It’s ‘Back to School’ week and we have been busy handing out tea and tissues to parents on their first school run and giving out over 100 ice lollies to delighted children for whom calling at church for a treat on the way home has become an annual ‘back to school’ tradition!
Schools work is one of our greatest joys and we are delighted to have such wonderful relationships with our local schools that enables us to go into both of our primary schools at least once each week. Worship and assemblies, prayer spaces, supporting lessons, lunchtime activities, chaplaincy, mentoring, facilitating visits to church and supporting events are some of the many things that we do, not forgetting the privilege of watching the most delightful Nativity plays! But did you know that there is also a group of church members that meet in the primary school every week to pray for all of our local schools? Shrewsbury College, two Secondary Schools, two Primary Schools and Holy Trinity Preschool are prayed for intentionally each week by a faithful and dedicated team and at the last SIAMS (Church School Inspection), the Inspector described this as a ‘Powerhouse’.
Prayer is indeed the ‘Powerhouse’ and so as children settle into new routines and teachers begin to learn all their names, we want to make our work in schools the focus for ‘Praying Doing Cheering’ in September. Please do look out for ways that you can be praying for this work and ask one of us how you can be cheering us along or getting involved. It’s our favourite thing to talk about!
Grace and Peace
Cerys Hughes and Judith Clarkson
This Sunday, 7th September, we’re holding onto the last of the summer sunshine as we continue our ‘Summer in the Psalms’ sermon series, looking at Psalm 96. At 9am and 11am our speaker will be Alex Aldous, with Peter Madley speaking at CTK. It’s Messy Church at HTBV at 9am, followed by Cafe Church at 10.30 where Fi Iddon will be leading. In the evening we have our monthly Presence service (with Holy Communion) and in this Global Week of 24/7 prayer, Annali Hindle will be helping us go deeper in prayer. Trinity Youth will be meeting at 6.30pm as the new term starts.
Ride and Stride
This annual event, a fundraiser for the Shropshire Historic Churches Trust, takes place on Saturday 13th September. Many churches in our county, including both Holy Trinity, Meole Brace and Holy Trinity, Belle Vue, will be open for those who would like to explore (and maps and more information of open churches are available from Peter and Gill Madley). If you would like to encourage friends or family to sponsor you, then there are also forms available. Andy Jowett is leading a cycle group for a ‘gentle’ ride on that day, leaving HTMB at 1.30pm and lasting about two hours. You can also support this initiative by donating using the envelopes provided. More information is available at the back of church, or from Peter and Gill Madley.
Apple Day
Apple Day is a fabulous community event, hosted by the Windfall Project and Trinity Churches which this year will take place on Saturday 4th October. As you know, we’ll be encouraging you to come along and support this, and perhaps even get involved in serving for a small part of the afternoon in some way. Watch out for notices over the next few weeks, and if you’ve got any questions then please do speak to Rachel Woods.
Safeguarding
Our termly reminder of the importance of Safeguarding across our parish. The Parish Safeguarding Policy is available at the bottom of the front page of the Trinity Churches website, and our Parish Safeguarding Officers are Rachel Woods and Phil Lewis. They can be contacted by email at [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns relating to safeguarding, please do speak to Rachel or Phil, or to Fi Iddon and Anne Hasnip who are overseeing Safeguarding during the interregnum.
PCC
The PCC will be meeting this Monday, 8th September, to formally agree the Parish Profile. We are so thankful to Rob Surl and all the team who have worked so hard on this. The following Monday, 15th September, sees the Section 12 meeting between the PCC and Bishop which outlines the next stage of the appointment process. The PCC will also be holding their usual governance meeting on this night. So please do be praying for both of these meetings, and for the process of appointing a new vicar.
Trinity Life
You can find out about all this, and more, in our latest edition of Trinity Life – available in the back of church on Sunday or by clicking the link on the front page of the website which is below…
Trinity Life