5th May

This is not an inspirational video, but it is an important one.

Alternative Vote Referendum Briefing by the Christian Institute. 

When you prayed beneath the trees

Glen has just posted this and I really like it. I must remember it for next year! 

The Deliverer Who Dies

The visuals from our Good Friday Service - attempting to reflect Matthew's account (Matthew 27:26-54)

the indignity of death

Easter in Tipton

These are our services over the Easter Weekend.
If you are in Tipton you'll be very welcome to join us!

Good Friday

Easter Morning 

Easter Evening

Caution: Mature Content of an Adult Nature

There is a popular school of thought (or, more strictly, of feeling) which violently resents the operation of Time upon the human spirit. It looks upon age as something between a crime and an insult. Its prophets have banished from their savage vocabulary all such words as 'adult', 'mature', 'experienced', 'venerable'; they know only snarling and sneering epithets, like 'middle-aged', 'elderly', 'stuffy', 'senile', and 'decrepit'. With those they flagellate that which they themselves are, or must shortly become , as though abuse were an incantation to exorcise the inexorable. (Dorothy Sayers Creed or Chaos? p14)

Shocking News

In the wake of the BBC's 'news' that the Last Supper was on a Wednesday ... this is a great little post: Headlines You Won't See this Easter with a helpful link to a (mind blowing) timeline of the events of that Passover/Easter week.

May Hope Spring

Peter Maiden will be speaking at this year's Birmingham Spring Convention 'People of Hope' on 10-12th May.

Tuesday: S o l i d H o p e – A L o o k F o r w a r d

(Revelation 21:1-8)
Wednesday: S  o l i d H o p e – L o o k i n g B a c k
(Luke 8:26-39)
Thursday: So l i d H o p e – To d a y ’s E x p e r i e n c e
(1 Peter 1:1-9, 13-16)

We'll be going along at least one of the nights.

Good Friday

Easter Evangelism

Our Easter tract distribution involves 1500 of 3 Days the Shook the World going into homes around the church as well the personal delivery of our usual Good News Paper to 300 of our immediate neighbours.
Please pray that over the next week all of these would get delivered, read (not binned!) and in God's great mercy would do eternal good!  

Easter for Children

A lovely Children's Easter Book by Jan Peinkowski available on line or at amazon.

HT The Vicar's Wife!

The Peasant Princess

Loads of materials here

Twitching in Tipton

I don't know why, but this year we seem to have had a greater variety of birds in our back garden than ever before. Our usual handful of pigeons:

Wood Pigeon

A colony of sparrows who are nesting in our trees and roof!

sparrows

A robin ... possibly a pair as yesterday I saw a juvenile robin at the bottom of the garden. 

Robin

We get starlings occasionally. 

Starling

Jane spotted a wren last week. 

Wren

Black birds are regulars ... both male and females. 

Blackbird

We've been unusually inundated with Blue Tits and for the first time, Great Tits too. 

Blue Tit

Great Tit

We've had visits from chaffinches 

Chaffinch

And this year's great treat is a pair of Goldfinches that we see daily at the moment. 

Goldfinch

And yesterday a magpie chased a young song thrush into our trees...

Thrush

All just part of living in the (Black) Country I guess!

Eyewitness Testimony

Taken from this site, 4gospels, which looks like a great resource.