St James Brownhills and Holy Trinity Clayhanger The MUSTARD SEED www.stjameschurchbrownhills.co.uk March 2017 Our mission is to worship God and to serve the community by sharing the love of Jesus 20p
2
St James Church Activities 1st Sunday 10am Family Service & 6.30pm Holy Communion 2nd Sunday 8am BCP Holy Communion, 10am Holy Communion (with Crèche, Sunday Club & Tribe) & 6.30pm Prayer Ministry Service 3rd Sunday 8am BCP Holy Communion, 10am Celebration (with Crèche & Sunday Club) & 6.30pm Holy Communion 4th Sunday 8am BCP Holy Communion, 10am Holy Communion (with Crèche, Sunday Club & Tribe) & 6.30pm Memorial Service 5th Sunday 8am BCP Holy Communion, 10am Children s Service & 6.30pm Holy Communion Crèche Pre-School children (in Fellowship Room) Sunday Club 4 11 years in church hall Tribe 11 18 years in church hall Monday 9.15am Parent and Toddlers (term time) Monday 6.30pm Girl Guides meet in church hall Tuesday 9.00am 11.00am Open Church Tuesday 6.45pm Brownies meet in church hall Tuesday 7.00pm Heart of Worship rehearse Tuesday 8.15pm Puppet Practice Wednesday 10.15am Holy Communion For details of House Groups see Liz Corbett To arrange a baptism or wedding please telephone 01543 372187 Fancy a good walk? Any time is a good time to blow away the cobwebs, walk off the excesses. Every third Friday our walking group meets at the front of church at 9.30am to do just that. Come and enjoy the fellowship and friendship that goes with a good walk. 3
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2 v 1-4 The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a gift promised by Jesus, when He said to His disciples, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever (John 14 v 16). We can only truly know and proclaim Jesus, and live out the Christian life, when we have been filled with God s Holy Spirit. This is not a new invention, a creation of the early church, but a continuation of the work of God throughout creation. We see the Holy Spirit at work right at the start of time in creation when, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1 v 2). And right throughout the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was upon the men and women fulfilling God s plans and purposes, for example, when the Lord said to Moses, See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills (Exodus 31 v1-3). During the Old Testament period, the filling of the Spirit tended to be for a chosen individual and for a specific purpose/period of time. But now, following the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is upon all believers for all time. We have been celebrating this new reality 4
here at St James and Holy Trinity with a sermon series on the Fruit of the Spirit at our Evening Prayer with prayer Ministry service. We also invited John McGinley (Regional Director for New Wine in the Midlands) to speak to us on the Holy Spirit during our Serving in the Power of God day in February. This was an amazing time when some people were refreshed with the Spirit of God and others were blessed for the first time. Let us all seek more of God and His Spirit as we seek to serve the Lord in our community, and that we don t do this in our own strength and ability, relying on our own resources, but on the full power of God, given freely and lovingly in order to fulfil His plans and purposes for us and our community. Yours in the service of God Dave Bishop (Rev) St James Church is open every Tuesday 9.00am 11.00am for free coffee/tea private prayer and quiet time or just a friendly chat 5
Services at Holy Trinity for March All are welcome at any of our services. If you would like to know more about Holy Trinity, please make yourself known to Graham or ring 01543 820809 Sunday 5th March 10.30am Family Worship with Liz Corbett Sunday 19th March 10.30am Family Worship with Mel Pearce Lent, and true Self-denial The whole of this month is Lent bad news for smokers desperately waiting for Easter so that they can get at the fags again; but for those who take self-discipline seriously, it s a reminder that Christianity isn t a short-term option. Among the harder sayings of Jesus was this one: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. The phrase deny themselves is the challenge of Lent, and the origin of the idea that for those six weeks we give up something. Once upon a time it was meat; nowadays it s more often something that we know is damaging to our health or well-being. Neither option really meets the demands of self-denial. Jesus was certainly not thinking of dieting or giving up luxuries. For one thing He and His followers were known to enjoy their food and drink (and were criticised for it!). They knew about fasting as a religious discipline, because at specified times it was part of their Jewish faith a discipline, but not self-denial. For Jesus, self-denial is a total mental attitude. It s not self-loathing or seeing ourselves as valueless. We are made in God s image and of infinite value to Him. Jesus demonstrated true self-denial in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He simply prayed Not my will, but yours, be done. Me first, looking after Number One, is self-indulgence. Self-denial is its precise opposite. Oddly enough, putting God s will before our own seems to make for happiness, not misery even in Lent. 6
Readings for March The following readings will be used in the St James Services this month: 5th March 2016 Evening Service - Romans 5 v 12 19 & Matthew 4 v 1 11 12th March 2016 Morning Service - Romans 4 v 1 5, 13 17 & John 3 v 1 13 19th March 2016 Evening Service - Romans 5 v 1 11 & John 4 v 5 42 26th March 2016 Morning Service - Colossians 3 v 12 17 & John 19 v 25b 27 26th March 2016 Evening Service - Micah 7 & James 5 Time for the C of E to mobilise the lay people! The Church of England needs to undergo a major culture shift to mobilise lay members to spread the gospel in their everyday lives. So argues a new report recently presented to members of the General Synod. The report, entitled Setting God s People Free, calls for Christians to be equipped to live out their faith in every sphere from the factory or office, to the gym or shop to help increase numbers of Christians and their influence in all areas of life. Laity and clergy should view themselves as equal partners in the task of evangelising the nation, it insists. The paper is a key element of the lay leadership strand of Renewal and Reform, an initiative from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, to help grow the Church. The report was among papers given to members of the Church of England s General Synod, which met in Westminster in February. 7
Serving in the Power of God A few pictures from the day conference held in February at St James 8
Specialist Care For People with Dementia & Mental Illness Contact Details 208 Ogley Road Brownhills Walsall WS8 6AN Tel: 01543 360120 Fax: 01543 452144 Email: homestead208@hotmail.com Website: www.homestead208.com Registered in England No. 4920939 Caring for your Health and Well-Being Homestead Care Home provides long term or short term residential or respite care for elderly and young adults with physical frailty and those with mental health needs. We offer: 30 Bedrooms, 8 with en-suite facilities 3 Day lounges 4 Bathrooms with twelve toilets 1 large dining room Well kept gardens and patio area Excellent home cooking, catering for special diets CARE FOR DEMENTIA & MENTAL ILLNESS Our Care Home provides: - Secure windows and alarmed doors - Stimulating daily activities - Day trips - Specially trained carers CARE FOR PHYSICAL DISABILITIES - Assisted baths - Purpose walk-in shower room - Wheelchair access to indoor/outdoor areas - Hoists, moving and handling equipment Registered with the Care Quality Commission 9
Co-operative FUNERAL SERVICES Serving your local community 24 hours a day Aldridge 01922 450991 Anchor Meadow Health Centre Bloxwich 01922 403399 154a High Street Brownhills 01543 452896 9 High Street Cannock 01543 572644 49 Park Road Fullbrook 01922 722136 17 Broadway West Lichfield 01543 416660 1 Birmingham Road (next to Lichfield Train Station) Pleck 01922 647164 2 Moat Road (Opposite Manor Hospital) Rushall 01922 645694 114 Lichfield Street Walsall 01922 621808 Hatherton Street Part of West Midlands Co-operative Group & members of The Funeral Standards Council www.coopfunerals.coop 2nd Brownhills Scout Group The Scout Headquarters Barnetts Lane (off Lichfield Road), Brownhills www.walsallnorthscoutdistrict.org.uk Weekly meetings and activities for boys, girls, and adult volunteers Beaver Scouts ages 6 to 8 years Cub Scouts ages 8 to 10 years Scouts ages 10 to 14 years For further information, please contact: Sue Wright 01543 276953 or Mary Mayo 01543 453293 CARAVAN TO LET WINKUPS HOLIDAY PARK, North Wales All 2017 dates available Great location Please ring: Helen Harrison on 07910 036428 10
Laughter Lines Sent away An irritated mother complained to her friend: When I was a kid, my parents sent me to my room without supper if I misbehaved. But my son has his own TV, telephone, computer, and every computer game and CD player in his room! So how do you handle it? her friend asked. I send him to MY room! Naughty mummy A mother asked her young son, as they waited for the bus, to tell the driver he was five years old, because then he would ride for free. As they got into the bus the driver asked him how old he was. I am five years old, said the little boy proudly. The driver had a son of his own that age, and smiled. And when will you be six years old? he asked. When I get off the bus, answered the boy. We don t often have more than one cartoon, but these two just tickled me Men and women Three men were hiking through a forest when they came upon a large raging river. Needing to get on the other side, the first man prayed, God, please give me the strength to cross the river. Poof! God gave him big arms and strong legs and he was able to swim across in about two hours, having almost drowned twice. After witnessing that, the second man prayed, God, please give me strength and the tools to cross the river. Poof! God gave him a rowboat and strong arms and strong legs and he was able to row across in about an hour after almost capsizing once. Seeing what happened to the first two men, the third man prayed, God, please give me the strength, the tools and the intelligence to cross the river. Poof! He was turned into a woman. She checked the map, went one hundred yards up stream and walked across the bridge. 11
1444 Brownhills Air Cadets Expand your Horizons Want to be different to everyone else? Want to do cool activities including flying, Gliding, Shooting? Want to do something different to everyone else? Want to be part of a Super Community and make new friends? Come and see us at our at our Headquarters Brownhills Air Cadets Barnetts Lane Brownhills WS8 6HZ Or for more information contact us on either Monday or Wednesday evening between 7:30 and 9:30 using telephone No. 01543 360717 or 07751 358697 12
2017 Faith Easter Egg launched The new look Real Easter Egg 2017 range has been launched, and churches are being asked to encourage people to support this unique way of sharing the story of Easter. This year a 24 page Easter story-activity book, illustrated by Alida Massari, is included in the Original, Egg Hunt and Dark eggs. The Special Edition has an Easter traditions booklet inside. The Sharing box, with 30 eggs, comes with 30 colour-in posters. Out of the 80 million Easter eggs sold in this part of the world every year, The Real Easter Egg is the only one which has a copy of the Easter story in the box, is made of Fairtrade chocolate and makes a donation to charity from sales. The Real Easter Egg was launched in 2010 but the supermarkets turned down the idea. It was left to churches and church schools to place orders to fund The Meaningful Chocolate Company so they could make The Real Easter Egg. David Marshall, creator of the Real Easter Egg, said; With the support of churches more than one million eggs have been sold with 750,000 of these sent through the post directly to churches and schools. The rest have been sold through independent retailers and supermarkets. The success of The Real Easter Egg has meant that the production of Fairtrade chocolate has moved to the UK. Over 250,000 has been raised from sales for charitable causes. Due to production restrictions, this year we have slightly fewer eggs available so we recommend people order as early as possible. The whole range can be ordered online at www.realeasteregg.co.uk (with free delivery) or from Traidcraft, Eden.co.uk, TLM trading.com, Embrace the Middle East. Christian bookshops and some cathedrals also have stocks. You can also buy the blue Original egg from Tesco, Waitrose and Morrisons. 13
Historically, the Church of England has had its share of eccentric clergy. Even nowadays, hiding away in remote parishes, there are still some colourful clergy about. Clergy such as the elderly, Anglo-Catholic Uncle Eustace, who is incumbent in the small parish of St James-the-Least-of All, somewhere in Very Rural England. Eustace despairs of his nephew, Darren, who has become an Evangelical curate in a busy urban parish and so he writes letters, to try and properly 'educate' Darren in parish life. On Weddings in Spring 14 The Rectory St. James the Least My dear Nephew Darren Just as undertakers rub their hands in glee at the coming of Winter frosts, so hoteliers with banqueting suites become animated at the first signs of Spring. We have arrived at the first phase of the marriage season. As the days begin to lengthen and trees start to bud, young men find it irresistible not to propose to potential brides. Some people wait to hear the first cuckoo to let them know Spring is on its way; I wait to hear the first knock on the Rectory door from couples wanting to book their wedding. Naturally, my first job is to try to put them off; it would save them a great deal of money and give me many more free Saturdays. But I always fail, and so the big day is booked. Nowadays, there is such a time lag between booking a marriage service and it taking place, I sometimes think it would be easier to book the service first and then look for someone to marry at a later, more convenient, time. Last year, it was somewhat different with one couple. They were both in their late eighties (a good time to contemplate a first marriage, in my opinion) and asked if they could arrange to get married as soon as
possible. The usual reason for a hurried marriage seemed unlikely at their age and so I asked why. Their answer was charming: At our age, we might not still be here if the great day is much delayed. Of course, booking a marriage is the simplest part of the whole procedure. There are florists to negotiate with made even more complex should there be more than one marriage that day. One bride wants all white, the other red, and so one set of priceless flowers is trundled out of church by one set of florists while a competitor barrows in the next confection. Photographers are inclined to think aisles are racetracks, pews for standing on and that all church furniture is moveable - generally once the service has started. I place all photographers in the west gallery before the service and lock them in apologising for my fit of absentmindedness afterwards. Courses should be offered at theological colleges on placating irate bellringers when the bride is half-an-hour late, cooling down organists when the happy couple ask to come in to an organ arrangement of a Led Zepplin number, and re-assuring the choir that the guests meant no disrespect as they made mobile phone calls in church while the choir sang Ave Maria, once we had disappeared to sign the registers. However, nothing will ever calm down a verger who has been left to sweep up several hundredweights of confetti once everyone else has gone home. Personally, I find a restorative sherry back at the rectory works wonders. Your loving uncle, Eustace Always remember... Church should be a place where Jesus feels at home 15
Leave it Alone In my tiny front garden I have a shrub. I don t know its name, but it has won a place in my life-long affections. Recommended about six years ago by a horticulturalist friend, it has produced every summer a magnificent array of splendid red blooms, much admired by my neighbours. They always ask what it is, but I can t remember I must find out the next time I m in touch with her. In the Autumn it s an absolute mess for a couple of months, dead leaves, stalks and trailing branches everywhere. However, just leave it alone I had been told, and very willingly I have. The reward has been the astonishing sight of new shoots in early Spring, and eventually, in late May, the return of my beautiful bush and its glorious flowers. Just leave it alone Oh, the joy of that advice to a non-gardener. I could be an expert at just leaving things alone, like little Bo-peep in the nursery rhyme: Leave them alone, and they will come home, bringing their tails behind them. Sometimes the Creator really does know best. Exercise daily Walk with the Lord Couch potatoes are expensive The couch-potato lifestyle of many Britons is costing the state more than 20 billion a year, and has become a national embarrassment. Such is the recent warning of health campaigners such as Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, a former Paralympian. A recent survey found that even walking levels have fallen by more than a third in three decades, with the average person now walking less than 10 minutes a day. 16
17
March Across 1 These letters come between Romans and Galatians (11) 9 You will not me to the grave (Psalm 16:10) (7) 10 King of Moab to whom the Israelites were subject for 18 years (Judges 3:14) (5) 11 Town possessing mineral spring (3) 13 Mede (anag.) (4) 16 High-fidelity (abbrev.) (4) 17 He succeeded his father Rehoboam as king of Judah (1 Kings 14:31) (6) 18 A son of Simeon (Genesis 46:10) (4) 20 Controversial religious book of the 1970s, The of God Incarnate (4) 21 He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you and hear (Acts 2:33) (3,3) 22 You me together in my mother s womb (Psalm 139:13) (4) 23 Edit (anag.) (4) 25 Who has believed our message and to whom has the of the Lord been revealed? (Isaiah 53:1) (3) 28 Abraham s brother (Genesis 22:23) (5) 29 When Mordecai learned of that had been, he tore his clothes (Esther 4:1) (3,4) 30 Sympathetic (Proverbs 11:16) (4-7) Crosswords reproduced by kind permission of BRF and John Capon, originally published in Three Down, Nine Across, by John Capon ( 6.99 BRF) 18 Crossword Down 2 That was why his parents said, He is ; ask him (John 9:23) (2,3) 3 Integrated Services Digital Network (1,1,1,1) 4 Saul has slain his thousands, and David his of thousands (1 Samuel 18:7) (4) 5 Concept (John 8:14) (4) 6 Do we, then, the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law (Romans 3:31) (7) 7 Industrious (2 Timothy 2:6) (11) 8 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you (Ephesians 1:18) (11) 12 Out of the same mouth come and cursing (James 3:10) (6) 14 This was how many of the Jewish leaders described Jesus (John 10:20) (3) 15 Vitality (Job 20:11) (6) 19 He urged David to kill Saul at Hakilah (1 Samuel 26:8) (7) 20 So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul with the church and taught great numbers of people (Acts 11:26) (3) 24 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4) (2,3) 25 Parched (Matthew 12:43) (4) 26 In the image of God he created him; and female he created them (Genesis 1:27) (4) 27 Disparagement (Psalm 15:3) (4) Answers can be found on page 22
Would you like to advertise your business here? For a small fee, you can. Please see information on page 23 A. E. POXON and SONS LTD HIGH STREET, BROWNHILLS Tel 373144 Suppliers of high quality fresh meat and cooked meats From our own factory Succulent home made sausages and dry cured bacon Also ask us for advice on your freezer supplies Swaffield Stone Ma#on# MEMORIAL SCULPTORS 59a High Street, Chasetown, Nr. Lichfield, Staffs WS7 7XE Tel: Burntwood 01543 686595 MEMORIAL STONES AND QUALITY CARVING COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUES & STONES HOUSE NAME PLAQUES You are welcome to come and visit our Workshop and see the work done by hand to a very high standard. We also have a selection of Memorials, large and small, for you to view and a comprehensive selection of catalogues which we will willingly bring to your home for you to select with our personal help. 19
Brownhills Memorial Hall Lichfield Road, Brownhills Tel: 07436 584899 Regular Events Brownhills Memorial Hall Short Mat Bowling Club Tuesday 7.00pm 9.00pm 2.00 Beginners welcome Social bowling Friendly atmosphere Line Dancing Wednesday 7.00pm 9.00pm 3.00 Tea Dance Friday afternoon 2.00pm 4.00pm 2.50 (inc tea & biscuits) Sequence & Ballroom Dance Second Saturday in each month 8.00pm 11.00pm 2.50 (Bring your own drinks) Saturday 4th March Skittles Night/Fish & Chip Supper 7.30pm 7.00 Saturday, 18th March Quiz/Ploughman s Supper 7.30pm 5.00 20
The man who brought us Thomas the Tank Engine A reluctant author who created characters loved by millions of children died 20 years ago this month, on 21st March 1997, aged 85. The Rev Wilbert V Awdry is best known as the writer of Thomas the Tank Engine and 25 other railway books, which at the time of his death had sold an estimated 50 million copies. They have also given birth to toys, games, videos and a television film series. He invented the stories initially to tell his son Christopher when he was ill with measles, and had to be persuaded by his wife Margaret to get them published. Mr Awdry, who was made an OBE shortly before his death, was a clergyman who ministered in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Birmingham and Cambridgeshire. He was also a pacifist who once lost his curacy as a result. He was always interested in railways, having been fascinated as a child in Wiltshire by listening to steam trains ascending the grade into the nearby Box Tunnel. The Fat Controller in the stories is sometimes thought to be a Godlike figure, but he was intended as a satire on bureaucracy. For Mr Awdry, the morality of the stories was clearly Christian, and analogies between the Christian faith and the ways of the railway were obvious: the engines are meant to stay on the right track, and they pay the price if they go off the rails. But they are always forgiven, and never scrapped. Asked how he hoped to be remembered, he said he would like his epitaph to say that he helped people see God in the ordinary things of life, and he made children laugh. Yum yum A notice outside Chichester Cathedral advertised lunchtime concerts with the encouragement that: Sandwiches may be eaten. Someone had scribbled underneath: So if you are a sandwich, don t come! 21
Prayers & Poems CREATION/FALL/REDEMPTION/GLORY The Lord God created all things good And rested on the seventh day His last creation Adam and Eve Was very good in every way. How Satan loathed that God should love A creature such as lowly man, He tempted them to disobey And then the reign of sin began. Cut off from God, barred from His sight But God foresaw that this would be, And so the Word, the Son of God Would come to die for you and me. His sacrifice on that cruel cross Was made to take away our sin The gates of glory opened wide So man once more could enter in. By Megan Carter Spring Another winter finished; Our hearts are full of joy! The icy frosts diminish And summer sun's ahoy! Last summer seems so distant The autumn leaves long gone; But now, each passing instant Is full of sunny song. The seasons flow reminds us The climbing, sinking sun; That death's dread cords won't bind us Our time with Christ will come! by Nigel Beeton Prayer to our Always-Good Father Father, Thank you that you are our Father and that you love us, whoever we are, wherever we go, whatever we've done, however we feel. No matter what life brings, you never change. You are always good and always there for us, if we just turn and talk to you. Thank you for Jesus who died to make that possible. We pray in his name. Amen. DOWN: 2, Of age. 3, ISDN.4, Tens.5, Idea. 6, Nullify. 7, Hardworking. 8, Enlightened. 12, Praise. 14, Mad. 15, Vigour.19, Abishai. 20, Met. 24, Is one. 25, Arid.26, Male.27, Slur. CROSSWORD ANSWERS ACROSS: 1, Corinthians. 9, Abandon. 10, Eglon.11, Spa. 13, Deem. 16, Hi-fi.17, Abijah.18, Ohad.20, Myth.21, Now see. 22, Knit. 23, Tide. 25, Arm. 28, Nahor. 29, All done. 30, Kind-hearted. 22
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall how do you see yourself this Lent? Somebody asked a Christian friend why he was eating doughnuts, when he had given them up for Lent! He answered, At the bakers I told God, that if He wanted me to buy doughnuts, He should provide a parking space in front. On the eighth time around, there it was! Rather than seeing Lent simply as a time to give things up, let s use it intentionally for self-examination, reading Scripture, penitence, fasting and prayer. At Jesus baptism, God s voice says, You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22). The Holy Spirit then leads Jesus into the wilderness, where we find Him coming to terms with who He is. Satan s temptations challenge Jesus in key three areas of His identity: social action, political power, and religious identity (Luke 4: 1-13). It is as though Jesus looked into the mirror at Himself to discern what kind of Saviour He would be. We can also think of Lent as an opportunity to hold a mirror up to ourselves and ask the question, who am I? It is a season of honest encounter with who we are, what we ve done, and the world in which we live. How will you keep Lent period of 40 days running up to Easter? What will you see when you hold up the mirror to yourself? Alongside taking time to read Scripture, study a Christian book and pray with fasting, why not give up texting for Lent and simply talk on the phone; commit ourselves to just working 40 hours a week or spend five minutes each day in silence! Whatever we do, Lent is a season for self-reflection, as we put ourselves in a position to receive afresh the forgiveness and healing that God offers. MAGAZINE ARTICLES If you would like to submit an article for publication in this Parish Magazine, please note that the closing date is the third Sunday of each month. If submitted by e-mail, please send your article (preferably in Microsoft Word format) to Sue Bryan at sjb.7dx@gmail.com or in written format and handed to Sue by the due date. 23
Repent and Change He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:16-17 Repent, cried John the Baptist, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. (Matthew 3:2). And to the crowds who came out to be baptised by him, he said: You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? (Luke 3:7). These words of denunciation, together with John s dress and rugged way of life, may conjure up for us a picture of a hell-fire preacher, manipulating his hearers with threats of destruction. His message was, certainly, one of repentance; but his main theme was change more than judgment. He was not only calling the Jews corporately to national acts of penitence, but was also seeking to show individuals that their own lives contributed to the collective sin. So when they asked him, What should we do then?, he gave simple and practical answers: Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same (Luke 3:11); Don t extort money and don t accuse people falsely be content with your pay (Luke 3:14). Indeed, in the prophecy of John s birth, spoken by the angel in the temple to Zechariah, John was described as one who would turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous (Luke 1:17). So, the tax collectors and the soldiers were to express their repentance by their changed behaviour at work; others were to embody it by a changed attitude to their possessions. Those who had turned away from God were to change direction and return to righteous paths. And those with broken relationships were to seek reconciliation within their families, and beyond. It was through the change in the hearts and lives of individuals that the nation was to be prepared for the coming of the Lord. Has the world ever been in greater need of reconciliation than today? From broken families with abused or neglected children to nations reducing each other s cities to rubble, the Church must be in the thick of things, living in unity, reaching out in love and urging with a prophetic voice like John s the repentance that leads to change. 24
ST JAMES SERVICE ROTA March 2017 SIDESPEOPLE EPISTLE GOSPEL 5th March 10am Family Service Sunday Club Welcome Janet Plimmer 6.30pm Holy Communion Sharon Venables Les Poynton Janet Poynton 12th March 10am Holy Communion Marg Powell Ann Wilkins Brenda Timmins 6.30pm Evening Praise with Prayer Ministry Janet Poynton 19th March Celebration Service Simon & Helen Harrison 6.30pm Holy Communion Roger and Maureen Hill Angela Cooper Dennis Powell 26th March 10am Holy Communion Angela Cooper Mal Walker Josie Rawcliffe Welcome Brenda Timmins 6.30pm Evening Prayer Joy Powell Pete Biggs Roger Corbett Celebration Service Celebrate God s Wisdom Sunday 19th March 10.00am ALL WELCOME 25
Diary Dates March 1st Ash Wednesday Service in church @ 7.30pm 17th Walking Group meet at front of church @ 9.30am 19th Wedding of Peter Birch and Vicky Beech in church at 1.30pm 20th Prayer Ministry team meet at 5 Meadow View @ 7.30pm 27th 1st April Experience Easter in church all week 1st April Easter Coffee Morning with a chance to find out about Experience Easter Baptisms in January 2017 29th Katie Clark Baptisms in February 2017 5th Cason Youster 5th Ellie Banks From the Registers Funerals for January 2017 4th Malc Taylor, 76, Rose Drive, Clayhanger, crem 4th Gladys Harding, 91, Church Street, Clayhanger, crem 11th Jean Walker, 78, Clifton Avenue, Clayhanger, crem 12th Anthony Chadwick, 66, Whitehorse Rd, Brownhills, crem 19th Lucy Haynes, 87, Saddler Rd, Brownhills, crem 24th Ivor Evans, 89, Castle Street, Brownhills, crem 30th Maureen Baker, Whitehorse Rd, Brownhills, St James & burial Funerals for February 2017 1st Edna Butler, 92, Knaves Court, Brownhills, crem 1st Peter Bratt, 81, Barnett's Lane, Brownhills, crem 2nd Shirley Heath, 72, Fourth Avenue, St James & crem 6th James Dicks, 36, Chapel Street, Brwonhills, St James & crem 6th Mavis Hyde, 85, Ogley Rd, Brownhills, crem 13th Jack Whitehouse, 88, Roundhill Farm, Newtown, St James & Barnett s Lane 14th Muriel Read, 90, St Marks Road, Shire Oak, Brownhills, St James & crem 26
27
THE PARISH OF BROWNHILLS WITH OGLEY HAY Our mission is to worship God and to serve the community by sharing the love of Jesus Vicar: Revd Dave Bishop 01543 372187 Lay Ministers: Pete Biggs 01922 692163 Liz Corbett 01543 370162 Graham Mason 01543 820809 Graham Sutherington 01543 671020 Children & Family Worker: Mel Pearce 07794 753210 OFFICERS Wardens: Margaret Powell 01543 371396 Roger Corbett 01543 370162 Lay Chair: Dennis Powell 01543 820513 Secretary: Brenda Stanford 01543 373063 Treasurer: Allison Hopkins 01543 325100 Parish Administrator: Joy Powell 01543 820513 Deanery Synod Representatives: Roger Corbett 01543 370162 Sarah Cullingworth Organist and Worship Leader: Pete Biggs, BEd(Hons), AMusCAM 01922 692163 Brownies: Jenny Judson Guides: Claire Llewellyn 28