St. Joseph’s Church, Merry Hill, Wolverhampton

He has risen!  He is alive! Halleluiah!

4^th April Celebration at St Joseph’s 6.30pm

A service including full-immersion baptisms. Support those being baptised, some of whom are renewing their baptismal vows. See a vicar if you are interested in taking up this memorable opportunity.

Parish Celebration & AGM

18^th April 6.30pm at St Philip’s

All members of our churches are welcome

We give thanks for the past and each church shares its vision for the future.  Do pray that when thinking about vision at the 10.30am services on the 18^th, God helps us discern who should be involved in making important decisions on mission and ministry, as we prepare to celebrate and ratify the morning’s decisions at the AGM.

ELECTIONS TO CHURCH & PARISH COMMITTEES

Please continue to pray for those whom God is calling to these posts

Laura Perry and Simon Kemp are getting married at St Joseph’s on 16th April (see St Jo’s notices) and would love those who know them in the Parish to join them for the wedding ceremony, celebrating the start of married life.

SOUL SURVIVOR for Ages 11-18. 11-16^th August at Shepton Mallet. DEADLINE for signing up-25^th April. See Lelde Keice or Joe Watts.

PRAYER    POINTERS

Please use this page and the Parish Prayer

Diary during your individual daily prayer

St Philip’s: Josh Kinghorn, Ted Adams, Naomi (Stephen Read’s daughter), Jenny Bradley, Maddy Findler, Ineke Leech, Derek Chester, Bill & Irene Nash,
Julia Talbot.

• St Joseph’s: Dorothy Turley, Abel Tolley, Gunter Skoppek, Geoff Jellis, Alex & Peggy Jack, Sheila Thompson, Joan Berry, Brenda Edge, Brian Bamford, Zachary Hughes, James Summerfield.
  

• St Aidan’s: Ron & Gladys Beeston, Ken Greenwell.
  

• Bereaved: for the family and friends of  Andy Barker (Charlotte Swann’s father) and Pauline Jeavons.
  
• Local Community: St Joseph’s Holiday Club and for Pulse Ministries overseeing it; for all those people being baptised and recommitting their baptismal vows on Easter Day.
  

  for Shelley Billington, former Pastoral Assistant at St Joseph’s, going to a Bishop’s Panel in April.
  

• Worldwide: for people suffering after the suicide bombings on the Russian underground; for the crops crisis in Mongolia.
  

  Thank you to all the people who have shared ministry during Lent and Easter
  

  Thank you Lord for…
  

  the brilliant opportunities which have opened up in local schools for us to teach about the meaning of Easter.
  

  ST JOSEPH’S
  

  NEXT SUNDAY 11^th APRIL 10.30am– Holiday Club All Age Service.  Come and celebrate with us!     Delicious refreshments to follow!
  

  HOLIDAY CLUB SET UP Help please, after today’s (4^th April) 6.30pm service, and Tuesday 6^th April. If you can help, please see Liz Pemberton.
  

  PLUS….  WANTED! Stiff card (eg. cereal boxes), coloured and silver foil, felt
  scraps – please put in box in foyer for Trudi Law. Thanks
  

  FIRST AIDERS NEEDED for Holiday Club. If you have a first aid cert., a CRB, please see Liz asap
  

  THANKS to all who bought cakes at our recent cake stall – £62 raised for Holiday Club!
  

  Please pray for God’s blessing on the marriage of Laura Perry and Simon Kemp at St Jo’s on Friday, April 16^th, 12.30pm, and pray for their future together.
  

  Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving Sun. 25^th April 3pm Offer support & outreach to the bereaved, maybe remembering a loved one yourself.
  

  Nearly New Sale
  Sat. 24^th April: clothes, shoes, handbags. Please see Jenny Green/Mal Harris. All proceeds towards our 2011 Community Day.
  

  Next Weeks’ Sunday Services and Diary
  

  Wed 7.30pm WedsCircle:Aled Jones’fave Hymns
  

  Sun 11^th
  9.00am Morning Service
  

  Leader Mal Harris    Speaker Joy Dale
  

  10.30am All Age:  Holiday Club Team
  

  6.30pm Prayer Focus
  

  Wed 11.00am Midweek Holy Communion
  

  Sun 18^th 9.00am Holy Communion
  

  Leader Carl Rudd   Speaker Andrew Bennett
  

  10.30am Morning Service
  

  Leader Carl Rudd  Speaker Andrew Bennett
  

  6.30pm Parish Celebration & AGM at St Philip’s
  

  
  

For me it’s one of the most powerful of the days He spent on earth, and was wonderfully presented in the Passion series we’ve been looking at in the Lent home group sessions. And of course it’s what we do in remembrance of Him: a wonderful moment for us to remember His sacrifice for our sins. “Take, eat, this is my body, broken for you”; “Take, drink, this is my blood, shed for you”.

When I’ve been wishing my friends and colleagues “Happy Easter” I’ve wondered how to convey the scope of what these few days mean – His anticipation and instruction for remembrance, His crucifixion, and His rising. I’m not sure I can.

I finally got the opportunity to catch up with Phil Cansdale after tonight’s penultimate Lent prayer meeting (even with holiday club and Holy Week things going on, we’ll be meeting again next Wednesday at 6.30pm at St Jo’s). We’d had a great 45 minutes of quiet time together – or rather this time just as individuals prayerfully seeking God – and despite a non-stop day Phil was in fine form (unlike your correspondent, who barely managed to get any questions out). Listen here, or by going over to iTunes and finding the St Jo’s podcast in iTunes store, to what’s going on at St Jo’s over Easter, and also to Phil’s take on What’s Going On With Easter.