Pentecost Celebrations

Pentecost (31st May) was a really special celebration for our parish this year, and a particularly special celebration for 11 people who were confirmed, with 2 if them also being baptised and another remembering her baptism by being immersed in the new Aston Parish Church baptistry. Rt Revd Andrew Watson, the Bishop of Aston, joined a congregation of over 200 of us for the service to perform the confirmations, and was delighted to be photographed afterwards with the candidates.

Natalie Ward and Tanice Weir were baptised in the new baptistery, and after them Flo Howells remembered and reaffirmed the baptismal vows first made on her bahalf as a baby in Jamaica. Musicians drawn from across the parish led some worship songs as they (and Fiona and Beverly) dried off and the baptistery was covered over for the confirmations and the celebration of communion that followed.
Check out the pictures for more details.

Upcoming events this summer

There are lots of events taking place over the summer, including more fun days for our local community, church open days, trips and special services. Follow this link for more details of these future events.

Evening Services

During the summer period, most of our Sunday evening services will be taking place at different locations around our local community. The times and dates are as below:

June 7th: Church Lane, Aston at 6pm

June 14th: Loxton Court, Duddeston Manor Road at 5pm

June 21st: Prayer Gathering – Aston Parish Church Centre

June 28th: Aston Community Festival at Aston Villa from noon till 5pm

July 5th: Beverly Watson’s ordination at Birmingham Cathedral at 4pm, followed by refreshments at Aston Parish Church

July 12th: Outside St. James church, Frederick Road, Aston at 6pm

July 19th: Prayer Gathering – Aston Parish Church Centre

July 26th: Holte Rd, Witton at 6pm

August 2nd: No evening service due to New Wine Festival

August 9th: No evening service due to New Wine Festival

August 16th: Prayer Gathering – Aston Parish Church Centre

August 23rd: Montague St, Aston at 6pm

August 30th: Prayer walk at 6pm – location to be announced

September 6th: Prayer walk in Witton, meeting at Witton Community Centre at 6pm
September 13th: We join with the City’s Racial Justice Sunday Service at 5pm

September 20th: Prayer Gather – Aston Parish Church Centre

Fun at Witton

On Monday 4th May, 570 people from the local community came out to Deykin Avenue school to enjoy a fun day hosted by the Parish of Aston and Nechells together with other churches from Aston Churches Together. Many thanks to the 50 volunteers from the local churches who made this possible – and also to Deykin Avenue School for letting us use their playground. See the pictures of the day for yourself.

Easter Sunday Football

On Easter Sunday this year, our celebrations of the resurrection of Jesus at Aston Parish Church had to compete with a Premier League football match at neighbouring Villa Park. So after our usual Easter Sunday service, we decided to continue our celebrations outside and share the message of Easter with the fans on their way to Villa Park. The BBC and our own cameraman recorded the events.

The local churches had not been happy that the match began at 2.00 pm, which meant that:

• churchgoers in Aston had to struggle home past thousands of fans rushing to the match;
• many season ticket holders faced a choice of missing out on the match or their celebration of Easter;
• Villa’s match day staff, local police and many others were forced to work on a day that the Sunday Trading Act of 1994 envisaged would be a national day of rest (Tesco, Asda and other large stores cannot trade on Easter Sunday – but it seems Aston Villa can).

Did delaying the kick-off by 30 minutes to 2pm make a difference?

Aston Villa, Setanta and the Premier League say that they delayed the kick off to help churchgoers. It was certainly true that more people were able to go to church and then on to the match – so reducing the loss of ticket revenue to Villa and the risk of empty seats at Villa Park being seen on TV. However, it had only a minor impact on the problem of churchgoers in Aston being able to get home after their services. The roads around Villa Park were closed an hour before kick off – ie at 1.00 pm. The normal Easter Sunday services in Aston finish at …. 12.45 pm, after which most people stay for coffee and a chat. So in order to make the most of the gift of 30 minutes extra to escape the crowds, the congregation would have had to forego the time spent relaxing with fellow worshippers. It’s hard to see how this means they “are not inconvenienced in any way” as the Premier League seemed to think.

Aston Churches Together, the umbrella group of 11 churches in Aston, were determined that their celebrations of Easter will go ahead regardless. Nevertheless, they wanted to make sure that this never happened again. Three years ago, in 2006, the same thing happened, and people were actually turned back on their way to church because roads were closed to ensure the fans’ safety. We are determined that this is the last time that Easter is disrupted by Premier League football.

Our website describes more about how we celebrate Easter. If you agree with us about the importance of Easter not being disrupted, please sign up on our on-line petition.

New Baptistery & Platform at Aston Parish Church

Although the finishing touches are still being applied by the builders, the new platform and immersion baptistery at Aston Parish Church are now in use.

The first baptisms in the new baptistery took place on Sunday 15th March during the morning service. Rajwinder Kaur was the first person to be baptised, closely followed by Paul Gale.

Both Rajwinder and Paul have recently decided to commit themselves to following Jesus – Rajwinder through her friendship with a couple from Aston Parish Church, and Paul after completing the Alpha course.

The baptisms were performed by Revd Fiona Robertson (who led the latest Alpha course), assisted by Ken Costley. The water was a pleasantly warm 30 degrees centigrade!

Follow the link for the latest information on the project to restore and reorder Aston Parish Church.

Welcome to our new site!

After many months without update, we finally have an all new and updated website for the St James, St Matthew, Ss Peter and Paul (Aston Parish) churches! It’s good to be back!

Our new site aims to keep you up to date with the goings on within our parish, keep you informed of upcoming events and activities, and provide a resource for information on all of our regular activities and services.

This site is still under development as we fill in some areas and make changes to others, so please be patient. Regardless, we’re very happy with the progress made to date and hope that you enjoy the fruits of our labours.

Please feel free to browse the site and get back to us with any comments and suggestions.

Trilogy

Trilogy is the Magazine of the Parish of Aston and Nechells. It is published every two months, and contains news, details of services and special events at all three churches. There are also interesting articles, dates for your diary, and a seasonal thought from one of the clergy.