Holy spirit debate

We need to set the record straight on ‘ecclesiastical tantrums’. Your correspondent quotes a verse from the Bible but omits a key part. James 1:27 from the NIV states,‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’

He has forgotten the ‘to look after orphans and widows in their distress’  which is about caring for the needy in society.

Those of us who speak for the Christian church insist that we are not serving God’s Kingdom by engaging in fruitless arguments.

We need to agree to disagree with your correspondent for the time being and allow the Holy Spirit to continue moving people to serve the needy around us.

The Christian church - flawed though it may be - has been doing this in Cardiff.

Over the past seven years, the Night Shelters run jointly by different denominations during the cold winter months have delivered over 8,650 interventions taking homeless people off the streets and giving them a hot meal, a warm bed and a cooked breakfast.

I have been personally involved and can say that it is dirty if not smelly work with the occasional few fleas thrown in particularly if one of the homeless wants or needs a hug.

I regularly return home in need of a bath and change of clothes!

Yet - and this is the encouragement - men and women are being rescued from the streets and are being transformed to leave behind alcohol, drug and gambling addictions and lives of crime. Our human efforts combined with the power of God can and do work miracles.

Rather than vexed academic arguments, it would seem that the world around us benefits more from real-life proofs of the existence of God.

I can only echo what the Bible says ‘For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’ (Acts 4:20, NIV)

D Evans

Robinswood Crescent

Penarth

Decision is not democracy

There is nothing democratic about Mrs. May’s interpretation of the referendum result.

The decision to leave the single market and the customs union were her own ‘Red Lines’, drawn up at a Tory conference as red meat thrown to the UKIP wing of her party, and, crucially, they were not on the referendum ballot paper.

The PM is in a difficult situation of her own making after losing her majority in her snap general election and havingto rely on a £1.5bn bribe to the DUP, despite the fact that her Brexit Red Lines threaten the  peace process in Northern Ireland.

I agree that Labour fought a poor Remain campaign due to Corbyn’s failure to make clear that Brexit will mean even more austerity cuts to health, education, and social care.

Remain Labour MPs were badly let down, especially Jo Cox who was murdered by a British Nazi. 

Although many Conservative voters do not want a UKIP -Tory government threatening their  public services and making ‘ the just about managing’ unable to manage, Corbyn will never be Prime Minister because he is unacceptable to a majority  of voters. 

The sooner he and the Labour Party recognize this the better chance we will  have of a government that can actually govern in the national interest by properly representing our views on both sides of the argument.

Corbyn has a valid point that the Tory Party’s acceptance of the money-laundering of the billions stolen from the Russian people risks our integrity, and about proof,  but the Commons’ condemnation of the use of an illegal nerve agent on British soil was not the occasion to make it.

All he has done is to hand Mrs May the chance to strengthen her tenuous hold on power by presenting herself as a potential  cold war warrior from the same mould as  Mrs. Thatcher over the Falklands. 

This makes our far from splendid isolation all the more dangerous and must give Putin cause for gleeful satisfaction at the damage done to the European Union, to our own Union  and to our democracy.

Margaret Phelps

Raisdale Gardens

Penarth

Debt help

Do you know that 7.9 million people are in debt? Yes that’s right, 7.9 million individuals are in debt.

Financial mismanagement puts a great strain on people’s lives.

I have been a debt counsellor for many years and I have known people commit suicide because of the financial situation they are in.

If any anybody reading this letter is in this position, the most important thing you must do is not too ignore it as it will only get worse.

The sooner you act the better.

There is a website you can go to called the Money Advice Service.

This website gives advice on lots of money matters, debt, pensions insurance mortgages and money management to name a few.

There are also three national debt counselling agencies that offer really good advice, they can all be found on the internet.

1. Christians against poverty

2. Payplan.

3 Debt advice foundation.

David Ball

Thank you     
We would like to thank the lady and gentleman who brought us home when David had a bad fall in Archer Road.
We would also like to thank everyone else who came to help.
We are pleased to say that David is recovering at home, after receiving excellent treatment in A&E at UHW.
We are extremely grateful to everyone for their help. 
Margaret and David Troth
Clinton Road
Penarth

No merger
The ugly prospect of the Vale Council merging with the Labour controlled Cardiff Council has now been reborn by the Welsh Government.
Its a real pity we couldn’t dump the Welsh Government as some of the policies coming out of Cardiff Bay are an absolute joke.
Can you really imagine these two councils merging, it would be a disaster for Cardiff and the Vale.
Here we have two councils, one Labour the other Tory whom are both as incompetent as each other.
You have Cardiff council looking to bring in a congestion charge to enter Cardiff which will probably kill off Cardiff, and you have the Vale who are looking at the possibility of reducing our black bag collections to two bags per fortnight, plus maybe introducing car parking charges to town centres within the Vale.
Both of these councils just cannot stop taking money from residents and give nothing back.
The thing going for Cardiff is that it has its own leisure complexes which the people do enjoy.
Here in the Vale we have nothing, no cinema, no bowling alley, no outdoor lido. The council in the past has had the opportunity to give the people of the Vale these things but have refused. 
Just like Cardiff council the Vale do not listen or care about the people, all they care about are themselves.
The Vale have had the chance to welcome other businesses in the town but but like always have slammed the door in their faces.
Just like Cardiff council the Vale needs people who will breathe life into our town.
Merge with Cardiff? Not on your nelly.
DJ Radford
Coleridge Crescent
Barry


Brexit
Richard Winder (“Anti-Brexit”, Penarth Times, March 22) is a Remainer who, like me, was distraught as a result of the Brexit referendum and, like me, he is a democrat.  
Take heart, Richard.  According to David Davis MP, Secretary of State for Exiting the EU: “If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.”
Robin Lynn
Cog Road
Sully


Refugee vote
Last Friday one in four Welsh MPs voted in favour of changing the law to enable families divided by conflict and persecution to be reunited in Britain. A Private Member’s Bill from the Scottish National Party’s Angus MacNeil MP, the Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill received cross-party backing from 129 MPs, taking it one step closer to becoming law. 
As the Welsh Refugee Coalition, we would like to thank Hywel Williams MP for co-sponsoring the Bill, and express our heartfelt thanks to Jo Stevens, Albert Owen, Mark Tami, Wayne David, Nick Thomas-Symonds, Stephen Doughty, Jonathan Edwards, Liz Saville-Roberts and Carolyn Harris for attending the second reading of the Refugees (Family Reunion) (No. 2) Bill and for supporting measures to help reunite refugee families. 
If enshrined into law, this Bill would allow a wider range of family members to be reunited with refugees in the UK. It would provide a route for child refugees to grow up with their families, and allow young people who have turned 18 a better chance to be reunited with their parents. 
The vote on Friday was a significant moment for refugees desperate to be reunited with their families, but are unable to do so under the current immigration system. 
Rocio Cifuentes
Chair of the Welsh Refugee Coalition

Legion tours
It’s The Royal British Legion’s belief that every World War Two veteran should have the chance to revisit the battlefield on which they served. Thanks to new LIBOR funding from HM Treasury, we are now able to offer a fully funded trip to anyone who served in our Armed Forces during World War Two.
However, as there is no unified record of World War Two veterans that are alive today, I am reaching out to you and your readers in the hope that you can help us spread the word.
The trips will take place between Spring and Autumn this year and a family member and a carer will also be able to go along and share this pilgrimage of Remembrance with them.
Organised by Remembrance Travel, part of The Royal British Legion, the trip will give the World War Two veterans – now mostly in their 90s – a chance to meet up with fellow ex-service men and women, and pay their respects to their fallen comrades.
Veterans who may be interested in this opportunity need to apply through our tour operator, Arena Travel on 01473 660800, or visit: arenatravel.com/journeysofremembrance.
Charles Byrne
Director General
Royal British Legion