What’s On

At the very start of the Great War, in August 1914, the city of Birmingham asked for a thousand volunteers to form a battalion for the coming conflict. Within days, enough men stepped forward to form 1st, 2nd and 3rd City of Birmingham Battalions, 14th, 15th and 16th Battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. They were known as the Birmingham Pals, and their handsome memorial is on the north side of the nave.   All three battalions took an active part in the war, in France and Flanders. Each took part in all the major battles, including the Third Battle of Ypres, often known as Passchendaele, being fought exactly a hundred years ago. It was during that terrible battle, in the morning of 9th October 1917, that the 16th Battalion suffered its worst losses.   In the five days before they were in the front line, mainly a series of water- and mud-filled shell holes, in relentless rain and often under accurate artillery fire. Lieutenant Colonel Grahame Deakin, the Commanding Of

Come and celebrate with us as we thank God for his gifts to us and pray for those in need. Join us for our all-age Harvest Thanksgiving Service on Sunday 24th September 2017. Everybody welcome!

All of us at St Martin’s would like to wish Revd. Canon Stewart Jones all the best in his new role as Priest in Charge at St John the Baptist Church, Barlaston. Thank you Stewart and Julie for all you have done, God Bless you both in your new Adventure . . . Thanks also to everyone who made Stewart’s final Sunday as Rector of St. Martin’s so memorable.  To all who participated in and helped with the organising of the festivities, you gave Stewart and Julie a joyous and grace filled send off to pastures new in Barlaston.  The “Best Wishes” book will be around at St. Martin’s for a couple of weeks so please write your message for them if you haven’t had the opportunity over the last few weeks.

Bring your rucksack, your lunchbox or your pencil case and join us for prayers and a special blessing for all pupils and teachers for the new academic year. All Welcome!

  Sunday 13th Music and Meditation service will have a theme of “Summer Blues” and feature “Revealed” who play Latin, jazz and light pop music, led by guitarist and trumpet player, Nigel Beer.   Next  week 20th August – The Music and meditation service will feature classical guitarist and composer, John Gerighty.  His music is simply beautiful, tranquil and meditative.  If you long for a moment this summer just to “Be still and know” then this will be an evening not to miss.

  ‘Songs for the Summer’ will consist of songs by Jobim, Some Jazz Standards and some light pop. It should be ideal for attracting passing shoppers.”   Saturday 12th  concert is a woodwind trio: Beth Underwood, Hannah Wrieden and Helen Green.  They will be playing some beautiful classical music on flute, oboe and bassoon Saturday 19th   Rhythm & Bone /Jazz Corporation – The Saturday concert features Rhythm & Bone, headed up by Clive Allsop on the trombone.  Rhythm & Bone is a trio playing easy listening Jazz in a variety of genre from swing to Latin.  You can also catch them at the Harbour Café, High Street, Erdington every 3rd Friday of the month from 11:30 am.    

Visions Doc 2016-2020 Discovering the heart of God in the heart of the city: Our vision and strategy for 2016-2020

Our Parish Boundary walk last Sunday was great fun. The sun shone as we walked and stopped at various places to pray. The picnic was a most welcome end to our time together. A big thank you to Christina and Mike for organising it. If you missed it, hope to see you the next time!  

A year ago I wrote this in our feedback:   Many more prayers were said on that day. We left with the assurance as Sue (one of our team members) said ‘God wants to do far more than we can imagine – so we are encouraged to ask for more!”   A year later we can see God has done just that. Our team continues to grow with many Iranians joining us as they seek to continue their journey in the Christian faith while they are applying for asylum in England.   Last month we encouraged everyone whose English is limited to look for a short prayer in English during the month and learn it. We also gave them a card with Bible promise or blessing for them to read as they prayed for passers-by.   This is an account of one of the team members:   “A woman sat down to be prayed for. She had been suffering from depression caused by problem neighbours. Partner had taken matters in his own hands and police were involved.  She was separated from her partner whilst having care for depre

Our HOTS team has multiplied in numbers such a great deal that we had to divide the team in 3 groups. Each group takes turns to Distribute the leaflet’s and pray for passers-by Stand at the back of the chairs and silently pray for the team who is distributing leaflets and silently pray for passers-by to hear God’s invitation to be prayed for. Go inside St Martin’s church and pray. This can be an opportunity for the team to pray for each other and also to pray for St Martin’s for its protection, for its leaders, guidance and faithfulness to promote the Gospel of Jesus. This worked well and we hope to follow this pattern or adapt it if necessary. It seemed to be that each group felt they were taking part in all aspects of this ministry. An Iranian team member was keen to pray while it was her group’s turn to be at the back of the chairs. Because her English was very limited we encouraged her to pray ‘God, send your Holy Spirit on this place’ as she walked up and d

Come and see the new Craigie Aitchison Window in the Prayer Chapel of St Martin in the Bull Ring . . for more information visit here : http://rainbowglassstudios.co.uk/work/craigie-aitchison-window-at-st-martins-in-the-bull-ring/ http://www.commission4mission.org/2015/12/members-update-richard-paton-emma-horsfield/    

On April 2nd we had our first bilingual Healing on the Streets training course. We had about 50 people attending and the majority had Farsi as their first language. We were fortunate to have some team members who speak both English and Farsi so the translation was shared amongst them.   In the afternoon we went out onto Edgbaston St to pray for passers-by. As the team was very large we divided it into three separate teams. One would give out the leaflets. The other would pray for passers-by as and when required. The third team would go into the church to pray for the teams outside. After a while the teams would rotate to give a chance for everyone to participate in all three activities.   In the feedback of last month we talked about people who keep coming back to HOTS for more prayers.  Below is an account of one of those prayers.   The team pray for a lady from Worcester. She wanted prayer by proxy for her mother who has heart problem and her father who has lung cancer