Welcome to St Mary’s & St Anne’s Moseley
29 January 2012 – 4th Sunday of Epiphany

Welcome

If you are here for the first time, please do introduce yourself to a sidesperson or priest. There is a loop system for the hard of hearing available in the nave at St Mary’s and in any part of the church at St Anne’s.

Your Offering

A collection for the work of the church is usually taken during each service. Please use the Gift Aid envelope if you are a UK taxpayer. There will also be a collection from the parents in the children’s groups

Contact details for the Vicar, Wardens & Admin.

• Church Office: 25 St Mary’s Row, B13 8HW
• Telephone: 0121 449 2243
• Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Church Office will now open for enquiries at 11am on Mondays. This is to ensure quality time for planning and communication by the Ministry Team and Staff in the first part of the morning.

Parish Hall and Room Bookings

• Contact: Chrissy McAteer.
• Telephone: 0121 449 2243
• Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Notices

Blessing in Light! Bringing our Faith alive!

2012 will hopefully be a year of great celebration; it gives us the opportunity to remember 12 as a Holy number. Throughout the year, we will be creating a ‘collage’ of stories and faith, seeing God’s Blessing through many seasons and events. There will be a monthly theme relating to a particular church festival or celebration and we are inviting every member of the congregation to share their spiritual ‘image’ of what this means to them.

This month we celebrate the feast of Epiphany – the time when God reveals the Light of his glory made manifest (revealed) through the life of Jesus Christ. So we’re asking each person to share what Light means to them, perhaps through a person, place or being – or through a song, music, psalm, film, DVD, bible passage, painting photo, book or drama. Think who or what lightens up your life. What ‘spiritual’ image strengthens you or tells your story – and may reveal how God lightens your life. There is a £20 prize for the winning entry each month. We look forward to receiving your entries, in the office by tomorrow. Next month the theme will be Blessing in Love.

Building Work at St Mary’s

Tower: The bells have now been taken out of the Tower and moved to Taylors in Loughborough. Some further work may be still taking place. Preparations for casting the new ring of 10 bells will soon begin. See what’s happening at www.stmarysbells.org

Old Parish Office Building: The second stage of the West End Development has now begun and will take three months to complete. The building is being made into two flats. External work near the Tower will begin soon; please watch for further notices regarding access. There will inevitably be some disruption and during this time and we would ask for your patience. Thank you.

Solar Panels

After exactly six months of operation on 13th January, the Solar Panels have delivered 3,509 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, to be compared with about 7000 kWh expected annually. The corresponding income from the Feed-in-Tariff will be £1,380. Please note that the display meter is lagging by 92 kWh because of a power failure in the church.

Lifts to Church

If you would like some assistance in getting to and from Church for Sunday services, please contact Lucy in the Office. If you are able to give help by offering lifts to those who need them to get to Sunday services, please contact Lucy in the office.

Future Events

Hazel White’s Licensing as Associate Vicar

Thursday 2 February
Hazel’s licensing will begin at St Anne’s at 6:30 p.m. with a procession leaving St Anne’s at 7:00 p.m. for the main part of the worship at St Mary’s at 7:30 p.m. Come for all or part of the service.

If you are able to help either by donating wine, making canapés or serving on the day, please sign up on the lists which will be in both churches.

Transforming Church – Growing our Church!

Saturday 4 February (St Mary’s)
Saturday 17 March (St Anne’s)
The Diocese is putting on two days for Churches of similar size to support growth in worship, mission, discipleship, buildings and work with young people. Speakers include Ven. Bob Jackson, James Lawrence and Bishop Andrew Watson. Churches are invited to send 10 people and we need names. If you are interested, please see Jeremy, Caroline, Frank or contact Lucy at the Office.

Prayer Circle

Tuesday 7 February, St Mary’s Courtyard Room, 7:30 p.m. Revd. Richard Tetlow will lead the prayer circle. The subject is ‘Trust in God’. Please enter through the courtyard gate (office gate)

‘Values in the Workplace’ workshop

Following the successful ‘What’s Happening at Work’ discussion group; two further sessions entitled ‘Values in the Workplace’ are being held on Wednesday 18 January and Wednesday 8 February at 12 Woodrough Drive. A simple vegetarian meal will be available at 7:00 p.m. and the discussion will from start at 7:30 p.m. and end about 9:30 p.m. To book a meal, or for more information, please contact Liz Blakey (449 2937) on the Tuesday before the session. Thank you.

Prayer and Reflection

The Benefice prays for:

• Taylors of Loughborough and all those helping with the Bell Project
• Hazel White as she prepares for her licensing on Thursday
• Residents of Barnfield
• President of Malawi, Dr Bingu
• World Leprosy Day –patients needing reconstructive surgery
• Our Jewish brothers and sisters and all remembering the Holocaust
• Churches Together seeking greater unity

Prayers are asked for:

Leo Charles, Matthew and Hannah and Bethany Davies, Sheila Peers, Peter Watson, John Brentnall

Prayers are offered for the souls of the departed: Liz Salmon, Rebecca O Neill, Pattie Hiscock

We celebrate the Birthdays of:

Mike Stocks (2nd), Chloë Hewett (4th)

Collect

Almighty God, whose Son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving presence: renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our weakness sustain us by your mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thought for the day by Jokhim Meikle

When I read this week’s Gospel reading, I wondered how I would respond had I been at the synagogue in Capernaum when Jesus first appeared there. Given my conditioning in a twenty-first century world, would I be as ready as the citizens of Capernaum to recognize the truth of God working through Jesus’ words and action? When we are bombarded daily by ‘news’ and opinion from myriad media sources, when reasoned thinking and a degree of scepticism are quite rightly seen as necessary to find our way through this world of ‘too much information,’ the idea that we could be so quickly convinced in the way the people of Capernaum were, seems unlikely.

When news and information proliferate at an astonishing rate, each demanding our attention and competing for our assent, how do we know what is true? Where do we hear the voice of authority when there are so many who presume to proclaim it? Perhaps now more than at any other time we have to step back, quiet our minds and hearts and listen for God’s will speaking through the word as we find people truly living it, and maybe, most of all, through the silent communion of prayer. When we are daily bombarded with words from external sources, perhaps faith in the truth spoken by the still, small, inner voice, which has been trusted through the ages, may be the most reliable test we have that Jesus’ power and authority remain accessible to us as strongly as they were in Capernaum 2,000 years ago.

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