Notices
Churches Together
Café Jam at St David’s church on Sunday 30th March at 6pm for 6.30pm start. Café style worship with lots of singing and cake. All are welcome. (If any of you are going do let Jenny G know as I am aware of someone who needs a lift.)
Ecumenical Lent Talks in the Methodist Church
There will be talks and a short service given by the ministers of the churches that make up Churches Together in Bromborough and Eastham. They will be at Bromborough Methodist Church at 7.30pm on Wednesdays.
- 2nd April Saying Sorry Revd Dan Woodhouse (Methodist)
- 9th April Saying Ouch Revd Jenny Gillies (St Barnabas, Bromborough, CofE)
Men’s Breakfast
Next one is 12th April in the Royal Oak. Contact Malcolm if you need a lift 07837 886962. Also meeting on 10th May.
Church Easter clean up and decorate (with flowers).
Saturday 19th April
Starting from 9.30 am. No expertise required. Please come and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and work with friends to make the church clean and tidy and pretty for Easter. There is enough to be done by anyone and everyone who turns up. I am used to this being a real church community day but it has never quite come off at St Barnabas. Come for an hour and save others of us from being there for four hours! I am hoping that some brass cleaning can get done then too and perhaps the silver…
Fun, Flowers and Fizz –
Friday 11th April – 7pm-9pm St Barnabas Church Village Centre
If you’d like to learn a new skill whilst meeting some new friends, then sign up for this session. A £5 contribution if you can afford it (let us know if not). You’ll create a small floral display, no matter how few skills you currently have. You’ll have fun and make some friends and have a glass of fizz along the way. or text 07970 481686 to request a place. Alternatively speak to Heather Savage or Gill Walker. Only 20 places available. Suitable for friends of any faith or none.
Church Electoral Roll
The Church is required to renew its Electoral Roll every six years, and that is now upon us.
Please complete your Electoral Roll form and return it to Ros by 20th April 2025.
Help is on offer between and after services with forms obtainable from the back table. The form will be sent out digitally too (We will need you to print sign and return).
At the same time, and on the same form we ask for information that helps us to keep your data personalised and managed as you wish.
This year we have requested your date of birth. The only time this would be used is to assist the Rector in visiting you at Arrowe Park and the Countess of Chester. The hospitals will no longer advise which wards people are on without this information. Your birthdays will not be published in the newsletter or used for a Sunday ‘sing to you.’
Your information is held in a locked cupboard and on a password protected digital spreadsheet. It will not be available to the public. The only information that will be printed and available is your first and last name. Any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me. 07724 866 155 Thank you. Ros
Chat and Craft
Fridays from 9:30-11:30am, in the Centre. A weekly ‘chat & craft’ session is open to all.
If you fancy having a go at a craft, including possibly learning a new one, or just fancy a chat, you are welcome to join them. Take your own if you have any, or they have things you can have go at, or you might just want to sit and chat with others there. Just turn up or speak to Heather, Gill, Kay or Fiona for more information.
Evening Craft
Heather, Gill, Kay & Fiona are planning some evening craft activities starting in a few month’s time. If you have any suggestions for things you would like to learn how to do, please let them know. Watch this space for more information! Thanks, Heather
Parish Lunch
At the moment I have six people who would like Green Oak Farm, two who would like us to stay at the Royal Oak and a silent majority. On April 6th the Parish Lunch has been booked for the Royal Oak.
Easter Flowers
Ok so you don’t feel able to arrange them, but how about donating them? Money for Easter Flowers
in an envelope marked (and here is the surprise) ‘Easter Flowers’. Some of you may even do both! You can ‘Tap to Give’ either using the Easter Flowers menu or making sure that Julie Watts knows when you gave and the last 4 digits of your bank card. Donations by this method can be gift aided.
Messy Church on Good Friday at 10.00 am
This will be held in church. We need as many helpers as we can muster. Can it be you? Could it be a family member? We will be doing bacon and sausage rolls, toast and hot cross buns for everyone who comes. There will be an egg hunt. Please sign up on the sheet at the back.
St Barnabas Information WhatsApp group
Would you like to be part of the church WhatsApp information Group or the Prayer Group? Please text 07806608219 (my number) and I will add you. I can’t add you if you don’t have WhatsApp. Help is available to help anyone who needs to download that first. Some people are unhappy about getting all the notifications. If you need help with muting the Community (so there are no sounds when messages come in) please ask.
The Centre needs volunteers
We have been running this notice for some time now but with limited success. Any ideas about who can/would help? Speak to Thelma McGorry or Jenny Hope.
About our confirmation candidates
Helene Kaye writes:
I was christened a Catholic, but did not attend church. When I was 11, I passed the 11+ to go to Upton Convent School. Imagine my surprise when I started there and found out I was expected to attend Mass every Sunday (our Deputy Head tested us on a Monday morning). So as soon as I left school, I did not continue a relationship with God as the Nuns had put me off religion for good.
Roll forward a few years, and I had suffered and struggled through some hard times. I really looked up to my Aunt (my dad’s sister), and my great Aunt (my dad’s Aunt). They had both become born again Christians and spoke to me of God’s love and how he wanted me to be my best self.
I continued to talk to my Aunts, and my Dad was speaking to them too. He was diagnosed with cancer and turned to God to help him through. Before he died, he gave me his bible which he wanted to be passed down to his grandchildren and great grandchildren.
After my father’s death, I continued to talk and pray with my Aunts. My great Aunt asked me if I wanted to become born again. I said I would love to, but with having three kids, I found it extremely difficult to get to church. My Aunt said you didn’t have to go to church to pray to God and believe. So I became born again and started my real journey to faith.
Roll forward to 2012 and I met a lovely man called Steve, who became my husband in October 2015.
In April 2016 my faith was tested when my son was diagnosed with brain cancer. We had a hard road supporting him through awake brain surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. I really wanted our marriage to be blessed in church, and we had just moved to Bromborough, so my husband approached Jenny, the vicar here at St Barnabas. James’ cancer was progressing rapidly, and we wanted the memories of him with us. One Thursday teatime Jenny blessed our marriage here with my children James, Charlie and Ellie watching.
As we got to the end of the path under the arch, James’ legs stopped working and he went into a wheelchair after that.
James died on 3 October 2021 and devastated the whole family. My belief held strong, and I was kept going with the knowledge that I would see James again, and that his body was now whole.
I started coming to St Barnabas on a regular basis the following Easter, and I have been coming ever since. My faith has increased, and I see the wonder of the Lord in everything we do as a family. We were blessed with a grandson two years ago, and his resemblance to James is uncanny.
I have developed a real sense of community with the parishioners of St Barnabas and feel welcomed and loved. To complete my relationship with the Lord, I wish to be confirmed in the Church.
Thea Lampkin described to me the feeling that she was being pulled into church every time she went past. She is a teenager who comes to church by herself though her parents support her. She was baptised as a baby in St Barnabas.
She writes, ‘I think I had always wanted to go to church, but it was never the right time until one Sunday I decided that I should go nearly 2 years ago as I was always intrigued for the services being held an what was going to be said so then I went an felt a presence and it was such a good feeling being there and decided to go always after that.’