Thanks to the generosity of St Hilda's folk we have recently taken another carload of food and toiletries to the foodbank at Holy Trinity in Smethwick. Just by buying a little bit extra when we go shopping - however little - is changing people's lives for the better in our local community. Times are tough for many of us, but this caring for others is showing God's love in action for people who need it most. Thank you!Visit the Smethwick Foodbank website: https://smethwick.foodbank.org.uk/
Last year a few of us took part in Scriptural Reasoning with Muslim neighbours and we are looking forward to more evenings together this year. We usually share some food and then look at scriptures from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament and Qur’an, sharing thoughts, questions and ideas. The group is open to anyone – you don’t need to be an expert or scholar! Dates for this year so far are; Sunday 28th January 6pm (at a home - please contact Jenni if you are coming for the address and so I can confirm numbers) Sunday 17th March 6pm, Sunday 19th May 6pm, Sunday 28th July 6pm - venue TBC As some of these meetings take place in someone’s home the address won’t be published, but shared privately instead. For more information please ask Jenni.
In 2023 at a meeting in September the PCC discussed becoming part of the Inclusive Church Network. Inclusive Church is a network of churches, groups and individuals uniting together around a shared vision who believe in inclusive church – a church which celebrates and affirms every person and does not discriminate. The PCC were unanimously in favour of joining, however agreed that we as a whole church needed to know more and if we were to sign up to be prepared to take on the challenges it will present us with as a whole congregation. With that in mind we have invited some guest preachers to help us think about our inclusivity in the following areas the network encourage us to think about. Our guests will be coming throughout our Sunday morning services in February and March at 10:30am.The themes of the service will be; 4th February – Fran Ellis, St Hilda’s Lay Reader, will be speaking about mental health. 11th February - our Family service will be an opportunity to remember our baptisms and relight our baptismal candles focusing on how we all belong to Christ’s Church. 18th February – Rev’d Dr Carlton Turner, lecturer in Contextual Theology and Mission Studies at The Queen’s Ecumenical Foundation. Rev’d Dr Turner will be speaking about Ethnicity. 25th February – Rev’d Dr Sharon Jones, Anglican Chaplain at rrimingham University. Rev’d Dr Jones will be speaking to us about disability. 3rd March – Rev’d Dr Al Barrett, Vicar of Hodge Hill Church and Oversight Minister in the Coleshill-Polesworth deanery. Al will be speaking to us about poverty. 10th March – No guest this week, our mothering Sunday service led by Jenni and Fran will focus on gender. 17th March – Rev’d Ruth Harley, Curate in Oxford Diocese. Ruth will be speaking to us about sexuality. We are hoping to record and/or have the transcripts of the sermons available. We have also invested in some resource books which will be available to borrow during this season; these will be left in church. The hope is to pass the resolution to become part of the network after the ACPM on Sunday 21st April at 12, after the morning service. To find out more about Inclusive Church visit: https://www.inclusive-church.org/
