The Balsall Heath Church’s Christian Womens Fellowship
meetings have been open meetings for some time now. Everyone, both men and women have been welcome to attend.
The committee came to the conclusion that it could no longer continue as a ‘Womens’ Fellowship meeting and proposed that it should be reconstituted as a “Church Fellowship Meeting”.
Arrangements have been agreed to meet four times each year.
The first meeting of the Fellowship was at the home of Bill & Hazel where we enjoyed a meal together and then three teams vied to get the answers to Bill's quiz. We all enjoyed that first meeting and looked forward to more in the future. The next meeting was on May 8th at Anne & David's home when Leonora talked about Gardens in the Bible. Two more meetings are planned this year, a shared lunch in September and a meeting in December
UNITED REFORMED CHURCH
CHRISTIAN WOMEN'S FELLOWSHIP CONVENTION 2008
Wow, how quickly time comes round to the end of February and here we are again at the Swanwick Convention with the theme for the weekend, "The Living Word."
Saturday morning saw us exploring the theme, "The Word Today" in the capable hands of the Revd. Gay Pye. The Bible shows us who God is and how He deals with the world and it's people; what our needs are, who we are and how to live and respond to the life around us.
After coffee we divided into groups of our choice for discussion on, The Bible and Me, The Bible and Family, The Bible and the Community, The Bible and the World or The Bible and the Future.
Saturday afternoon is always free to join a planned activity - or to "do your own thing". After dinner we enjoyed our usual concert ably conducted by Sue Cheshire and Joy Rice, our two comediennes, interspersed with dances by Anne Laugharne.
On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we had a very interesting Bible Study led by Revd. Marion Thomas entitled "The Word for Me", concerning Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well. Towards the end we formed groups and each of us took one of the characters from the story and imagined how we would feel in those unusual circumstances; ie: The Samaritan Woman, one of the Disciples or one of the villagers. We then discussed our feelings with the rest of the group.
As ever, the highlight of the weekend was the Communion Service led by the Revd. Ann Sheldon in which we again followed the theme of The Woman at the Well, with music and drama practised in some of the Saturday afternoon activity groups.
After lunch we said our farewells to friends we don't see very often, and made our departures for home after a very rewarding and thought provoking weekend.
Beryl Haskins
Bible Studies
Meetings will normally be held during the third week of the month. The last series, studying Marcus Borge’s book “Reading the Bible again for the first time”, ended on 17th January 2008.
The current series of Bible Studies is looking at The Sermon on the Mount. The next meeting is on Tuesday 3rd June.
Elders’ Meetings
The Minister and the Elders meet on one evening each month to review and plan the ongoing life of the Church.
Church Meetings
The congregation holds three quarterly meetings and an Annual General Meeting, each year, for social and business purposes and to share responsibility for the life of the congregation.
The AGM on Sunday March 9th following worship and refreshments went according to Agenda. We referred some items to our Elders' Meeting and some to the JCC to resolve. We all appreciate the garden and our two faithful URC members who care for it. Please keep on 'feeding' the Gardening jar little and often so funds are there when needed by Beryl and Malcolm. Tribute was paid to our friend and long-time member of the Church of Christ/URC, Derrick Abercrombie whose untimely death was a shock to us all.
The next Quarterly Meeting will be held on Thursday 12th June
Social Activities
From time to time evening meetings and day trips are organised to give the Church Family the opportunity to socialise.
Local Groups
The congregation is active in the life of the local Balsall Heath and District Churches Together.
The Balsall Heath and District Churches Together Lent course is held in the Church Centre.
Palm Sunday we met together with St.Paul’s Parish Church and the Moseley Road Methodist Church congregations to celebrate a Joint Eucharist.
Traidcraft
The Congregation supports the Traidcraft movement and together with St.Paul’s congregation provides the opportunity to purchase Fairtrade goods through a stall held at regular intervals and after morning service.
TRAIDCRAFT
A NEW LOOK!
This circular Logo will gradually appear on all food items. It represents the hand of fellowship and continuing partnership between Traidcraft and their producers.
Traidcraft chooses to work with small-scale producers, helping them to trade their way out of poverty and build-up sustainable businesses.
The Traidcraft brand "quarantees real Fair Trade amongst an increasing number of "fairly fairtraded products" (magazine March 2007)
We are grateful to all of you who support our stalls.
Thank you.
Traidcraft chooses to work with small-
We are grateful to all of you who support our stalls.
Thank you.
Enid, Maggie &Marian.
