Fourth Sunday of Epiphany 29th January 2023 Hello Everyone, Sadly we have had to CANCEL tomorrow’s Car Boot sale as there are road works on Church Road and we don’t want to add to the traffic chaos at a busy time. The next sale will be on Saturday 25th February. Sunday Services will continue as normal. The Pastoral Centre Car Park is still open as you can still get up Church Hill and along Rectory Road for “access only” purposes. However, on leaving you have to go DOWN Church Hill; they have made it two-way at the top but please be very careful as you travel along it. You are welcome to park at the Rectory including on the grass by the garage. This Sunday we welcome members of the Buckler/Morgan family for Holy Baptism at 12 noon: Nathan, Maggie, Stanley and Reggie Revd Theresa’s licensing as Priest-in-Charge of St Bartholomew’s, Allens Cross will be on the morning of Sunday 23rd April at Holloway Hall. She has to have a break between leaving us and her licensing to allow time for moving house and other matters so her last Sunday with us will be Sunday 2nd April. After the service there will be coffee and cakes in the Pastoral Centre to which you are all invited. Please pray for Theresa and her family at this time of change. Jeff Carr writes: - 100 Club - Subscriptions from members old and new are now gathered in. The first prize draw of the year took place at a bell ringing practice on 20 Jan 2023. The winners have been congratulated. First prize Stuart Andrew £20 number 51; second prize Julie Meadows £15 number 75; third prize Anne Stock £10 number 36. As all the money has been collected, I have set the prize fund pot at £630. I am ready to make distributions to Charities amounting to £651, £325.50 the Children's Society and £325.50 to the Pastoral Centre. For more information click the link below and select from the files available for viewing. There is a full members list (alphabetical order and numerical order), an explanatory update which will be further updated as we go through the year, prize winners to date, and more... https://www.dropbox.com/sh/six83upf790owh2/AACqy5Qb7lgAH6vG3c3UnrSLa?dl=0 There have also been further donations to the Children’s Society thanks to the box collections and other donations totalling £236.44 plus £211.00 from the Christingle services. This brings the full total for 2022 to £772.94. Thank you to all who have contributed. Janice Wones writes: - I’ve had a meeting with Deb Lemmon at Chatham Place. We are going to try to re-start the short services there. They will be once a month on a Monday morning, starting 11.00 for 11.15. The first date that we have pencilled in is March 20th and the second April 17th. If you would like to help Janice or find out more please contact her. janice.wones@talktalk.net 0121 459 7417 Jean Whittle-Wills enjoyed assisting with this service for some years. Thank you to all who are donating their Nectar points to St Laurence Church. We are due for a £25 pay-out very soon. If you have a Nectar card you can donate your points through their on-line system. No sooner Christmas and then we are talking about Lent! Ash Wednesday is 22nd February. Marianna is running a Lent Group on Tuesdays at 7.30 -8.30pm in the Pastoral Centre (upstairs hall.)  It will begin on Tuesday 28th February and the last session will be on Tuesday 28th March.   It will be based on the book "Eavesdropping - learning to pray from those who talked to Jesus" by Henry Martin Publisher DLT.  You do NOT need a copy of the book but it is easily available on-line with good prices for 2nd hand copies.  This is the same book as last year but we covered only 10% of the material and it proved to be very good. Numbers are limited so please register with Marianna well in advance as this group is open to members of Churches Together in Northfield. e-mail marina.melville@btinternet.com or tel 07967011387 Last Sunday I preached about the next stages in the Living in Love and Faith discernment process. The Bishops are recommending to General Synod that it enables “Prayers of Love and Faith” for use at services of thanksgiving and blessing for same-sex couples to publicly mark a significant stage of their relationship such as a civil marriage or civil partnership. This will not change the church’s doctrine of Holy Matrimony nor would it enable same-sex couples to be married in church. There is more information in the church porch and the sermon is still available on our Sermon Phone Line, as a podcast and YouTube – all 24/7. Also, the draft prayers can be found here:  Prayers of Love and Faith.  The full statement from the House of Bishops can be found here: Living in Love and Faith: A response from the Bishops of the Church of England about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage  It sets out the bishops’ proposals and recommends areas for further work. Nearly 40 people gathered at St John’s Church, Longbridge for the open meeting regarding proposed changes. It was good to hear how positive the current members of the church feel about the change in leadership to the Gas Street Church team. We met two of the team. The Revd Colin Corke will be transferring to work within the Rubery team in the autumn. Thank you to all who have submitted their reports for the Annual Report 2022. Please send them to Richard Mycroft richard.mycroft@cantab.net asap – ideally by the end of January! The latest Deanery Newsletter is available here https://bit.ly/KNMSNewsletterJan23 Eco Tip: Don’t forget that you can do the annual RSPB survey this weekend. Even if you aren’t able to do this keep a look out for birds and give thanks for them. It is good to see people signing up for the Safeguarding Workshops. Rowena and I have now done the training to enable them! If you are a volunteer and especially if you are on any sort of rota, you need to be updated about safeguarding at church. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do so in the porch for either Sunday 5th February after coffee (c11.15am ) – c 1.30pm including a light lunch Saturday 18th March 10am – 12noon – including refreshments. Alternatively you can do the course on-line. If you haven’t got the details please contact Revd Theresa. Finally, I’m taking the service at St David’s this Sunday. Our support for St David’s will soon reduce as Fr Paul Cho will be licensed as as Priest-in-Charge of St David's, Shenley Green on Tuesday 14th March at 7.  45 pm. Fr Paul says, “Please let the people of St Laurence know. If they can come, my joy will be doubled!” Save for finally 3 before Lent If you think someone is trying to trick you into handing over money or personal details… …Stop, hang up and call 159 to speak directly to your bank. Last year criminal gangs stole over £470m by pretending to be your bank or other service provider. 159 is the memorable, secure number that connects you directly to your bank if you think you’re being scammed. 159 works in the same way as 101 for the police or 111 for the NHS. It’s the number you can trust to get you through to your bank, every time. 159 will never call you. Only a fraudster will object to you calling 159. Blessings, Canon Janet For your prayers: Those who are ill Pete Coyne: still stable Koby Thomas (age 10): great nephew of Rita and Brian Gardner. Great news! - Koby has returned to school and is even playing some football. Hopefully, he will soon be clear of leukaemia. Thank you so much for all your prayers. Richard Barber Angela Hayes (Mother of Tim Hayes): making better progress Those who have died Barbara Helen Gregory: mother of Leanne and grandmother of Jude Peter Hill: uncle of Stephen who regularly attends MP once a week. SERVICES AND MEETINGS COMING UP Saturdays Church Open 10am – 11.30am Car Boot Sale CANCELLED (28 Jan) 4pm Marriage Preparation (28 Jan & 11 Feb) Church Pastoral Centre Sundays  8.30am Sunday School Service In the Pastoral Centre – please pre-book so we know numbers https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/170206735929 bookings close at 2pm the previous day. 9.30am Holy Communion In church by zoom and zoom-phone https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84533030134 Meeting ID: 845 3303 0134 12noon Holy Baptism Church 4pm Wild Church (5th & 19th Feb) Churchyard Mondays 9.30am Stay and Play Pastoral Centre 5pm Evening Prayer by zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89992167638 Meeting ID 89992167638 Tuesdays 5pm Evening Prayer by zoom 7pm (31st Jan) PCC Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89992167638 Meeting ID 89992167638 Minor Hall, Pastoral Centre. Look out for your papers on e-mail! Wednesdays 10am Holy Communion In church and by Conference Call 0117 463 6922 Code 1139# 5.15 - 6pm Bible Study on coming Sunday’s readings by zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89992167638 Meeting ID 89992167638 8.30pm Compline Use above phone number Thursdays 2-3pm Handbells Church 3.15pm Larry’s (after school club 11+) Pastoral Centre Fridays 7.30 – 9pm Bell Ringing Practice Church Also - You can Phone a Service 24 hours a day! freephone 0800 804 8044 for Daily Hope offers music, prayers and reflections as well as full worship services from the Church of England. And to hear one of the St Laurence Ministers preaching: 0121 270 4690 These are changed after the services on Sundays and Wednesdays (usually by early evening) Peter Chapman is now making Sunday and Wednesday sermons available as Podcasts: via: Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/16wZUENutAJSTu5a4nPDde Apple at  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sermons-from-st-laurence-church-northfield/id1603832487 and on other Podcast players the generic address is https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1915174.rss ALSO there is now a player for the sermon podcasts at the foot of the 'Worship' page on the Church web site which allows the sermons to be played directly from that page. CONTACT DETAILS PARISH OFFICE Lorraine Freeman (Parish Administrator) The Office is open weekdays (except Wed) 9am – 12noon enquiries@saintlaurence.info 0121 475 1518 RECTOR Canon Janet Chapman Day Off: Monday janet.rectory@gmail.com 0121 477 3111 ASSISTANT CURATE Revd Theresa Morton Day off: Friday. theresa.curate@gmail.com 07557472096 READER Janice Wones Day off: Friday janice.wones@talktalk.net 0121 459 7417 ALSO Northfield Community Partnership (NCP) Hub 0121 411 2157 email info@northfieldcommunity.org or just drop in at the NCP Hub, 693 Bristol Road South, Northfield, B31 2JT Church Website: www.stlaurencenorthfield.org Twitter: @stlaurenceb31 Rector: @janetchapman5 Facebook www.facebook.com/StLaurenceChurchNorthfield YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/stlaurencenorthfield Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility. If you need to contact someone regarding a church safeguarding concern (adults or children), please call our Parish Safeguarding Co-ordinator, Rowena Nicholls, on 07724 170448. If you have an urgent concern for the safety of yourself or someone else, call 999. Sadly, some people have been abused by someone from a church. “Safe Spaces” is a free, independent support service providing a confidential personal and safe space for anyone who has been abused by someone from a church or as a result of their relationship with the Church of England, the Catholic Church in England and Wales, or the Church in Wales. Although funded by the churches it is run by the independent charity, Victim Support. If you have been affected, however long ago, they can provide you with support. You do not have need to have told the police or the church authorities. Your information will not be shared without your consent unless you or someone else is in danger. Telephone 0300 303 1056 for more information. St Laurence Church Northfield is Registered Charity 1132975