We are looking for a weekend and relief cleaner to clean the church and church centre. Saturdays and Sundays for approximately 2-3 hours.The role will be to cover holidays and sickness (Monday to Friday) as required and weekends (early mornings) for 2-3 hours.For more information please call Carol on 0121 308 0869
St. James Church, Hill PCC Interregnum Newsletter Edition 8 December 2021 Message from Renu Samuel, Churchwarden: Thank you for your patience and support during this year and sharing a collective responsibility for keeping everyone safe at St. James. Once again, the landscape looks uncertain with rising numbers of infections and the new Omicron variant. So we ask for a revised approach and encourage the following throughout the Advent and Christmas season: 1. Wearing masks 2. Observing social distancing 3. Hand sanitising 4. Alternate pews We look forward to a warm Christmas and a positive New Year at St. James. Thank you once again. Renu The next PCC meeting is not until Tuesday 7<sup>th</sup> December, so this newsletter is going out early so that you know relevant dates and details for Christmas events. A short newsletter will follow the PCC meeting in due course. Lynn Christmas Dates Sunday 5<sup>th</sup> December 6.30pm: Blue Christmas. A gentle service for those who find Christmas difficult due to bereavement. Monday 6<sup>th</sup> December 6.00pm: Community Carol Service with the Arthur Terry Community Choir. Please Pre-book. Tuesday 7<sup>th</sup> December 7.30pm: Pegasus Court Carols Tuesday 7<sup>th</sup> December 8.00pm: Carolling at the Old School House Sunday 12<sup>th</sup> December 10.00am: Nativity service- young people to lead. Sunday 12<sup>th</sup> December 4.00pm: online Christingle service Sunday 19th November 6.30pm: Parish Carol Service. Please pre-book. Friday 24<sup>th</sup> December 4.00pm: Christmas Eve on-line Crib Service Friday 24<sup>th</sup> December 11.15pm: Christmas Eve Communion Service Please pre-book Saturday 25<sup>th</sup> December 10.00am: Christmas Day service Sunday 26<sup>th</sup> December - no service Charity Christmas Card wall in church. This year we will not be having the usual St. James’ Christmas card post, but we will run the Charity Card wall. If you would like to take part then put a sealed card, with your donation, in the post box, at the back of church. It will then be opened, your card displayed and your donation banked. Thank you. Tina. Toy donations. You can make a donation of new toys until 12<sup>th</sup> December. (Please note change of date). These will be distributed to local disadvantaged children in time for Christmas. Please bring them, unwrapped, to the box at the back of church, or the Church Centre from 9am-2.30pm, but please phone the centre beforehand to check it is open. (0121 308 0869) Christingle - 12<sup>th</sup> December. This is an online service led by Rev. Tony Platts. You can collect your Christingle kit from the Church Centre on Friday 10<sup>th</sup> December from 3pm-4.30pm, Saturday 11<sup>th</sup> December 11am- 12noon and Sunday 12<sup>th</sup> December from 11.15am - 12noon. Numbers are limited so if you want one, please phone the Church centre to reserve your kit. (0121 308 0869). Congratulations and Celebrations Birthdays in December: Margaret Wilks 90 on the 15th! Alan and Sheila Moore Message from Penny Bowkett: “It is with deep regret that I have to tell you that Pop-in+play is no more. We had a wonderful eleven and a half years of Outreach into our Community, building up friendships with young mums, toddlers, grandparents and carers, that last to this day. Helpers from our Playgroup still get approached in the street and in shops, by mums wanting to reminisce about the fun times they enjoyed at Pop-in+play. Sharon Saunders, who attended Pop-in+play for several years, has started ‘The Little Seedlings Playgroup’ at All Saints Church. She contacted me to see if we could spare any items of our equipment to help her set up her group. She is so thrilled with the cars, garages, bikes, carpets, dolls etc. and the cupboard full of resources for activities that we have passed on to her. It means that in some part Pop-in+play can live on up at All Saints. We have also been able to help the Mere Green Nursery, Little Aston Nursery and Little Oaks Play school, which is in a very deprived area of Tamworth, so the legacy of Pop-in+play has continued to help families in the community.” Thanks once again to Penny and her faithful team for all they did for our local community in running Pop-in+play.In the circumstances forced upon us by Covid we don’t think that we can safely accommodate a playgroup. We are pleased that she has been able to find good homes for the toys and equipment. Photos from the Remembrance Day Service. So lovely to see so many Scouts in attendance. Christmas Fair 2021. Thank you to everyone who contributed in any way to the Christmas Fair. It was great to see so many members of the congregation, each taking responsibility for their own stall and yet coming together as a team to achieve a great result for St. James’. We raised £2,795.67, which goes towards St. James’ charitable giving. The Probus club will be having a coach outing on Tuesday 8<sup>th</sup> February see the snowdrops at Colesbourne Park, near Cheltenham. There may be some spare places on the coach if anyone is interested in joining us. It will be departing from outside our Church Centre. Please speak to Martin Addinell if you would like to go. On behalf of the Trustees and Project Team I am writing to say thank you to everyone at St. James Church for the wonderful Harvest Festival donation that we received from you a couple of weeks ago. We've been blown away by the support we have been shown by the local community and would like to thank everyone who contributed We are currently helping on average 230 adults and children each week and the 3 food banks that we operate in Mere Green, Falcon Lodge and Erdington are getting busier as we reach the winter months and approach the Christmas period. The long-life food that was donated during Harvest will be used in the 100 or food bags that we distribute each week. These provide around 1–2 days worth of meals – so there is something for breakfast (cereal and long life milk) something for lunch (baked beans or tinned meat), something for dinner (pasta and pasta sauce) and something sweet (biscuits). When combined with the fresh fruit, vegetables and bread that we source from the surplus supermarket collections we hope that this helps ease the burden on people in our local community who are currently experiencing hardship. In the lead up to Christmas we are hoping to hand out festive items such as mince pies, cake, biscuits and chocolate to add a little bit of cheer to help people celebrate Christmas. What we would really, really, like to do is to give out an extra parcel containing meat, cheese, eggs and milk - things we rarely get donated. So, if anyone can make donation of festive food we have drop off points around Sutton Coldfield. If anyone would like to make a monetary donation, you can visit our JustGiving page https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/hopefoodcountdowntochristmas2021 Once again, many thanks for your support. Ann Mckeown Project Team Volunteer Tuesday Morning Coffee: Whilst the building work has been going on at Grange Lane Baptist Church, Penny has been pleased that we have been able to use the Langley Room at our church centre for our gathering, for no charge. She expected that we would be back at the Baptist Church on the 7<sup>th </sup>December, but the building work is not finished. Unfortunately, the Langley Room has already been booked for the 7<sup>th</sup> so we will not be able to meet. We hope that the work at the Baptist Church will be completed by the 14<sup>th</sup> December for our Christmas Party gathering, but we shall have to wait and see. Covid concerns may well be an issue too. We hope to gather, we will have to see how things go. Ways to pay. There are various ways that you can give money to St James’ Church. Regular contributions can be made by the White Envelope scheme, or by Standing Order as well as on the collection plate. However, if you do online banking and would like to pay your share straight into the bank account then our Bank Details are as follows. HSBC Bank PLC, 67 South Parade, Sutton Coldfield, B72 1PA. Sort Code 40-21-17 Account number 10445177 For the credit of: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St James Hill Sutton Coldfield A Date for your Diary Sunday 9<sup>th</sup> January 2022: Ann Richardson, Area Dean will be taking the 10.00am service and continuing the TCAP process.
