Upcoming fun days and events

There are a few dates coming up which should be of interest:

Monday 3rd May – Witton Fun Day
Saturday 3rd July – Nechells Fun Day

Saturday 29th May – “The Giant Abseil Fundraising & Community Fun Day”

- Where: Aston Parish Church Tower, B6 6QA

- Cost: £25 (we also ask you pledge to raise at least £100)

- Raising for: Rejuvenate Worldwide, Salvation Army work in Aston and Youth ministry at Aston Parish Church

- To book: go to Rejuvenate Worldwide

- For more details contact Andi Thomas

- To see what happened the last time we did this, check out the gallery

Trilogy's Latest Thought

To view the latest thought from ‘Trilogy’, as written by our associate vicar, please visit the Downloads page

The New Baptistery

In a project that lasted over a year, a new baptistery and platform was built in Aston Parish Church and used for the first time in March 2009. As an asset to the church, it seemed only right to see how the work progressed. To view the process click here.

London Midland staff dress down to raise funds for Birmingham Boys’ Brigade Alpine trip

Staff at Birmingham-based rail operator London Midland dressed down for the day to raise funds for a Birmingham Boys’ Brigade Company. London Midland handed over a cheque for £500 to the 1st Birmingham Boys’ Brigade Company, which will be used to help fund a trip to Switzerland.

The Company, which meets each Monday at Aston Parish Church, will experience the spectacular scenery of the Bernese Oberland when they travel to Switzerland in late July as part of their centenary celebrations.

The 10-day trip includes walking, climbing and sight-seeing. The group has been raising funds by gardening and sponsored events and has organised a community fun day on April 24. The fun day takes place between 2pm and 5pm at Trinity Road playing fields in Aston.

The Company also held a fundraising auction which included items of Coronation Street memorabilia and a Parker pen donated by the Prime Minister. Group leader Captain Jennifer Martin said: “Everyone is working extremely hard to raise funds for this trip. We’re looking forward to exploring Switzerland – I didn’t want them sprawled out on a beach!”

“We’re grateful to London Midland for this donation and can’t wait to visit the Swiss Alps.”

London Midland retail manager Brenda Lawrence said staff had donated money at London Midland’s New Street HQ in return for dressing down for the day.
“The Boys’ Brigade does fantastic work in the community in Birmingham so it was a pleasure to help. We hope they have a wonderful time on their trip.”

New administrator!

After nearly 25 years of working in the church Anita Brown, the administrator for Aston Parish Church, decided to retire at the end of 2009. Replacing her at the beginning of January 2010 is Stephanie Fletcher who, along with doing the paperwork side of things, is now able to edit the church website to a certain degree. So we wish Anita all the best in her retirement and look forward to seeing what the new administrator can bring to the team!!

Christmas Appeal

The Baraka Project, Kawangware, Nairobi

Thank you to all who gave so generously to our Christmas Appeal, which has raised £700. The Appeal was for the Baraka Self Help Project, which operates in Nairobi, Kenya. Baraka (Kiswahili for “Blessing”) is a project that works with disabled, orphaned and needy children in Kawangware, an informal settlement (slum) on the edge of Nairobi.

The project is led by a lady called Valentine Achieng Oliech. Valentine’s son, Eugene, was born with celebral palsy. God gave her a love for her son, and acceptance of him, even though her husband left them both. Valentine got herself trained in physiotherapy and other techniques to care for him more effectively. She joined together with other parents living with disabled children to find ways to improve their children’s lives. After Eugene died in 2005, Valentine received a vision from God which called her to use these skills and love to set up a centre for disabled children and their families, especially those who cannot afford trips to hospital.

Our vicar, Andy Jolley, and his family visited the project during his sabbatical this summer. The whole family were deeply impressed with the vision and commitment of the project.

There are currently around 120 children and young people being helped by the project. A quarter of these are disabled, half are orphaned (often due to AIDS), and a quarter are needy (for example their parent(s) are unable to provide food supplements and school uniform). The project has made a remarkable impact on many of their lives. Some have been enabled to continue in education and to go on to university.

The project is largely self-funded, selling handicraft items produced at the project. Our appeal will help to provide additional equipment and with running costs.

Their website has more information on the Baraka Project

Upcoming events

There are a range of special events taking place this month.

March

• Mothering Sunday is Sunday 14th March, with special morning services at each of our churches
• St James Advice Centre Annual General Meeting at St James on Friday 19th March at 5.30 pm
• Marriage Preparation Day for couples getting married in the next few months on Saturday 20th March from 10 am to 4 pm at Aston Parish Church Centre

Follow this link for more details of future events taking place over the next few months.

Evening Services

At Aston Parish Church Centre, at 6.30 pm, there is MORE, led by Andy Jolley.

Alpha

The Alpha course is led by Beverly Watson with Dennis Cluley and Flo Howells. The course is Tuesdays at St James Church at 7.30 pm each week. It begins with a light supper, and then looks at different questions about Jesus and the Christian faith each week. Find out more about our Alpha course here

The Jolleys in Kenya (6)

Continuing news from the sabbatical travels of the vicar and his family …

Off Duty – Mombasa

For the past week we have been enjoying warmer weather around Mombasa. Mombasa is Kenya’s second largest city and is its main port. It also has many more Muslims than elsewhere in Kenya. For the first four days we stayed at the Anglican Church of Kenya’s (ACK) guest house just to the south of Mombasa. We shared the facilities, including a fine swimming pool recently reopened by the new Archbishop, with large groups of young people who had come for holiday residentials. Their enthusiastic singing was a joy to listen to, and an interesting contrast with the calls to prayer from the nearby mosques. Less joyful was the effect of the power cuts (see our earlier entry’s In the News), which left us without running water as well as electricity for a good chunk of our stay.

At the heart of Mombasa is Fort Jesus, built by the Portuguese in the late 16th century, but taken by Omani Arabs after a bloody siege a hundred years later. For Jesus’ name to be associated with this place which has been a centre for slavery, torture and ruthless slaughter at first seems most inappropriate. However, in Jesus’ ministry and passion he sought out such places, and he still wants to bring life and goodness out of evil places.

We finished off our time at the coast with three days north of Mombasa at Nyali Beach Holiday Resort. It’s fair to say that the budget required was rather more than that needed for the ACK guest house, though the hot showers made it well worth it!

In the News – The Census

Monday 24th August was census day for Kenya. Well, actually it marked the start of census week, as it will take the many enumerators several days to get round some of the more remote communities. With Tuesday 25th August being a public holiday, so (just as in the story of Jesus’ birth) many people have returned to their home towns and villages to be counted.

The most controversial aspect of the census has been the question about people’s tribe. In the light of the post-election violence of early 2008, when tribal tensions boiled over, many were concerned that the information could be misused for further violence and ethnic cleansing. Others felt excluded by the tribal definitions. Nevertheless the question remained in the list of information to be provided.

On Sunday morning, the day before the census, the Bishop of Mombasa was at St Peter’s church, Nyali (near where we were then staying). He took time at the start of his sermon to the packed church to strongly encourage participation in the census, citing the various texts in the Bible which showed them in anything like a vaguely positive light. Using Matthew 13:24-30 (the parable of the wheat and the weeds) as his text, he then went on to speculate what a census of the church would show if there was a question about true and pretend believers.

Previous updates from the Jolleys in Kenya can be found in the downloads section of the website.

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 behalf 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 pentacost pictures for more details.

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.