Bethel Baptist Church

The Congregation

Generally our congregation comes from the town of Barry, although some travel in from outlying hamlets. When people make their spiritual home at Bethel they generally stay, we therefore have a wide cross section of age groups. This is reflected in our wide range of activities.

1 Peter 2 4-10 describes the church as being made up of living stones being built into a spiritual house - the loyalty and devotion of settled and long-term church members helps to nurture, build and develop the spiritual house at Bethel.

The Leadership - Elders

Pastor Revd. Mervyn Neal

Mervyn is married to Kim. He is from Northamptonshire and she is from Cross Keys in Gwent. They met while at Cardiff University in the 1980's.

Mervyn was studying Business Economics and Kim was working for the Medical Research Council as a research bio-chemist/epedemiologist. They have two daughters - Rachel and Hannah.

Mervyn and Kim both became christians while living in Lincolnshire and felt the call to full time ministry very early on in their christian lives.

They both studied theology at The Evangelical Theological College of Wales in Bridgend.

Mervyn was pastor of Gendros Congregational church in Swansea from 1995-1998. Since then he served as the Evangelist in Bethel for 8 years before becoming the Pastor in 2006.

Assistant Pastor

Matt Emerton is our Assistant Pastor and his many ministries include school's work, children's meetings and preaching.

Matt can be seen in the picture with his wife Becca and children Beth, George and Danny, they joined us from Mount Pleasant Church in Swansea.

Elder - Revd. Robin Trollope

Robin and his wife Hilary both come from Christian homes; Robin grew up in Bethel and Hilary came from Mount Pleasant Cadoxton as a teenager. They were baptised in Bethel and studied at Cardiff University, Robin in Microbiology and Hilary trained as a teacher of Domestic Science which she taught in Bristol and London.

After their marriage they lived in London (Robin as a research student for 3 years) then in Swansea. There they profited from a very formative 32 years as members of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. Robin was a lecturer in Microbiology at Swansea University until early retirement, followed by study at the Evangelical Theological College of Wales in Bridgend from 1998-1990.

Following 7 years as Pastor of Ebenezer Evangelical Baptist Church in the village of Machen, near Caerphilly, they retired to Barry in 2002. They continue to be very blessed by having Christian fellowship with their daughter Rachel, also their son David and his wife Pippa and the 6 grandchildren. Robin has been an elder at Bethel since 2003.

Deacons

The Deacons who serve the church are Mostyn Davies, Simon Griffin, Steve Potts, Jenny Wales, John Thomas, Martin Harris Tony Whiffen  & Anthony Jones.