History

For many years Sussex Street Baptist Church in Rhyl had had a vision to plant 'churches in the valley', meaning the Vale of Clwyd which stretched inland from Rhyl to towns like St Asaph, Denbigh, Ruthin, Corwen and others. For many years it remained just that - a vision with no fulfilment of it, but then that changed. The account below tells how the story unfolded and Llanelwy Christian Fellowship began.

In mid 2001 those who met in a Sussex Street house group based in St Asaph wondered if they were to be the start of the fulfilment of this vision, as their group was growing rapidly They felt as if their group was perhaps becoming too big for a house group and wondered about starting a new church in St Asaph. It was discussed and prayed about it by the 20 or 30 people concerned as well as the Sussex Street leaders and miraculously things came together so that by early 2002 LlCF was able to start with the first service being held on January 6th 2002. St Asaph is quite a strong Welsh speaking community and so the name Llanelwy Christian Fellowship was chosen. This was so that the church was seen as welcoming to the town's Welsh speakers, although there were only a few members in the church who could speak Welsh. The building used was a former butcher's shop which was ideally situated halfway down the High Street, although quite a lot of work had to be done before it was suitable for use. Its location means that it is central for all St Asaph residents. It was owned by the family of one of the church members, to whom to this day the church pays rent.

At first the links with Sussex Street were strong, indeed it was through the generosity of an initial financial gift from them that we were able to start up but it was not too long before LlCF felt able to exist independently. In early 2003 it was felt that LlCF should become more independent and be regarded as a separate church. We applied for this status and the North West Baptist Union recognised us as such at that point. However, we still wished to retain strong emotional links to Sussex Street and hopefully always will do. In those early days Adrian Dann and Bill Hebner were jointly in charge of the leadership, but later in 2003 Bill left to go back to work as Youth Worker for Sussex Street and since then Adrian has been the sole pastor.

Much has been done in the years since LlCF started, with youth trips to developing countries as one of the highlights. By 'youth' it means all those who feel young as people of all ages have gone, though it is mainly teenagers and early twenties. There have been trips to Mexico (2003, 2004 and 2007), Romania (2005 and 2006) and the most recent to South Africa in March 2008 where we hope to return in coming years. The youth work continues to thrive, with weekly meetings and other highlights including rock concerts in the cathedral, trips to Alton Towers and summer camps to Nefyn and elsewhere. Some youth members of the church have served God in thrilling ways overseas. We have also had several baptisms of people of all ages and have had two church weekends away. House group has always been a key feature of the church, with all members encouraged to meet together regularly for fellowship, prayer and bible study. Prayer meetings are also important with a meeting every Sunday evening, as well as a day time womans group and a Welsh speakers group too, although the latter is not currently meeting.

Details of all of the current activities of the church will be found elsewhere on this site.