to hear that he has suffered a third stroke. Best wishes from all at Gellionnen. 1/1/2003 Apologies for the lack of updates to the website over the Christmas period. 2/11/2002 After a longer-than-intended website sortout, the full Gellionnen website is back online. Apologies to anyone who has visited the site recently. 27/10/2002 The news article written by Rev. John Midgley has moved to the restructured News Archive. 22/8/2002 Some interest has been shown recently into an 'electronic voice phenomenon' which could be present in Gellionnen. It is believed that sounds can be recorded in walls with a high oxide content if the conditions are right. Feel free to read and/or post messages, the thread is in the Visitor's Book section of the Message Board.