Gwasanaeth yw’r cyntaf i Elim! (Service is the first for Elim!)
Elim Aberystwyth made history when it launched the first regular Welsh-language service run by an Elim church. Pastor Joel Pridmore and Gweni King – the teen who powered the project – told Direction their story
“People say they want a revival and to see a move of God in Wales. I believe one key to helping that happen is the Welsh language,” says Gweni King. This is why Gweni, alongside a team from Elim Aberystwyth, was so passionate about launching the church’s – and the movement’s – first-ever regular Welsh-language service.
The church had been discussing the need for this for some time, explains Gweni’s pastor Joel Pridmore. “In our county, education is becoming increasingly Welsh-speaking and as of this year all primary schools are offering first-language Welsh education from foundation phase.
“Welsh is the first, and preferred, language for a large number in our local community.
“It’s really important to try and find ways to communicate with people in the language they speak at home and in school, because this is their heart-language.”
The church team had been too time-pressed to organise the service, then an approaching milestone for Gweni prompted her to step forward. “I’m going to uni in September and I really, really wanted this service to have started before I leave,” she says. “Joel and everyone else were so busy but I had loads of time on my hands so I offered to start planning it.”
Working with Joel, her parents Jon and Sharon and a team from church, Gweni created a plan for a simple monthly service where people could gather to worship in Welsh. The first was held in March. The services include a mix of traditional Welsh hymns and modern songs translated into Welsh. Bible teaching is given by church members, as well as first-language Welsh guest speakers such as Elim’s historian Maldwyn Jones.
Joel is thrilled at the opportunities this new service is creating.
It is helping to make church more accessible for some members of the community, he says.
Outreach, worship and Welsh: Joel and Gweni’s stories
JOEL
I moved to Aberystwyth 12 years ago, but until recently had not formally learned the language. I decided to sign up for Welsh classes at the beginning of last year as I recognise how important the Welsh language is to our local community.
It’s a difficult language to learn – I probably understand about a third of what’s said at our Welsh service at the moment – but I’ve got to know a whole new group of people through my class. It’s opened up all kinds of conversations and doors with the community that I wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.
People are intrigued to know what I do. They enjoy hearing about my ministry, and my Welsh tutor refers to it regularly. When I get to the point of being able to preach in Welsh he’s offered to look over my sermons. He’s even threatened to come along!
GWENI
Welsh is my first language, so it’s always been a big part of my life, but I’ve only ever gone to English-speaking churches. That’s fine, but at the Limitless Festival last summer I realised that because of this I had unknowingly kept a part of myself from God, as I was only worshipping him in English.
I began to understand that I speak Welsh and God understands every language, so I can speak in Welsh when I pray. Since I realised this I’ve become so much closer to the Lord.
“In previous centuries, school children were punished in certain parts of Wales for speaking Welsh. Our service honours the Welsh language while also creating a new opportunity for local people to attend church. We hope our service will allow us to reach more Welsh-speaking people in future.
“We also hope it will open up Pentecostal expressions of faith in Wales. There are many Welsh-speaking congregations but not in Pentecostal churches.”
For Gweni, another joy of the service has been the widespread support it has found. “A lot of Welsh-speaking members of our church have been attending. It’s also been great to see people who don’t come to our morning services in English starting to come to our Welsh one.
“My grandparents don’t normally go to church, but they’ve been coming to support us. Then people in church who don’t speak Welsh have told us they’re praying for us. Knowing we have that support is so encouraging.”
While Gweni is excited about starting her degree in theatre and performance at Bristol University, she wishes she could have helped run the service for longer. But she is confident about its future.
“God made a way for us to begin and I’m leaving it in good hands – with Joel, my parents, our children’s ministry leader Chris Stewart, and Dave Gregory, who helps lead the services.
“We sense this is going to be a significant thing, even though it’s early days at the moment, and that God will bless it.
“It’s a big goal, but we want to see Wales returning to Jesus. Our service is just one step in that direction.”
It was a tremendous joy, says Maldwyn Jones
My association with Joel Pridmore and Elim Aberystwyth church goes back quite a few years. Aberystwyth is steeped in Welsh culture and language. The University there houses Wales’ National Library, writes Maldwyn Jones, possibly the only Elim minister able to preach in Welsh with the same fluency as in English.
Joel Pridmore, an Englishman from Devon, has sought to do what no other pastor of a Welsh Elim church has done before – not only to learn the Welsh language but to introduce monthly services in Welsh.
It was a tremendous joy for me to preach at one of their services. There were about 30 present, and I thoroughly enjoyed preaching in my native tongue, which is one of Europe’s oldest languages.
It was a thrill to converse with Gweni, Joel and his wife Louise in Welsh. They are to be commended for this initiative, and my prayer is that other Elim churches in Wales will follow Aberystwyth’s example.
This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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