Join us for Advent at St Martin in the Bull Ring. Full details below or by contacting us by email on office@bullring.org or using our social media. Join us for Christmas at St Martin in the Bull Ring. Full details below or by contacting us by email on office@bullring.org or using our social media.

Guided tours of St. Martin in the Bull Ring with explanations of the stained glass windows, including those by Burns-Jones and Craigie Aitchison; the Guild Chapel; Birmingham’s oldest monument; the contemporary font and prayer sculpture; and several quirky and unexpected features…. Thurs 12 September: at 11am , 2pm, 3pm Fri 13 September: at 11am, noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm Sat 14 September: at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm Sun 15 September: at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm Visits to the Bell Ringing Chamber  including the history of bell ringing at St. Martin’s; an explanation of the ringing tradition; a demonstration of ringing; and an opportunity to participate with hand bells. Tours on the hour and half hour Thurs 12 September: between 11am and 3pm Fri 13 September: between 11am and 3pm Sat 14 September: between 1.30pm and 3pm Please note: the tour of the bell ringing chamber requires walking 50 uneven steps up a spiral, stone staircase. Appropriate footwear needs to be worn.

  Rector of Birmingham – St Martin’s in the Bull Ring The City of Birmingham is proud of its diversity of culture and ethnicity, of social, and age groups. St Martin’s seeks to reflect and to develop that diversity, and the opportunities that it presents, in its life and worship, and in the ministry of welcome and service. St Martin’s is prominent in the redeveloped and busy City Centre, standing between the Bull Ring Shopping Centre and the Markets, and alongside bus and train routes. People are drawn to St Martin’s – on Sundays and every day – from the wide Birmingham region and beyond. The Leaders and the people of St Martin’s look forward to welcoming, and to worshipping and working with, the Priest appointed as Rector who will:• have a sound parochial record of some seniority, pastoral warmth and sensitivity, and the ability and experience to manage a complex institution• lead and develop St Martin’s worship, congregational life, prayer, teaching, evan

St Martins is one of 7 churches taking part in The Birmingham Churches Winter Night Shelter, which sees each church open up its building to 12 men each night to stop them sleeping rough on the streets. This is running from 18th January until 8th March. All the guys that come are given a hot meal as well as the opportunity to talk and make friends with all those who are volunteering. We believe this is a great opportunity to show the love of Jesus to the people of Birmingham. If you would like to volunteer to help out at the night shelter please email office@bullring.org or call the parish office on 0121 600 6020. If you know someone who wishes to be referred to the night shelter, they are welcome to come along to our drop in coffee morning on Monday 10am-12pm to refer themselves or visit SIFA Fireside in the mornings during the rest of the week. Please pray that our guests will be renewed and refreshed during their time with us. Please thank God for our volunteers and for equipping us

Cuppa and Chat continues to go from strength to strength! We are getting a really good group of regulars now who all have an interesting story or two to tell. It has been wonderful to see people over a period of time gradually come out of their shell and talk more especially about things that might be bothering them. We also continue to get people who just happen to wander into the church and are delighted at the thought of a free cup of tea or coffee. We have started working more closely with West Midlands police to run an informal monthly police surgery where a local policewoman called Beth comes along and chats to people that attend to see if there are ways that she can provide advice and support to people. This has been a new initiative piloted by the police in order to build relationships with more vulnerable people in a safe and non threatening environment. We look forward to seeing how that develops. We have also been working In partnership with The Community Navigators Scheme w

Please see the latest news from our Community Lay Minister Joy…

Here is an update on a new venture that we started a couple of weeks ago called “Cuppa and Chat”. This is a coffee morning held in the church every Monday from 10am-12pm for people that might be feeling isolated, lonely, struggling with life and need someone to talk to. So far we have made contact with 40 or so different people over the two weeks with many people from all walks of life coming to sit down and enjoy a free hot drink and an opportunity to have someone listen to them talk if that is what they want. The majority of the people we have seen have various practical needs however have mentioned that what they most need is someone to talk to about aspects of their life that are hard. We have the privilege at St Martins of giving our time to helping these people and hopefully seeing change begin to happen in their lives. We pray that God will continue to bring people along and that we can love them as Jesus would. If you would like any more information about this or think that you

We provide a crèche area (for children aged 0-4years old and their parents) during the Crossing Service (Sunday at 11am).  Children using this space are supervised by their parents. Thus we are looking for a volunteer Creche Coordinator to help us to make sure that the facilities we are making available for parents with young children are maintained to a high standard (at least once a month around the Crossing Serivce).  This is both for health and safety reasons, and to demonstrate our and God’s love to parents and children – showing that we care. You must have been part of the worshipping community for at least 6 months. For more information please download the PDF file of the volunteer role description: Creche Coordinator Volunteer_Role_Description If you would like an application form please email volunteering@bullring.org. Closing date for applications: Sunday 1st September 2013.

We are currently updating the Volunteer web page, letting you know what volunteers do and how to get involved. Please watch this space! For more information please email: volunteering@bullring.org.