On Advent Sunday, Christ Church in Coseley held a very special 'Tree of Light' service for their local community with tags placed on the tree remembering loved ones who are…
PCC member, Craig Jones writes:
“We had a wonderful turnout for our annual Tree of Light service on Sunday 30 November, marking the beginning of the Advent season.
The service is a cherished community event where members are invited to sponsor a Christmas tree tag bearing the names of their departed loved ones. These tags are then placed on the Tree of Light Christmas tree situated outside Christ Church.
The gathering was deeply moving, featuring various readings, poems, and the communal singing of Christmas carols, enhanced by our church choir.
We were pleased to welcome over 500 people from the community who attended this special service.”
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.
Bishop Hugh visited Cropthorne with Charlton C of E First School on 3 November to share in their collective worship and meet with the children.
