About Us

A modern monastic community based in the heart of Pontypridd

We believe that the season we are entering into as the church of the UK is a season of prayer, a season to seek God’s face and to intercede on behalf of the people of Trallwng, Pontypridd, Wales and the world. Paul exhorts us Ephesians 6:18  to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Trallwng HOP aims to become a community of believers who are committed to a life of prayer and mission and to enable others to do the same. 

Why

After responding to the call in the spirit to pray, I had a vision to establish a House of Prayer in Trallwing, Pontypridd, a monastic community of believers committed to pray, learn, grow and minister to the local area, Wales and beyond.

The core purpose of the house of prayer is to bring together a community of people who are committed to pray for Trallwng, Pontypridd, Wales and the world. The HOP is a hub where prayer happens and teaching is given, discipleship takes place and mission is sent forth within the environment of a loving community. The HOP will also be a place of equipping the wider church in Pontypridd and Wales to hear what God is saying and to put that into action by providing teaching and resource to enable the wider church to take that which has been learned and apply that to their locality.

Core Principles:

Life lived within community

Committed to a life of prayer

Bible teaching

Personal discipleship and concectarion

We are always on mission

We are a resource hub 

Community life 

Community life revolves around regular corporate and personal times of prayer and incorporates regular shared meals, times of teaching, personal ministry, practical mission work and working the land. 

A community of believers committed to a life of prayer

We seek to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, being alert and always keeping on praying for all the Lord’s people. (Ephesians 6:18)

Bible teaching

In order to be equipped and able to continually wear the full armour of God, know who we are in Christ, understand the meaning of covenant and the full meaning of shalom, so that we are better able to learn to pray and minister to others.

Personal discipleship and concecration

Acknowledging our brokenness, seeking forgiveness, repenting of our sins and receiving ministry to be fully healed and restored both physically mentally and spiritually. We recognise that we can only minister minister freedom to others to the degree that we are free ourselves.

We are always on mission

We believe mission comes in many forms and we endeavour to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:15-19.

We are a resource hub

Trallwng HOP will not only be a hub to serve and pray for the local area but it is a hub for the wider church in Pontypridd, across Wales and beyond. This includes opening the teaching out to a wider audience, hosting conferences and providing teams to support local churches to incorporate prayer into their weekly rhythms.

Community life 

Community life revolves around regular corporate and personal times of prayer and incorporates regular shared meals, times of teaching, personal ministry, practical mission work and working the land. 

The Divine Office or Praying the Hours is a concept of using a format of regular times of biblical significance. Praying the hours will be one of the primary ways that we will use to develop a life of prayer within our community. Whether we are alone or with others from the community, at the allotted time, we aim to stop our current activities, whether they be paid work, mission or our personal down time, to pray, this can be a silent reflection, spoken prayer or following liturgy. The structure of praying the hours, while formal and rigid in appearance, was first given to the Israleites as a shadow and a type of the worship and activities that is happening right now in heaven and was given to Moses but is also described in Revelation. It is a rhythm of prayer that was kept by the early church and is still practised by believers around the world. The divine office will be the structure and that all other activities at or working from the HOP will be founded on. Many other types of prayer will be incorporated into community life including different types of  liturgy, silent prayer/ contemplation through to prayer and worship evenings open to the wider church and community.

Another very important part of community life will be shared meals with an open invite to the local community. Food and fellowship always go hand in hand and our experience of living a part of missional communities has lead us to see the importance of shared meals in developing community life and is a great way to deepen relationships with those who are part of the community and those who are seeking to know more of what Christianity is about as well as those who want to learn more about community life.

Community life will also open up opportunities to work the land whether that be through allotment keeping to produce fruit and vegetables for the use of the community and to give to those in need in the wider community. Longer term we will also seek to acquire some woodland and would like to see that used to provide fuel for heating and woodland products that can be sold on to provide an income source for the HOP.

A community of believers committed to a life of prayer

As a community our primary calling is to engender and equip people to enable them to live a life of prayer. As already mentioned, praying the hours will be incorporated into community life and will form the basis of the daily rhythms that the community follow but we will seek to learn about and use as many different types of prayer within the community with the aim of deepening our relationship with God and our understanding of scripture. Incorporated into the rhythms of the community will be teaching and application of the inclusion of fasting with prayer and the significance of that. As a community we are committed to pray for revival for Trallwng, Pontypridd, Wales, the UK and the wider world and anticipate an outpouring of the Holy Spirit not seen in Wales for decades.

Receiving regular bible teaching

We believe that the words of 2 Timothy 3:16,17 hold true: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We are committed to studying the Word of God as we believe it is the firm foundation on which we build our theology, learn to pray, prophesy and minister to others. As a community we committed to providing teaching on prayer and prophecy and to support the wider church to become proficient in these areas and see them better integrated into the life of today’s church. 

A continual process of discipleship and consecration

As Hebrews 10:14 states, For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. We Believe that while a personal faith in the work of the cross, is the basis for salvation, we also recognise that we are called to a life of sanctification and a continual journey of walking in concecration and ever an closer communion with God. In recognition of this, we are committed to minister to one another and seek to support people through their journey of sanctification “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)

We are always on mission

As Jesus says in Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We want to be a community of believers who earnestly seek the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that we may be empowered to be a true witness of Christ to the world. We believe that the foundation of mission is prayer but we are committed to serving the local community and to seek opportunities to reach out to those in need, whether that be with practical support, coming alongside those who are vulnerable or reaching out to those who we come into contact with during our everyday interactions with people.

We are a resource hub

As well as being committed to the personal and spiritual growth of community members, we see an important role of the community is to be a resource hub for the wider church in Pontypridd, Wales and beyond. We feel a strong calling to equip the wider church to enter into the clarion call in the spirit to prayer and intercession. This will be achieved by regular open times of teaching, prayer & worship vigils and prayer conferences. Teams will also be available to go and minister to specific locations where there is a need for in depth prayer and fasting to bring breakthrough for a local church or group of local churches.

Integrated Principles

As you can see, many of the core principles of the hop overlap each other. This is a hopeful sign that the different aspects of community life can be incorporated together to bring harmony and unity to all we hope to achieve by being in community.