St. Bartholomew'S Church, Wednesbury.

OPEN THE BOOK and SUNDAY CLUB
(1) Our Open the Book team continues to take dramatised Bible stories into some local primary schools. Currently they visit St John’s Church of England Primary Academy and Old Park Primary School. We were pleased to welcome Holyhead Primary Academy to Church for their Christmas service in December, too.
(2) As a group we would like to support a charity that has children as its focus. It is a non-profit charity that tries to help children aro...und the world by removing one of the hurdles on their way to an education - the cost of a pen. We thought this might be a good charity for us to support because no money is being requested; only old/new unwanted stationery. Have a look at their website:
http://www.pensforkids.co.uk/…
Also, they have a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/PensForKidsUK /about/?ref=page_internal (check the ‘About’ tab first)
Working for children’s ministry in our church, wouldn’t it be nice if our Sunday Club and Open the Book teams might be able to send pens, pencils and colouring pencils to this charity? Can you possibly donate any unwanted stationery you have that is sitting in drawers and cupboards at home and not being used, please? Alternatively, if you wish to donate new stationery that is great. Any donations will be very welcome and will help a lot of children who are not so fortunate as us. You can donate these in a number of ways: (1) Bring them to Church (speak to Wendy Bird, Marg Wood, Lynn Castillo, Linda Russell, Alison O’Neill or Claire Yardley); (2) Pass them on to somebody you know who goes to our Church or is a member of the Craft Club; (3) Send a message via the Church’s Facebook page and Wendy will get back to you and arrange collection.
See More

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK This morning we were very happy to welcome Trevor Stokes and Marilyn Norton as elected Churchwardens until April when they will be able to be re-elected at the AGM, should they wish. We pray they will be able to continue the work done during Father Mark's absence, with the support of the congregation, until Father Mark is well enough to return.

The Food Bank in Wednesbury received a donation recently of mini knitted hats and passed these on to our Craft Club. (See the photo showing some of them in the comment below.) They have decided to donate these to the ‘innocent smoothies Big Knit project’.
The Big Knit started back in 2003 with an idea. They asked people to knit little woolly hats, then they put them on their smoothies. For each smoothie with a hat sold, they gave 25p to Age UK. Since then, 7.5 million h...ats have been knit and donated. Nearly £2.5 million has been raised for Age UK so far (that figure includes other donations).
What a fabulous idea!
If you want more information (and knitting patterns) please look at their website. If you are able to knit a few hats for the Craft Club to donate to this cause, can you pass them on to somebody who is a member of the Craft Club or who come to St Bartholomew’s Church please otherwise pop them into Wednesbury’s Food Bank and they will pass them on to us. Alternatively, you can donate them individually yourself. Thank you.
The Craft Club are having this as their charity focus this year and will have a stall at the Craft Fayre in June to raise awareness and, hopefully, be able to donate many more hats to the cause.
http://www.thebigknit.co.uk
See More

The Craft Club has now decided on the dates for the craft fayres this year. Please make a note in your diaries.
Summer Craft Fayre on Saturday 15th June (yes, we know that, officially, summer starts on 21st June)
Christmas Craft Fayre on Saturday 2nd November (this is only a provisional date for a possible craft fayre at the moment - a final decision will be made later in the year)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK Paintings depicting St Bartholomew's Church and Lichfield Cathedral being carried.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK This week our photo of the week must be from when Bishop Michael, Bishop of Lichfield, joined us for our Parish Eucharist.

Today we were blessed to have Bishop Michael, Bishop of Lichfield, join us for our Parish Eucharist during Father Mark's absence. It was a lovely service. Wonderful fellowship, too.

Today the Bishop of Lichfield is visiting St Bartholomew's Church. We look forward to welcoming you to our service.

The latest newsletter is available in Church and to download from the website: https://www.stbartswednesbury.com/newslet ters.html

Please note: there will not be a service on Tuesday 1st January 2019. Normal Tuesday service will resume on Tuesday 8th January when Father Martin Ennis, Rural Dean, will officiate.

This Sunday we have Bishop Michael, Bishop of Lichfield, visiting our Church. We hope you will be able to join us and look forward to welcoming you.

Join us today at 9.30 am for our Christmas Day service to welcome the birth of Jesus. We look forward to seeing you. Happy Christmas to all of you.

https://www.facebook.com/events/294724041 160620/?ti=cl

We had a lovely Crib Service this afternoon. Children did the readings, carried the figurines down the aisle to the stable and helped us to do 'The New Noisy Neighbour' nativity (and a few adults helped too!). Everybody in the congregation had to take part, too - with actions to word prompts. Oh, and we had adults in the congregation as shepherds in the fields, wearing teatowels on their heads. 🙂 Well done to everybody. You made our service successful - thank you. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Please note: in addition to the services posted in Events, there will still be an 8 am service each Sunday, during Fr Mark's absence.