The Flower Festival will depict the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympic Games and other anniversaries celebrated during the year. More news next month.

Holy Baptism

            November 6                Thomas Richard John Stott

            November 20            Harry Joseph Phillips

            December 11              Amelia Anne Meadows

                                                       Henry Paul Obafemi Heard

         November 26            Terry & Tina Kemp

Funerals in Church

            October 17                Nicholas Jones

            November 21         George Cuthbertson

 Sunday Services 8.00am and 10.00am (NB no 10.00am service on 8^th)

Choir Practice Seniors Thursdays 8.00pm from 12^th,  Juniors 7.00pm from 13^th

 1          Sunday             8.00am          Holy Communion

 6          Friday              10.00am          Holy Communion (Epiphany)

8          Sunday             8.00am          Holy Communion

                                          10.15am          United Service at Baptist   Free Church

9          Monday           10.30am          Pastoral Committee

10        Tuesday          12.30pm          Tuesday Lunch

11        Wednesday       2.00pm          Prayer Chain Meeting

12        Thursday           2.00pm          Missions Committee

13        Friday                2.00pm          Praise and Play

 14        Saturday         10.30am          Saturday Club

16        Monday           Ladies’ Fellowship New Year Lunch

                                           3.30pm          Monday Club

                                          7.30pm          Food for Thought

Wednesday January 18 to Wednesday January 25

 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

22        Sunday             3.30pm          Churches Together                

Service at St Anne’s Church, Bosworth Drive, Chelmsley Wood

23        Monday             3.30pm          Monday Club

24        Tuesday          10.00am          Holy Communion (Week of   Prayer for Christian Unity)

30        Monday             3.30pm          Monday Club

Christmas – always a particularly busy time – and over the Festival itself. As I write this I am only able to comment on ‘Advent-urous Desserts and the Christingle Service, both already over. As well as being a most enjoyable occasion the first raised a magnificent £1,231. Thank you! The Children’s Society profit all the year round from the boxes, and on the day, from the proceeds of the Christingle Service. Thanks are due to Mr Roy Smart, a Commissioner of the Children’s Society, who was our visitor, and to Jeff Davis, our Childrens’ Society Officer, for all the work he and others put in to this important cause. I might mention particularly our Treasurer, Peter Roberts, who counted the money given on the day, most of it in coins, many of them copper. 

The Craft Fair was a huge success too, raising £1850. Thanks and congratulations to all involved in the venture.

Turning to January we think of Christian Unity. As we do every January we join in worship with the Baptist Free Church, this year there on the 8^th. The next two United Services, in the summer and in January 2013, will be at St Leonard’s.

January also sees the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which always runs from 18^th to 25^th. A programme of services to be held on most days of the week at different churches appears elsewhere, but particular mention should be made of the ‘main service’ at 3.30pm on Sunday 22^nd, venue St Anne’s Roman Catholic Church, Bosworth Drive. I have been asked to have with me that afternoon Bishop Francis Kaulanda, the Bishop of Lake Malawi; who with another Malawian Bishop is spending two weeks in the diocese before attending a conference in London. He is to be delivered to St Anne’s by someone from the church in Harborne he will have visited that morning and I am to take him to Edgbaston (not the cricket ground!) after the service. So whilst he is my responsibility that afternoon he will not be in Marston Green at all. If you would like to meet him please come to the service at St Anne’s. 

You will see from the Diary that a lot is going on in the first half of January, no doubt things not yet arranged will take place later in the month. I do hope that a busy month will lead into a busy and fruitful year – and a happy 2012 to you all.

Happy Birthday to the Book of Common Prayer – still (though not much used) the Official Prayer Book of the Church of England. 1662-2012; 350 this year.

                                                                                             Roy Allen