| The village of St Athan has a thriving community which recently had the pleasure of receiving a brand new Church & Community centre called The Gathering Place, opened in April 2008. This has been funded by the Methodist church who sold their chapel and land in the village to provide a community facility in the area of St Athan where, since the selling off of RAF properties has had few amenities. Up until this time we were operating out of three mobile huts leased to us by the MOD trying to help develop a sense of community and provide much needed activities for people, particularly parents and children. We are going through a period of change with the possibility of the training base being built here in St Athan and the expansion of the community in the future due to this.
The Centre brings together people from all walks of life and all ages. We have activities such as Karate, Holiday Clubs for children, PlayDays (funded by Play Development and the council), Exercise Classes, Toddler groups, Drop-in-coffee mornings, Sewing Clubs, Brownies and Rainbows. The Red Cross has a permanent Day Centre based here and a church service is run on Sundays with a cafe style meeting called 'Mosaic' for thought provoking discussion on subjects close to everyday life. We look to the future for more exciting developments to happen here . We are part of the Barry Circuit of Methodist Churches www.barrycircuit.org.uk for more information. The Methodist Church www.methodistwales.org.uk |