Church of St Chad & St Mark
A Diverse Christian Community in the Anglican Tradition
This Weeks Notices
This week’s service Sheet for the Eighth Sunday After Trinity Here
This weeks readings
Isaiah 55: 1-5
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14: 13-21
The Miracles of Jesus
This week’s gospel reading includes Matthew’s account of the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. Since the 19th century some western biblical scholars have argued against the truth of the miracles of Jesus and have sought to explain them away. The feeding of the 5000 is often described as a sharing rather than a miraculous multiplication. However, in this video ‘Did Jesus Perform Miracles?’ New Testament Scholar Tom Wright argues for why we should continue to understand Jesus’ works as miraculous and in this video theologian Richard Bauckman argues why we can rely on the gospel accounts as being based on eyewitness testimony and a fuller description by him can be found here. A full review of Bauckman’s ground breaking book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses can be found here
Christ Claims You For His Own!
Last week under special COVID 19 restrictions we Baptised eight of our Iranian, Kurdish and Afghan siblings in Christ into the Church . Above are a couple of pictures from the service that was conducted in English and Farsi. The Eight were part of a group of 11 who undertook our Baptism and Introduction to Anglicanism course from January – March and were all due to be baptised at Easter. Two were already baptised at other churches in the past and were confirmed by The Bishop of Wolverhampton just before lockdown. One person has chosen to postpone his Baptism until church is meeting all together again.The bilingual Baptism service sheet put together by Persian Anglican Churches can be downloaded from here
Sunday evening sees the third of our new online worship service ZOOM CHURCH at 6pm. ZOOM CHURCH is a complimentary service to our Live Streamed Eucharist in the morning. Rather than being livestreamed ZOOM CHURCH gathers people online through Zoom to pray, sing and listen to songs together with a structured reflection. Each week will have a different theme. This week we are looking at The Book of Psalms. In preparation you might want to check out this video exploring an overview of Book of Psalms Zoom Church aims to be Contemporary, Contemplative & Interactive – COME ALONG
ZOOM ID: 8421118 7276
Password: 253303
Young Christian Climate Network
One of our congregants Naomi Reiss writes:
On Saturday (1st August) a new Young Christian Climate Network is being launched! We’re an action-focused community of young Christians in the UK choosing to follow Jesus in the pursuit of climate justice. We have three aims: to connect young Christians into an inclusive community engaged with climate justice, to take collective action towards climate justice, and to see ourselves and our communities grow in passion and understanding. The network is ecumenical, involving a diverse range of churches, and it would be especially great to have some members of Chad Mark involved. If you are aged 18-30 and God has put climate change on your heart, we would love to have you on board! Find out more about us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at @YCCNetwork and look out for our signup post on Saturday. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with Naomi (naomireiss001@gmail.com) or email hello@yccn.uk.
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.
Happy Birthday To You!
We want to begin finding a way of marking Birthday celebrations that we used to do when we met as a community in church. Please send to Ray, Helen or Ash your birthday date if it is in the months of June, July or August.
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
Church Reopening ?
Although we have no immediate plans to reopen church for full Sunday worship at the moment ( we would only be able to allow 20-25 people in), we are exploring borrowing our sister church in the Parish of Central Wolverhampton, St John’s which is a larger church. So that once a month we can gather together safely and share communion together without having to restrict the numbers of people who can come and on other Sundays continue our online Eucharists. We hope to be able to announce the date of our first Chad/Mark at St John’s Holy Communion Service in the next couple of weeks – Watch This Space!
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 Ray 07751155124 or 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.
Sunday Livestream
As with previous weeks we will be live streaming a service of Holy Communion from the church at 10.30 available on our Facebook page and on our website the links are
https://www.facebook.com/stchadstmark
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/
After Church Meet Up
After the service from 12 noon we will have an after church gathering for an hour on Zoom bring your own tea or coffee, cake or biscuits
Zoom Meeting ID: 893 5214 9466
Password: 008249
Farsi Bible Study
At 2.30pm there will be a Farsi Bible Study and gathering on Zoom
For the Username and password, please message Payam on 07494524179.
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
Songs of the Week
We won’t be using a playlist at the start of the service this week as we will carry on with playing the bells with lots of positive feedback about that. So here is the playlist of some of the songs we will be using at Zoom Church at 6pm on Sunday evening
Any suggestions for the weekly playlist welcome WhatsApp Ray on 07751155124 or email him at revdray@hotmail.co.uk
Scripture of the Week
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14: 27
Blessings
Ray 07751155124
Helen 07590365250
Payam 07494524179