Cynon Uchaf Ministry Area CouncilKey Decisions

29^th October 2025

Firstly I would like to thank everyone I have met so far in Cynon Uchaf ministry area for the welcome I have received. It has been a real pleasure to minister with you and a lot of fun as well. I would like to thank you all for the open nature of the ministry area and how people have shared the joys and the challenges of church life.

Before I begin I thought I would give a brief explanation of the terms used and what a Ministry Area is. As I have come from England I have had to learn all these terms and they can be confusing for me sometimes as I am used to the parish structure rather than the ministry area structure. If you understand all the new terms and structures skip this part and go down to section “When I Arrived”. I thought it might be helpful for me and others who are new to the system to explain it.

The old parish system:

Under the old parish system the financial and property elements of church life were decided by the committee called the parochial church council or PCC. The PCC would decide on any issues of finance or property and advise the Vicar on other issues. Each church or group of churches would elect a group to sit on the PCC at a vestry meeting usually around Easter time. Many PCCs would choose to have sub committees such as finance or property just like any other organisation. But the final decision would always be with the majority vote on the PCC.

PCCs and charity law:

As the Church in Wales is disestablished it is treated like any other charity. It has the same legal status as the MacMillian Cancer Care or local choir. Every registered charity has trustees who are responsible for the running of the charity. These were the PCC members now the MAC members. Churches with a relatively small financial turnover did not have to be registered charities. Locally only St Fagans parish was over the threshold for registration. Therefore only St Fagans was registered with the Charity Commission.    

What is the Charity Commission?

The charity commission is the government body that regulates all charities in England and Wales. Every year we must send them a list of the trustees and accounts. They are responsible for ensuring that all charities comply with charity law. If charities don’t follow the law like all other regulators that can act against those charities.

What is a Ministry Area?

Ministry Areas were first recommended in 2012 and brought in fully in 2022. A ministry area is where several parishes were brought together as one charity. In our case Aberdare town, Aberdare St Fagans and the Parish of Hirwaun.

What this means?

There are two main differences, the makeup of the committee and the charitable status of each church.

Since 2022 all the old church councils were dissolved and the Ministry Area of Cynon Uchaf was administered by a Ministry Area Council (MAC) not a PCC. The MAC is elected at the vestry meeting in a similar way as before, where each church elects a Sub Warden to sit on the MAC. The whole ministry Area elects a people Warden for the MAC and a Vicar’s Warden is chosen along with a Lay Chair.

Since 2022 every church in Cynon Uchaf Ministry Area is one legal charity. This means that before 2022 Hirwaun and Aberdare town were not registered charities, but now they are part of Cynon Uchaf they now governed by charity law.    

When I Arrived

When I arrived in September I undertook a project to visit all the clergy, lay ministers and MAC members in the Ministry area to help me understand the issues we are facing. In all I visited over 30 people from every church in the Ministry Area. After these visits I wrote a document titled, initial reflections on Cynon Uchaf ministry area.  This document was shared with the ministry area council (MAC) and various decisions were made last Wednesday in the MAC meeting. If you want to see the full copy of the document, email me on hywelsnook@cinw.org.uk and I will send you a copy. The rest of this email is a summery of that document and details of the decisions we made at the MAC on Wednesday night.

The most important part of the document was laying out a Christian approach to governing the Ministry Area. I believe that any Christian organisation should be governed by three key principles;

Clarity

Accountability

Transparency

This is why I am writing this article, to be clear and transparent about what was decided and to be accountable to the people. If we don’t do as we say we will, people will know, and we can be challenged appropriately.

What people told me:

When I visited the people they voiced lot of different concerns and I have categorised them into 5 different wider issues.

Safeguarding:

There are some people who need training in safeguarding and some DBS checks are out of date or incorrect

Ministerial and Liturgical Issues:

There is sometimes confusion about readings and saints days across the various churches. There is little forward planning for services across the churches. 

Charity Law and Financial Issues: 

When we became a ministry area in 2022 each church became part of one legal charity. This means that we must work within charity law. There is still a fair amount of work to be done for us to operate as a legal charity.

Communication Issues:

Communicating across all the churches has been difficult and a lot of work is duplicated.

Governance Issues: 

Since the old PCC structure was dissolved there has been confusion about how to get permission to get things done. This has led to frustration with lots of small scale and some large scale issues not being addressed.

What was Decided at the MAC:

On Wednesday we voted to setup a new structure for the MAC. We agreed to setup a group to advise the clergy on issues around services and spirituality. Finally we agreed three projects to address the issues of Safeguarding, Communication and Finance.

All of these decisions were passed unanimously. Unfortunately Fr Robert was ill and couldn’t attend the meeting, however I did meet with Fr Robert and Martyn Silezin, the current Lay Chair on the Monday before. During this meeting Fr Robert and Martyn Silezin both agreed that the decisions later made at the MAC.

Taking each issue raised in my visits it was agreed …

Ministerial and Liturgical Issues:

To setup a Ministry Advisory Group (MAG) whose first meeting is on 12^th November. The MAG will be made up initially of, Peter Godsall, Fr Robert, Fr Hywel, Robert Jones, Cerys Hartley, Cled Morgan and Peta Maidman.

Here we will plan the upcoming services for the next three months and think about what our focus can be for Lent next year. If you have and issues about the service or pastoral care please email hywelsnook@cinw.org.uk and I will add them to the agenda, either for this meeting or a later one. If you would like to be part of this group please let Fr Hywel know.

Safeguarding:

Fr Hywel and Andrea Harford will meet to go through the DBS and training list and invite those who need training to a short course in St Elvans in Dec or Jan.

Charity Law and Financial Issues: 

To setup a finance project to address two central issues:

(i)                  To create a plan the MA fully compliant with financial charity law and bring this plan to the Jan MAC meeting for approval

(ii)                To create a delegation of financial responsibility document setting out who is allowed to spend and what approval they will need to do so. This document must be guided by Clarity, Accountability and Transparency. Bring the document to the Jan MAC for approval

Communication Issues:

To setup a communications team:

1.      To work to create a MA weekly sheet

2.      To work to create a MA weekly email

3.      To work to create a MA magazine

4.      To explore the use of Church Suite Software

Governance Issues: 

The document I wrote for the MAC gave two options for our committee structure. Networking different churches and setting up Exec Committees in each church.

It was decided to setup an Executive Committee in each church made up of clergy, two sub wardens and a treasurer. This exec committees is authorised to make decisions about property which do not need approval from Llandaff and organised small local social and fundraising events.

Also this committee acts as a link where issues in each church can be brought to the MAC for further discussion.

It is hoped that small issues about church buildings can now be sorted quickly and it gives local churches authority over the building for decisions that don’t need approval from Llandaff.

There is an exception, where St John’s and St Elvan’s exec committee will relate to the Heritage Trust to help both work better together.

Vestry Meeting:

Every Year we elect a Lay Chair, Wardens for the Ministry Area and Sub Wardens for each church. These are the people who sit on each committee and make decisions about the running of the Ministry area and each church.

It was agreed that the next Vestry Meeting will be on Tuesday 25^th November at 7pm in St Fagans Hall. Here we will hold the elections and the results will be posted so everyone will know who their rep will be.

Before the Vestry meeting I ask each church to elect two Sub Wardens and one rep for the MAC.   

In order to be more Clear, Accountable and Transparent I will write another decision document after the MAC meeting in Jan. It will try and keep that document to one page of A4. I thank you for reading through this document, if you have any questions contact me and I will try my best to answer any questions.

Fr Hywel