Members of St Stephen’s Church in Redditch have been sharing hope in different locations across Redditch, offering people free tea and coffee and a chance to talk about faith and about anything which might be worrying them.
Gail Rogers, Vicar of Beoley and Alvechurch explains how an iSingPop workshop in the local first school resulted in a joyful Café Church with 27 children attending.
Claines played host to a joyful family ‘Light Trail’ during the half term holiday, which ninety people participated in. Ten households in Claines decorated their homes as “light stops,” each displaying a word that formed part of a Bible verse, for participants to unscramble.
Parishes across the Diocese working with Kirsty Pierson from iSingPOP this year, have reported how much this support has helped them reach new families and children. We hope it will be possible to extend the pilot to see how this initial success can be further embedded and built on.
In January 2026 Claines Church, will be launching a new and exciting church service for children called ‘Bubble Church’. This has been made possible thanks to a grant from the ‘Healthier Churches Fund’.
At St Thomas’ Church in Stourbridge, members of ‘Chewsday Church’ have recently unveiled a large cross, intentionally crafted with a rough and imperfect surface to reflect the brokenness of our world.
Former primary school teacher Emily Holmes has recently joined St Peter’s Bengeworth in Evesham as ‘Children and Families Worker’. Emily is keen to bring more families into church and has a real heart for creating neurodiverse-friendly spaces where all children feel safe and valued.
Former Corporate HR Manager, Grace Wrigglesworth, has been Operations Manager for Kingswinford parish for just over a year and her work is already making a difference to the whole Kingswinford community about which she is so passionate.
The Revd Steve Hollinghurst has been appointed as our New Worshipping Communities Lead. Steve is joining our Transformation Support Hub team, which is funded by the national church, replacing Kim Brown.
St Catherine’s CE school and St Barnabas Church in Kidderminster have achieved a silver Church and School Partnership Award. Accompanied by representatives from the church, school and Diocese, Bishop Martin and Archdeacon Mark Badger, attended a special school assembly to present this joint award.
It has been just over a year since Fraser Oates was installed as the Renewal Church Leader at St Stephen’s Church in Redditch. The church has received funding as part of our renewal programme and the team are already seeing new people encountering God and growing in faith.
Former CE primary school teacher Louise Hicklin recently started as Children and Families’ Worker at St John the Baptist Church in Halesowen. Thanks to this appointment and the installation of new toilets, St John’s Church have been able to launch their first Messy Church.
At All Saints church in Sedgley on Sunday 21st September, Giles Joiner was installed as Team Vicar in the benefice of Gornal and Sedgley by Bishop Anne Hollinghurst. It was a joyful service, designed to offer a warm welcome to Giles and his family.
The Chase team in Malvern have given away hundreds of ‘Easy to Read’ Bibles in their communities so far this year, to raise awareness of God’s message and the hope that Jesus brings.
Each September, the churches in the Halas Team in Halesowen come together for ‘HalasFest’, a joint service which celebrates the whole team and all they are doing in their communities. This year they were joined by Bishop Martin who was able to dedicate a set of new toilets which have recently been built inside the church.
Our Diocesan Stewardship team are running training courses this autumn for PCCs and churches on how to run a legacy campaign. While it can feel a tricky subject to broach it is vitally important when legacies can make such a difference to churches and the communities they serve.
A number of our churches have applied to the Kingdom People Fund for a grant to replace their external church noticeboards. Here are a few pointers on how to make your church noticeboard as effective as possible.
St John’s Church stepped in to host the Halesowen Uniform Exchange during the school holidays, after the usual venue had become unavailable at short notice.
On the morning of Thursday 21 August St Johns church in Halesowen hosted a special session of what has come to be known as 'Donut Club' to support local year 11s who were collecting their GSCE results.
ITV Central News visited All Saints Worcester's 6pm service on Sunday 17th August to interview young members of the congregation and Rev Rich Johnson about 'The Quiet Revival', that is the research data that shows that more young adults are coming to church!
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17th November 2025