This Week’s Notices

THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

This Sunday our online Eucharist at 10.30am includes Jesus’ famous Summary of the Law drawing upon Old Testament from Leviticus 19: 18 and Deuteronomy 6:5 to Love God and Love our neighbour.

THIS WEEKS READINGS

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 15-18
1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8
Matthew 22: 34-46

Click here for This Sundays Service Sheet in PDF for Downloading

SIGN UP TO OUR YOU TUBE CHANNEL FOR EASY CONNECTION TO LIVESTREAM

For our online Holy Communion service on a Sunday we have moved from Facebook live to You Tube. The best way to make sure you can connect is to subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you follow this link you can click on the subscribe button and if you do not already have a YouTube account its free and you need to sign up for one. Alternatively you can still view it via the livestream page on the website. But we would encourage people to subscribe to the account as that helps us with other communications aswell.

Songs of the Week

Two of this week’s songs focus on the Summary of the Law mentioned in our Gospel reading in the service. The third song ‘What a Day that will be’ was suggested by Festus Osuji who said that listening to it has brought him comfort and solace at the time of the current crisis in his country Nigeria. Please pray for Nigeria and for members of our congregation from Nigeria and for their families.

If you have any suggestions for the weekly Church Notice playlist WhatsApp Ray on 07751155124 or email him at revdray@hotmail.co.uk

Scripture of the Week

Jesus said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

Matthew 22: 37-40

ALL SOULS SERVICE 2nd NOVEMBER

We are holding a special Memorial Service on All Souls Day Monday 2nd November at 5pm. This is a traditional time in the Church of England to remember all those who have died and had funerals at church or have connections to our church congregation or community. More information about this tradition can be found here: 
https://www.churchofengland.org/life-events/funerals/after-funeral/special-services

Our All Souls Memorial Service will take place over Zoom and all are very welcome to join! If you would like someone who you know who has died this year to be mentioned and have a candle lit for them during the service contact either Revd Helen or Revd Valerie on the numbers at the end of these notices

Topic: St Chad & St Mark Church’s Memorial Service
Time: Nov 2, 2020 05:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87455925778?pwd=Z2pucW0rdkdFaUgxYXZyZk9WUCtKdz09
Meeting ID: 874 5592 5778 Passcode: 919168

If you would like to light a virtual candle at St Chad’s and St Mark’s in memory of a loved one you can do this here:https://chadmark.blog/light-a-candle/

CHAD/MARK @ ST JOHN’S

We had a great service at St John’s two weeks ago with the Bishop of Wolverhampton Clive Gregory
( picture below) leading us and Baptising and/or Confirming 10 of our siblings in Christ. Our Next Chad/Mark @ StJohn’s will be on Sunday 8th November at 11am and will be a service of Holy Communion for Remembrance Sunday more details next week.

ZOOM CHURCH GOING MONTHLY

We’ve decided to make Zoom Church a monthly rather than weekly event. We’ve had lots of positive feedback but its been quite a task getting new material sorted each week and feel its more sustainable on a monthly basis. The next Zoom Church will be on Sunday November 15th at 6pm Watch this space for further details nearer the date.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

October is Black History Month check out the link to the website with lots of resources and stories to explore. See also the 100 Great Black Britons Homepage and the book of the same title by Wolverhampton born social commentator, campaigner and cultural historian Patrick Vernon OBE. Also see from a US perspective Christianity Today’s 20 Stories Christians Should Know. Hodge Hill Church in Birmingham are producing some interesting resources throughout the month for people to reflect upon. The final week’s reflections are This week Healing for the World

Week One Holy Ground & Calling – Called Out of Slavery
Week Two Faith & injustice – Challenging Pious Hypocrisy
Week Three Faith & Injustice – Acknowledging Collective Sin
Week Four Racial Justice – Betraying the System
Week Five Racial Justice – Healing for the World

Morning Prayer on ZOOM
Now Monday – Friday

For a couple of months a small number of people have joined with the Clergy to say together Morning Prayer on Wednesday’s on Zoom. The Clergy are required to say Morning and Evening Prayer every day and our Clergy use The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) 1662 – the traditional prayer book of the Church of England for this. If you would like to join in we begin at 9.30am Monday to Friday a link to the Office for the day can be found at this link . The Readings that we use can be dound at this link and scroll down to the week after Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. You can download a translation of the traditional 1662 Book Of Common Prayer in Farsi here

Zoom ID: 84846408022
Password: 418940

For a good description of how the BCP 1662 came about and its enduring use see the Rt Revd Alan Wilson Bishop of Buckingham’s two articles The Book of Common Prayer, part 1: An English ragbag and The Book of Common Prayer Part 8 Liturgy & Society from The Guardian in 2010. A more traditional description of the Book of Common Prayer can be found on the site of the BCP 1662 fan club The Prayer Book Society

NEW PRAYER RESOURCES FOR HOME

If you would like to download shorter prayer resources Valerie Fairclough has reproduced in PDF format the shorter Daily Prayer services from the Church of England and also Spiritual Communion resoiurces and has been distributing them to folk in our church who are not online. You can download copies here. If you think you may know of anyone who would like hard copies delivered please contact Valerie at vafairclough@gmail.com

ANNUAL MEETING ELECTIONS

We had our Annual Church Meeting last week and elected our Church Wardens and representatives to our District Church Council that manages our church some of whom also sit on the Parish Church Council that manages the four churches that make up our whole Parish and the Wolverhampton Deanary Synod. The full committee can be seen at this DCC page of our Website. The Committee has largely stayed the same except that Festus Osuji was elected to the second Church Warden post alongside Sean Smith and Francine Ndesi who was on the DCC for the last year has now been elected onto the PCC and Pauline Chitekeshe was elected as a new member of the DCC.

Our new Church Warden Festus Osuji, Pauline Chitekeshe newly elected onto our DCC and Francine Ndesi who becomes one of our representatives on the PCC.

ALPHA ONLINE
BEGAN MONDAY 19th OCTOBER 7pm

A couple of years ago we ran a very successful Bilingual Alpha course in English and Farsi at Church. Well now Alpha has gone online and we would like to give it a go.

Alpha is an introduction to the Christian faith for people who are interested in exploring faith, those who are new to faith and people who are looking to renew their long standing commitment to Christ. Check out the video below.

We began the course on Monday 19th October at 7pm . But you can still join in If you are interested in Alpha,or think you know people who might want to come or who you might want to invite to come, contact Helen on 07590365250 for details of log in.

ZOOM ENGLISH CLASS DROP IN

Clare Whiney says
As the new academic year starts, our Zoom English group begins again on Saturday’s .  This will be on Zoom as we cannot meet in church yet due to Covid-19 restrictions.

This is a ‘drop in’ session for 1 hour from 11.00-12.00 noon;  it is not a formal lesson, but is an open time  if you would like to ask questions about  the English language,  have help with your college studies, or just have a chat and practise your English conversation skills in a relaxed and friendly way.

It would be lovely to see you.
ZOOM ID: 818 5020 1262
Passcode: 955373

Update From Home Office on Substantive Interviews

The Home Office have begun again to call people for substantive interviews by video link from 30 June. If you are called to an interview please get in touch with Payam on 07494524179 if you are an Iranian or Kurdish convert or with Revd David Babbington 07931421017 if you are part of the Emmaus group to ensure that we have time to prepare a substantial supporting statement for your case. Full details of the latest information is available on the Right to Remain website use the google translate app in top left hand corner of page to translate to appropriayte language if required.

Changes to the asylum and immigration process due to Covid-19

Light A Candle In The Darkness

We have a candle lighting page on the website this week in both Farsi and English. Candle lighting is an important practice of prayer for many in our congregation and as we cannot be in church at this time we wanted to offer you the opportunity of praying this way online. Thanks to Ash especially for all his hard work on this. The candle lighting prayer  page is here

Support Our Ministry

If you are able to consider giving to our church we have set up two ways for you to donate during lockdown.
1.We now have a JustGiving Website managed by the diocese which can be accessed here or
2. you can pay direct into our bank account by bank transfer the details are:
The Church of St Chad & St Mark
Sort Code: 30-99-83
A/C No 03829156
There is a very small percentage taken by Just Giving.
All your money goes to the church through a bank transfer

Data Problems?

If you have data or connection problems that are stopping you participating in our services and are in Home Office accommodation we can help with individual grants from City of Sanctuary  please get in touch with Payam on 07494524179 if this is an issue for you.

Food Aid

If anyone is struggling to get food at this time please also get in touch we can arrange for a three day food package to be delivered to your accommodation within 24 hours please contact Ray 07751155124 or Ziba (Farsi Speaker) on 07506206169  if you need this.

Spiritual Communion Resources

You can use the Spiritual Communion Resources at anytime available in English and Farsi by clicking on the Icon below. Also as with last week a prayer for Spiritual Communion is in this weeks service sheet at the time when the sacrament is being shared in church. For more about Spiritual Communion check out the video we featured in an earlier version of the Church Notices. Ray also preached on Spiritual Communion at our service on Second Sunday after Trinity on 21st June. You can listen to it on the Livestream Page of the Website, video of 21st June beginning at 38.00

Children’s Church

Children’s Church resources for this weeks lectionary readings can be found at https://hodgehilljuniorchurch.wordpress.com/

Mohabat -Farsi Bible Study

At 2.30pm on Sunday there will be a Farsi Bible Study and gathering on Zoom
Zoom Meeting ID 844 3192 9302
Password 019696

Open Space – A Place of Welcome Online

Monday & Fridays at 11am
Meeting ID 846 2672 9620
Password 008252

Bible Study & Night Prayer

At 7.30pm every Thursday

Meeting ID: 871 5889 0118
Password: 024272

PASTORAL CONTACTS

CLERGY
VICAR
Revd Ray Gaston 07751155124 (Day Off Monday)
ASSISTANT CURATES
Revd Helen Babiy 07590365250 (Day Off Tuesday)
Revd Valerie Fairclough 07954391234 (Available Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday)

OMID PROJECT SUPPORT & DEVELOPMENT WORKER
Farsi and Kurdish Speaker
Payam Hemmatpour 07494O524179 (Available 9am-5pm Saturday, Sunday & Tuesday)