Notices January 2011
Pulpit Arrangements Services start at 11.0 am
Sunday 2nd January Kath Phillips

Sunday 9th January Ges Murray

Sunday 16th January Frank Clare

Sunday 23rd January CTBB exchange preacher

with Communion

Sunday 30th January Ges Murray

You will be most welcome to join us.

Porch and Offertory

Gwen Smith Joan Gwinett
Elder Duty

Wayde Taylor

Communion Servers

Ian Robertson Cynthia Murray

Coffee Rota
2nd Lilian Mason

9th Cynthia Murray

16th Audrey Wright

23rd Judy Sumner

30th Sheila Wooton Doreen Boucher

Dear Friends,


The Christmas season is coming to an end, and the legacy of Christmas is upon us. To me it means becoming more aware of the difference the birth of our Saviour is making to each of our lives and working out just how to follow Jesus day by day.

This year, we are in the “Year of Evangelism” in the Vision4Life Cycle, and that means we will all need to acquire and practice the skills of sharing the Good News.

We will be getting the first batch of targeted help on Saturday, 22nd January. A team from Synod will be visiting our area on that day, coming to Broadway URC to give us some Evangelism Training. This is not just for officers of the church, but for anyone who is not quite sure of the best way to share their faith story with friends and neighbours. If you want some useful pointers where and how to begin with this task, you will be most welcome to come along to the morning session, beginning at 10 am.

After a soup lunch – and the opportunity to eat your sandwiches in the company of church friends from all of the Black Country Area – the Moderator Roy Lowes and a team of Synod Officers will visit us for the afternoon for a Synod Road Show. We’ve had a special weekend, Making the Synod Sizzle, last March, and this Road Show will be the opportunity for those who did not get to it to receive some first-hand feedback.
There will also be surgeries, where the Synod officers will be available to speak with us on the work of Synod and some of the help Synod can give to us, from working out a fair financial balance, through supporting our youth work and lay training, to strategies for church growth and mission work.

Finally, we will be able to share stories relating to the areas of church life closest to our hearts, from membership issues to the working out of team ministry.

It would be great if as many as possible of our friends and members were able to come to either the morning or the afternoon of January 22nd, or even to both. A good attendance at this event is a crucial basis to renewing our vision for the Walsall Pastorate and becoming quite clear where Jesus wants to lead us in 2011.
You may be aware that at the point of writing this, it is 5 months since Diana retired, and the vacancy for the pastorate has still not been declared: officially nobody knows we are looking for a new minister. The main sticking point is the inadequate state of our Manse and the difficulty of deciding what to do about it, and how to finance any work that needs doing. Over the past few months there has been some hard work done on our behalf, and a preliminary plan of action has been worked out and sent off to Synod. This will now need to be agreed by all three churches and by Synod, who will pay at least half the cost of the work. Once the plan is agreed, the vacancy can be declared and we will need to raise funds for the work as well as look for a new minister. May God guide us and empower us through all these stages, so that we will have the chance of finding the minister to Walsall whom God wants call into our midst.


May God bless your journey through the New Year,

Franziska

Other Dates for your January diary

4th January Glebe Service 1.30pm

5th January Elders Meeting 7.30pm

9th January Epiphany Service at Broadway 3.00pm

10th January Coffee Morning 11.00am

18th-25th January Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

20th January F & M Meeting 7.30pm

22nd January Synod Area Road show at Broadway 10.30am

24th January Coffee Morning 11.00am

27th January Church AGM 2.00pm

30th January Joint Walsall Pastorate Service 11.00am at Blakenall

Brownie meetings

Thursday evening 6pm to 7.30pm

Girls between ages of 7 to 10 years

For details please ring Fiona 01922 685063

Or Yvonne on 01922 682078

Brownies is the only uniformed organisation to meet on Thursdays..

This month the Church will be praying especially for the people who live in the following streets :

Thames Road, Mersey Road, Severn Road, Harden Road

december news

You are warmly invited to join us


24th December

Christmas Eve

Christingle Carol Service 6.00pm



Plus on

25th December 9.30am

Christmas Morning



Other Dates for your December diary






4th December Christmas Fayre 2.00pm



4th December CTBB Advent Service 6.30pm.

6th December Elders Meeting 7.30pm.

7th December Service at the Glebe Centre 1.30pm

13th December Coffee Morning 11.00am

24th December Christingle Carol Service 6.00pm

25th December Christmas Morning Communion 9.30am

26th December NO SUNDAY SERVICE



Brownie meetings

Thursday evening 6pm to 7.30pm

Girls between ages of 7 to 10 years

For details please ring Fiona 01922 685063

Or Yvonne on 01922 682078

Brownies is the only uniformed organisation to meet on Thursdays..

This month the Church will be praying especially for the people who live in the following streets :



Hollemeadow Avenue, Blakenall Lane, Foster Street, Dawson Street.

more news

1st November Child Protection Meeting 7.30pm


2nd November Glebe Service 1.30pm

8th November Coffee Morning 11.00am

9th November Elders Meeting 7.30pm

13th November Beetle Drive 6.45pm

15th November Church Meeting 2.00pm

22nd November Coffee Morning 11.00am

22nd November CTBB AGM at Holy Ascension 7.30pm



4th December Christmas Fayre 2. 00pm

.

Brownie meetings


Thursday evening 6pm to 7.30pm

Girls between ages of 7 to 10 years

For details please ring Fiona 01922 685063

Or Yvonne on 01922 682078

Brownies is the only uniformed organisation to meet on Thursdays..

This month the Church will be praying especially for the people who live in the following streets :



Field Road, Ingram Rd and Place Booth Str and Close Guild

Avenue.

Editor's newsletter

Editor’s letter November 2010


Dear Friends

There is a lot of doom and gloom about but good news is still out there! The sight of the miners being rescued was show to behold and the fact that so many were praying for their safe escape and that to many their faith in God kept them going during their long time waiting to be rescued especially for the 17 days before contact was made with them

Other good news stories are that in Niger we have been able to fund another 35 water wells and a new supply of seeds which will expand the crop growing project which did so well for them during the recent famine.

The money raised for Pakistan ( over £30K at the Town Hall) is currently being spent to provide filtered clean water : we are also sponsoring another 80 cataract operations in Northern Pakistan which will give 80 people the ability to see again and allow them to earn a living and cease begging.

I got a surprise call from a lady called Nita Elmufti who I had not heard from for 20 years ago when I directly assisted the release of her doctor husband from a Libyan jail where he had been ‘left to rot’ in the words of Gaddafi for questioning the corruption in local health projects. I ghosted a letter form the cast of ‘ Yes Minister’ and sent to Gaddafi who was addicted to that programme and so reversed the sentence and released him. I just happened to be listening to desert island discs where Paul Eddington was the castaway and he mentioned about Gaddafi so liking that programme. ! Strange how these coincidences show a way out of such difficult situations!

God can show us the way many times in mysterious ways



Regards



Ian

November News

Notices November 2010




Pulpit Arrangements Services start at 11.0 am



Sunday 7th November Gilbert Rowley

Sunday 14th November Rev Franziska Herring

Remembrance Sunday start 10.45am

Sunday 21st November Frank Clare

Sunday 28th November Ges Murray

Communion



You will be most welcome to join us.

Porch and Offertory

Judy Sumner Lillian Mason



Elder Duty

Ges Murray



Communion Servers

Kath and Maurice Phillips



Coffee Rota



7th November Audrey Wright

14th November Sheila Wooton and Doreen Boucher

21st November Cynthia Murray

28th November Gwen Smith

More October news

Other Dates for your October diary




6th October Elders Meeting 7.30pm.



7th October F & M Meeting 7.30pm.

9th October Synod Meeting

11th October Coffee Morning 11.00am.

11th October Harvest Supper 7.00pm.

25th October Coffee Morning 11.00am.



31st October Joint Service at Hatherton 11.00am.

1st November Child Protection Meeting 7.30pm.



Brownie meetings

Thursday evening 6pm to 7.30pm

Girls between ages of 7 to 10 years

For details please ring Fiona 01922 685063

Or Yvonne on 01922 682078

Brownies is the only uniformed organisation to meet on Thursdays..

This month the Church will be praying especially for the people who live in the following streets :



Victoria Avenue , Hamilton Str, Ryle Str, Field Str, Ingram Rd and Place

Shoeboxes for Europe


Although Christmas is a few months away, it is time to start thinking about filling shoeboxes for children who otherwise would not have anything for Christmas.



Operation Christmas Child is 20 years old this year so it would be wonderful if we could send a few extra boxes this year to celebrate and also make this Christmas a happier one for a few more children.



To make it easier I thought I would bring some things suitable for boxes to church for sale so you do not have to fill a whole box on your own but together we shall end up with more filled boxes to send.



I have wrapped quite a few boxes up during the year but we still need more, so if you do have any medium sized shoe boxes please bring them to the church



Many thanks

Jill Langford and Jean Harper

October news

Notices October 2010




Pulpit Arrangements Services start at 11.0 am



Sunday 3rd October Anton Baker

Sunday 10th October Rev Franziska Herring

Sunday 17th October Ges Murray

Sunday 24th October Joan Winterbottom

Sunday 31st October Joint service with Broadway ( 11am) no service at Blakenall



You will be most welcome to join us.

Porch and Offertory



Elder Duty

Kath Phillips



Communion Servers

Ges Murray and Ian Robertson



Coffee Rota

3rd October Cynth Murray

10th October Kath Phillips

17th October Liilian Mason

24th October Chris Moorhouse

31st October at Broadway
Editor’s letter October 2010


Dear Friends

I have been lucky to have been away on holiday in September.. Celebrating Ruby wedding anniversary in Italy.

One memorable experience was the Sunday service at a monastery in the hills on Tuscany.. All in Gregorian chant…

Now back home, back to work!

Our project in Niger to provide water wells and seeds is going very well and has saved lives at a time of famine; we have sent more funds to expand this project to cover a wider area and more people.

Fund raising for Pakistan has installed water purification plants and hot food distribution with a successful fund raining event at Walsall Town Hall raising over £30000 to directly help the victims of those floods.

We also will fund more cataract operations .. Each one frees the patient from dependency on begging with their new sight giving them the ability to earn a living.

While away on that holiday ! I read again the story of William Wilberforce born in the same city of Hull as myself… such dedication to the cause of abolition of slavery… it seems amazing now that we at that time we used our fellow human beings as slaves and treated them so dreadfully. However he did not give up and as a Christian he soldiered on despite initially overwhelming odds .. I am sure we all can in our small way gain inspiration from such heroes and work against evil large and small that threatens our world.

Hope we can support the efforts of Jean and Jill to supply shoe boxes for Christmas to those who have nothing



Regards

Ian



Ian
Dear Friends,




As I write, the visit of Pope Benedict to Britain has just ended. What have you made of this visit? We’ve had anxiety over security and the cost to the taxpayer, publicity for the failings of the church and for the way a saint is made, and we’ve had tens of thousands of people coming together to worship God.

But what has it meant to us Christians in the United Reformed Church?



There was a time when the differences between the Roman Catholics and us would have come to mind over and above anything else: Priests abusing children – couldn’t happen in our church, not because we are faultless, but because we don’t have priest!



Nowadays, the process of Christian Unity is enabling us to meet with our brothers and sisters in other parts of the Church and to recognise in all areas true faith and honest attempts to follow Jesus. Nowadays, we have Christian friends everywhere; we worship together and even exchange pulpits on a regular basis. Nowadays we know that the differences stem mainly from the way we organise our church lives. John Henry Newman was reported to have converted to Roman Catholicism because he felt the need to be in a church with a clear structure and clear lines of command.



Among Roman Catholics, people who dedicate their entire lives to the service of God are set aside as priests. They become intermediaries between God and lay people and help with the church’s task of interpreting the Bible for today’s generation. As they rise in the ranks, their responsibilities of discerning the will of God and listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit increase until one man(!) per generation is deemed to be so perfect in his discernment of God’s will that his word is everybody’s command.


In the United Reformed Church, we have plenty of people who dedicate their lives to the service of God. We may yearn for some firmer leadership, but we don’t have priests. The reason for this is our Free Church interpretation of the Bible when it comes to the gospel accounts of the death of Jesus that the curtain in the temple was torn in two. We believe this means that the death of Jesus has once and for all done away with the separation between believers and God: now we all have access to God directly and no longer need priests or saints to pray for us.



In the United Reformed Church, we take the idea of the priesthood of all believers so seriously, that we have done away with any kind of hierarchy. Each and every one of us can pray to God and expect an answer. Each and every one of us can read the Bible for ourselves and, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, discern its truth for our generation. What a privilege and what a responsibility!



As we are all fallible and prone to listen to our selfish will more intently than to the leading of the Holy Spirit, we recognise that leadership of God’s Church can only be undertaken by a group of Christians who get together to discern the Spirit’s guidance. That is our Church Meeting! On becoming a church member, every single one of us has pledged to make attendance at Church Meetings as much of a priority as attendance at worship – and we need every one to be there, simply because we don’t have a Pope to tell us how to order our affairs.

God bless you all,



Franziska