Peter's Place - Cafe Church at St Peter's

Peter’s Place – Sunday 8th July at 4pm in church. A new café style service for children and their families, led by Mandy Flaherty.

St Peter's stained glass

On Wednesday 18 July at 7.00pm, Diana Courtney (a Blue Badge Guide) will explain the meanings and origins of the beautiful stained glass windows at St Peter's Church. There will be a little organ music to begin and end the evening and refreshments will be served. Admission free: retiring collection. Please note early starting time of 7pm (to make best use of daylight!). Binoculars will be useful!

Great book and wine evening 8 August 2007

After a bit of thought about reading books which enliven our Christian faith or deepen our understanding, we're going to hold a Book and Wine evening in the Barnabas Centre at 7.30pm on 8 August 2007.

The format will be really simple:

• Come along with a copy of a book that you have read recently that has helped you in your Christian faith.
• If you wish, you can talk about why the book has been helpful for five minutes, or read a short extract.
• Bring along a drink to share (not necessarily a whole bottle of wine each) and some glasses please. Non-alcoholic drinks welcome.
• We'll have a bit of chat to start with and then gather to hear those who want to say a few words about their choice of books, then more informal chat afterwards.

If you haven't read a great book recently, then come along all the same. But remember, there's plenty of time to choose and read a book before the evening.

Read a great Christian book this summer

A book can change your life. If you feel that your faith is in need of enlivening or that there are new and undiscovered things to explore, pack a good book with your holiday luggage.

Evangelical Christians in the 1980s were among the most avid readers. Take a look at your bookshelves. Are there recent and up to date titles? Or do they reflect a period when you had a real appetite for reading more about faith?

My guess is that many of us at St Paul's would do well to read more than we manage at present. With a change of pace over summer, there's the opportunity to spend a few hours in the company of an inspirational author, or tackling an issue which you've always wondered about but never had the time to get to grips with.

There are two Christian bookshops in the centre of Leicester - CLC on Belvoir Street and SPCK on Bishop Street. Then of course, there's Amazon and Church House Publishing.

Go on buy a book!

Cluster munitions - Bishop Tim speaks out

The Bishop of Leicester, Tim Stevens, made a speech in the House of Lord's on Ascension Day, in which he called for the renunciation of the use and manufacture of cluster bombs. He said,

For those of us in the Christian tradition, (Ascension Day) is a day in which our Lord’s kingship over all human affairs, relations and conflicts is celebrated. It is a day on which we are reminded that human beings are to behave towards each other as children of the same heavenly Father. It is a day to repent of these weapons, and a day to press on the Government’s representatives as they prepare to go to Lima that we wish them to be in no doubt whatever that, in the view of this House, these weapons are wholly unacceptable.

The full text of the Bishop's speech is here.

Mission Mondays

A series of events to stimulate and resource mission in Leicestershire churches has been arranged. Full details of these Mission Mondays, including dates and venues, are here.

Petertide ordinations

This is the time of year when men and women are ordained deacon and priest in the cathedral. Details of those being ordained this year are here.

Kibworth Praise 8 July 2007

Kibworth Praise is taking place on Sunday 8 July at 7.45pm. Click the image for a larger view.

Breakfast at Barney's - 8 July 2007

Breakfast at Barney's returns on 8 July 2007.

Begin the day with a continental or cooked breakfast in the Barnabas Centre, before the Parade service in the church.

For more information, contact Anita at anita.chettle@bigfoot.com

Property Team

Thanks to Vivien and Paul for drawing together a team of volunteers to serve us by attending to the bits of maintenance that are needed from time to time in our buildings. We're grateful to Mick, Jerry, Derek, Dave and Gordon for offering their services. If you spot anything in the buildings that need attention, please get in touch with the wardens, Vivien and Paul, who'll pass it on appropriately.

Bit of a break

It's been a while since I posted to the blog, having been on a clergy leadership course for a week and coming back to a big workload. Things show signs of settling down a bit now, so I hope to have a bit more time to post.

Discovery Courses

Discovery is a Christian training course run in the Diocese of Leicester which doesn’t require school or university exams. It's designed by ordinary parish members and ministers, and in many ways is more accessible than the Certificate in Christian Discipleship. Year one starts Sept 2007. Download Discovery Module Leaflet here

Children's Performing Arts Classes

Guillain Performing Arts have booked the Barnabas Centre for two enrolment lessons in the coming weeks. They give children the opportunity to discover if they would like to join a regular performing arts class on Thursday evenings, beginning in September.

Rebecca Guillain writes that the classes are varied and fun and a superb way to build confidence and a love of performing.

The enrolment classes are on 28 June and 5 July, from 6:00 to 7:00pm.

More information: rebeccaguillain@ntlworld.com 0780 936 4372

Groundbreaking in 1982

Thanks to local resident and former church member Annette, who brought me this picture of the service on Hamble Green 25 years ago, when the church was about to be built.

The planning group are making great progress with the arrangements for a celebratory event on the weekend of 15 and 16 September 2007.

Anyone recognise any of these faces?

Church marketing

Thanks to Anona, Colin and Gordon, we now have a new external noticeboard under the porch and a leaflet rack in the foyer. While we don't want to get too caught up in shameless self-promotion and our 'brand', I do think it's important to communicate effectively. People are very media-savvy these days and quickly discriminate between confident, appealing messages and amateurish attempts. When it comes to communication, style isn't everything, but quality certainly counts.

Cartoon from www.cartoonchurch.com, suppliers of cartoon-based resources for churches. Click on the picture for a full-size view.

Wedding parties

Best wishes to Lynn and Rich in their married life together, following their wedding at St Paul's on Saturday (our eleventh wedding in the 25 years we've been open).

Most memorable moment? - the best bride's speech/song I've ever heard.

Getting ready for Christmas

Just spent an hour or two sketching out the services in the season for September to December 2007 into the first draft of a new rota. Being part of a team parish means that there's a huge amount of co-ordination involved and with the summer holidays approaching fast, it's important to get things moving early.

Does feel rather odd to be planning Christmas, though.