On 2 February, St Oswalds Place of welcomeCoffee Friday celebrated its first birthday. The founder of the coffeemorning, Mr Brian Murkett celebrated the success of the coffee morning with around…
On 2 February, St Oswalds Place of welcomeCoffee Friday celebrated its first birthday.
The founder of the coffeemorning, Mr Brian Murkett celebrated the success of the coffee morning with around 40 regular attenders from the local community. He announced that although the drinks and biscuits are free, donations have raised over 1,000 in 12 months.
One of the regular members, Mr Frank Smith Isa member of the Blind Veterans society and a volunteer from the charity was present to receive acheque for 500. Frank was then invited to light the birthdaycake and blow out the candles.
Vicar of St Oswald’s Church, Nigel Taylor, said: “In an area such as Broadwaters where there is little tofoster community cohesion, the Friday Coffee Morning has been a real blessingbringing people together and enabling new friendships to develop. This is theethos of the Places of Welcome hospitality network and we’re delighted to be a part of it.”
Find out more about the national Places of Welcome network: www.placesofwelcome.org.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally will visit the Diocese over the weekend of 6 and 7 February. She will spend two days in the Diocese visiting churches and meeting with a range of people; hearing some of our stories and offering encouragement.
At the recent Clergy Conference, the diocesan stewardship team launched a Boomerang offering, to help activate generosity across the Diocese. Each person was given a £5 note to take home, pray with and see what act of generosity God was calling them towards. We also asked them to share their stories of how the money was used.
Many of our churches hosted ‘light parties’ at the end of October as a popular alternative to Halloween. Some of our renewal churches hosted the biggest celebrations.
Our diocese has been awarded £3.6 million to continue to support churches as part of phase two of our programme to ensure our churches are healthy and sustainable for the future.
Kelly Gordon is a member of Wordsley Parish in Greater Dudley Deanery. She has recently been selected as one of only three people in the UK to be part of the Leaders Europe programme within the Obama Foundation.
St Peter’s CE Academy and St Peter’s Church in the Saltway Team have been awarded a silver Church and School Partnership Award recognising the close relationship between the church, school and local community.
This year’s Church of England Advent and Christmas theme focuses on the first and greatest Christmas gift of all: the gift of God being born as one of us in Jesus Christ.
An article from Archdeacon Mark for December editions of parish magazines.
The Muslim-Christian dialogue group in Lye, Stourbridge, arranged a litter pick on 31 October to clear up two local streets.
A new singing group for children will launch at St Peter’s Centre at Pedmore Church on 15 November, 10 years after Singing Angels originally began at St Andrew’s Church on the Straits.
