Community

The Church and Tea Lounge will be closed on Wednesday 30th January 2019 from 10:00am – 12noon for staff training. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We will reopen as usual at 12noon.

The church is open as usual from 10:00am – 4.00pm today and the Tea Lounge is open as usual from 10:00am – 3.00pm so do please come and visit!

Join us for Choral Evensong this Sunday evening from 5pm for the following choral pieces:

Organ Prelude

‘Wär Gott nicht mit was diese Zeit’                   
Dietrich Buxtehude

Introit     

 Thou art the Way                              
Christopher Steele

Psalm 19

Magnificatand  Nunc Dimittis in D           
George Dyson

Anthem                        
Blessèd be the God and Father 
S. S. Wesley

Organ Voluntary
Variation on ‘Gwalchmai’                                                 
George Thalben-Ball

Our worship is central to the life of the church, but in order for our worship to honour the Lord we need lots of willing people to be wholeheartedly involved.

Come and join us for a fun afternoon of hands on experience and see how you might use your gifts and time to assist in our worship.

There will be opportunities to learn about:

· singing and playing an instrument as part of the worship group.

· setting up and operating our PA equipment.

· operating our projection software.

All are welcome – come and join us!

If you would like to find out more; please contact the church
office either by phone on 0121 600 6020 or email on office@bullring.org

You can also sign up on our event page: https://birminghamparish.churchsuite.co.uk/events/orcyqtua

Come and join us in our Tea Lounge this and every day (except Sunday and Monday’s) for a great selection of homemade food and drinks and of course a chance to sit and chat over a cuppa! Come in and find out more!

For Everyone!

Our first all age worship service of 2019 takes place on Sunday 27th January 2019. Come and be part of our community as we sing, pray, read the Bible and learn together. Everybody is welcome.

On Friday 28 December, the St. Martin’s band were
successful in completing an astonishing world record attempt. At 7 hours and 34 minutes it was the longest and most complex peal ever rung on 14 bells with a phenomenal 10,192 changes in total. At the end, the adjudicating umpires were fully satisfied with the performance – substantiating the world record – and the ringers were elated if not also exhausted.

We are very proud of this extraordinary achievement and
appreciative of our highly-gifted and dedicated band of ringers.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.”                                                                     

                                                              Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As part of #pray24brum with Birmingham Churches Together which we were delighted to host last year. We are delighted to be leading the hour from 6-7pm on Friday 18th January.

Our theme will be taken from Psalm 65 v 11:
“You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance”.
Psalm 65 v11.

Please support the whole event but particularly come and join us from 6-7pm on Friday 18th January at The Church at Carrs Lane, Birmingham, B4 7SX.

I am still working hard to live the Advent season at home, every day.  Have a look at one of the things I’ve been up to recently on my blog:

It seems as if it was just yesterday that the season of Advent was beginning, and yet here were are, almost at its end.  It would be easy for me to relax now and get caught up in all the excitement of last minute preparations – Christmas is so close, isn’t it?  And I’ve been blessed to have already attended a couple of Christmas gatherings with friends or family.  It’s often at this time of year that I get to spend extended time chatting and doing quizzes with those who are important to me.  But, I have also been aware of moments of creeping panic.

There has been panic about presents, (what do you buy for an Uncle who doesn’t need anything?), about cards (I missed the second class post deadline, yet again!) and about food (what if nobody likes my cooking, will it ruin their day?)  I know in my head that these things are not that important, but it is so easy to get distracted as Christmas day gets closer.  Closer, but still not here.  And, I really don’t want to be distracted for the wrong reasons, I want to continue to be focused, prayerful and patient as I remember why we are doing all of this in the first place. 

The Saviour of the World is coming. 

It’s His birth and birthday that we will be celebrating.

It is all about Him.

I want Jesus to be the centre of my attention now and over the Christmas season so with the help of my daughter, large letters spelling out His name have been placed around my home in random locations.  The hope is that as we go about our days, every time we ‘find’ or ‘bump into’ a letter, our minds will be brought back to focus on our Lord. 

How can you stay focused on Jesus throughout this Christmas season?

Christina

A record bellringing performance is being attempted at St Martin’s on Friday 28th December. This will be the longest ever peal rung on14 bells and will comprise over 10,000 changes (different orders of the bells). It will take around seven hours, and the 14 bell ringers will ring non-stop without refreshment! A team of umpires will be checking the performance for verification. 

As well as being a long peal, this particular performance is technically complex in terms of the changes being rung. It is by no means assured of success, but the ringers havepracticed using shorter periods of ringing. 

St Martin’s is one of only five places in the world with 14 change ringing bells and so we are delighted to be able tohost this performance. It is being conducted and composed by our own bellringers, and includes a number of other members of our regular team. There have only been two bellringing performances of this duration before since thecurrent ring of bells was installed at St Martins 30 years ago. So rest assured it will not be a regular occurrence!