The magazine of Holy Trinity Parish Church, Sutton Coldfield January / February 2018 60p
Some of the heritage stewards complete their training See page 15
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Jack Rutter plays at Holy Trinity See page 18 Page
From the Editors ...
...to Trinity In this issue we focus on a new year and new plans in a number of areas of our church. Our re-ordering programme nears completion, and we hope to open the building to visitors during the week to enable more people to see the beauty of the building and its many historically significant features. Sadly we have to report the death of Win Sabapathy, much-missed wife of Paul Sabapathy who was Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands until recently. Paul speaks of their relationship and the support Win gave him and the whole family throughout her life. We look back to an excellent and thought-provoking study day (p5) and with Susie to positive outcomes of Remembrance and the Children in Need Rickshaw Challenge (p7). We look forward as well to new developments in the church and beyond. January includes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity—see the service times on page 23. May your New Year be peaceful and positive. Blessings,
Stella
Contents: John Routh writes
2 Through a glass darkly 4 Waiting for God-a study day 5,10 Youth Matters 7 Tribute to Win Sabapathy 8 The Magi 9 Charities for 2018 10 Heritage at the Heart 15 History spot 16 Friends’ update 18 Children’s quiz 19 Notes from the PCC meeting 20,22 From the registers 22 Week of prayer for Christian Unity 23 Trinity arrangements 24 Bible verse 24 Editors: Stella 329 2101 s_thebridge@yahoo.com Louise 240 6366 louisejharden@hotmail.com Johanna 07788 910059 johanna.paul@hotmail.co.uk
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John Routh writes … A tale of two years What are the main things that come to mind about the year just ending? Except for finishing off a few bits and pieces, phase 1 of the reordering work had been completed by the start of the year. So we’ve spent most of 2017 getting to know our church building again. The overall picture is how effective the reordering has been, delivering us pretty much what we had hoped and prayed for. There are niggles of course, but that’s inevitable. With God’s help we have done a great thing. We also laid the ground work for phase 2, the organ and tower work. The decision to change the organ was supported by most of us, but not everyone – and I understand that has caused division and hurt (on both sides!) But for me the most important thing is that we actually made a decision, and were then able to move on. The re-ordering has gone well financially too. We finished pretty much on budget and, though we had to contribute more from PCC funds than we originally hoped, our ‘capital’ reserves are in a reasonable position. Sadly our day-to-day finances aren’t so good – we budgeted for a £30,000 deficit in 2017. We appealed for people to look seriously at their giving, and some of us responded, so the actual deficit is likely to be less – maybe £22,000. There is still a long way to go to get our day-to-day finances onto a sustainable footing. The heritage project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, got underway. Stella and the rest of the team have been working hard. We’ve had open days, recruited some volunteers to allow us to keep the church building open more, worked with local schools, and started setting up an accessible archive of records. The website is also being updated. The new website will have a major area focused on heritage, funded as part of the project. And then we will be adding three areas covering our mission to serve the community, events and hire of our premises. The site should go live soon. We’ve had a group of people attending a diocesan course to strengthen the skills of our pastoral team. Sadly, Stella decided to stand down as Music Coordinator from the end of 2017, so the search for someone to take on the role of leading our ‘music department’ has started. And, of course, regular church life has continued. New faces have appeared amongst us, others have gone. There have been weddings, baptisms and funerals aplenty. Prayer and ministry have continued unabated. Friends concerts, social events, regular groups,Page occasional ‘learning’ days have all carried on successfully.
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I know I’ll have forgotten some things, but ... 2017 has been a good year at Holy Trinity, a year worth remembering. What does the year ahead hold in store for us? The builders will be back on site – but they’ll disturb the day-to-day life of the church much less than last time! The new organ will be ready to play by the start of the year, so the old one will be removed at the start of January. After that the builders will do what is needed in the tower space – as well as the regular quinquennial work. Happily the costs of all this are within what we have previously planned, so our ‘capital’ position won’t be altered. But day-to-day finances will continue to be a challenge. We must increase income or look seriously about cutting costs. Whilst cutting costs may sound the better option, it would mean cuts in paid staff and consequently cuts in our mission and service of the parish community – I hope none of us wants to see that! We have budgeted to reduce the day-to-day deficit to £14,000 – that will only happen if we see a 10% increase in giving. So all of us need to think deeply and pray about what we give to support the church’s work. How joyful and generous are we in our giving? We have reserves sufficient to sustain deficits for a couple of years – but not much longer! As ever we pray that hires of our buildings will increase. Government spending cut-backs have had a serious effect on many of our regular clients, so any loosening of the spending strings will help our situation. We pray too that the bookings area of the new website will bring in more hirers. The heritage project will continue to move forward, (see page 16). Those from the pastoral team who are taking the diocesan course will come to the end of that training, and the whole pastoral team’s work will be strengthened as a result. And we hope that the music side of worship will sorted out with a Music Director before too long. As you’ll know David Thebridge stood down as Treasurer at the 2017 Annual Meeting, and at the end of 2017 Mike Barnes will stand down from his role doing the Trinity Centre figures. I’ve been filling the gap so far, with support from others. But that can’t continue – it detracts too much time from the work I should be doing as your Rector. We really need to appoint a new Treasurer, and I pray that will happen as soon as possible. STOP PRESS –p20 Much else will go on in and around Holy Trinity. There will be mission, education, pastoral care, worship ... all the things that make up the life of a church community. And in all of that none of us quite knows what the year will bring. But whatever else ... 2018 is a year to look forward to, and in its own time will be another year worth remembering too. John
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Through a Glass Darkly—
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Light in dark times At this time of year, when the nights are so dark and the days are so short, there is an understandable emphasis on light, and our readings at this time reflect this. The light that shines for us in the darkest times, whether actual or metaphorical, is the light of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, as symbolised by the flame that burned for his praise in the centre of Birmingham at the Millennium. We celebrated his birth as a baby at Christmas with joy and tenderness, and stories of his babyhood continue in January. We now begin though to get a glimpse of him as an adult: he recruits his disciples, starts to perform miracles and shows his true self to his inner circle. We also get from him a picture of what Easter will be like and what it will mean to the world. The disciples find this account very hard to understand because It took the fulfilment of God's purpose to show them the bigger picture - the coming of the world's true light. He taught us to pray for God's kingdom in which light will be spread throughout the world. And who is there to spread the light? Why, there is no one but you and me, of course.
Jean Schneider Page
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Waiting for God – our pre–Advent Study Day Holy Trinity’s Pre–Advent study day, when we invited members of both St Peter’s and St Chad’s to join us, took place on Saturday 4th November. We were delighted to welcome the Revd Carol Hoare as our speaker and could not fail to recognise her enthusiasm for the subject which she presented, namely the theology underlying three hymns which are often sung at this time of year when Christians commemorate waiting for the birth of Christ, the coming of the Son of God. The first hymn which we looked at was ‘O come O come Emmanuel’; an old hymn, a version of which was first sung in monasteries by the early Christian monks. Through her Biblically based research, Carol was able to enlighten us as to the meaning underlying this hymn in a way which gave us much greater understanding of the text; a hymn summed up in the words of Isaiah Chapter7 verse 14: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel’ which as Carol emphasised means God with us. The second hymn to study was a modern one ‘Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.’ Carol’s Biblical references applied to each verse of the text but were summed up in Romans, Chapter 8, verse 38: ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Words of comfort for us as we struggle with difficult situations in modern life. Carol also posed a question concerning our thoughts on the second coming, always in the mind of Christians at Advent. Is it something that will happen at a future date or is it an on–going experience throughout our lives? This provoked some lively and meaningful discussion in the groups. 7 ...continued on page 10
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Youth Matters In November I saw two events, both of which moved me greatly. The first was watching the Children In Need Rickshaw Challenge pass through Sutton and Mere Green. You will probably know that each year Matt Baker from the BBC accompanies 6 young people, all of whom have had a hard time either through family circumstances or through disability and illness, as they ride a rickshaw across Britain to raise money for Children in Need. This year they cycled 500 miles from London to Glasgow. I was really excited to hear their route took us so near and determined to go and support them. I tracked them online and made my way to the road just a few minutes before they arrived. There was quite a procession of support vehicles and motorbikes and it the midst of them was a young man peddling the rickshaw for all his worth with a big beam on his face. In fact, they were all so friendly and waving, so it was so lovely to see and to have been able to cheer and encourage and donate to a very worthy cause. In fact, it is a charity that all the young people have previously benefitted from and now they, in turn, are putting something back in. The other event that moved me were the traditional Remembrance Day commemorations. They are always moving but what struck me more than ever this year was just how many people (and animals too) sacrificed so much, so very, very much, in order for us to have the future we do. What incredible bravery. I look at our country today and obviously it faces serious issues but I also look at all the things that seem to fill our news bulletins and I look at some of the things that we all, young and old, get upset about. Then I look at the young people of the Rickshaw Challenge and at all the sacrifices made through the wars. Maybe it is just me but I do wonder if our society is too often getting bogged down and obsessed by the wrong, often petty things. Do we as a church sometimes? The Youth Groups certainly do! As the Bible says, we need to focus on what things really matter and in that I want to be inspired by values that were fought for in the war and the young people of the Rickshaw Challenge. Susie Walker
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Recollections of Win Sabapathy 12th May 1947—6th Nov 2017 Paul Sabapathy wrote: Win, my beloved wife of 48 years, passed away peacefully in her sleep at around 10 am on Monday 6 November 2017 in her bed at the home we shared for forty years in Sutton Coldfield. She was seventy. She spent six months in hospital in Newcastle on Tyne for six months in 1962 with major kidney problems when she was at Jarrow Grammar School. At the time she was given five years to live. However as a strong determined Geordie Hinnie she has survived not five but fifty five years. As committed Christians we are truly grateful for Christ's many amazing mercies to her and us as a family. We were told we could not have children. Again through God’s Grace and the wonderful care from our GP in 1974 Dr Richard Whittington (who later became Birmingham Coroner) and the care she received at Birmingham Women's Hospital, we had two miracle children - John now aged 42 and Hannah aged 40. John was born prematurely weighing 4 pounds and Hannah was born two years later weighing six pounds. They are now both now six feet tall! John is happily married to lovely Kate whom he met at Oxford and they have two children, Anna aged nine and Thomas aged six. Hannah is married to Sion and they have three children: Pepper aged nine, Ianto aged four and Sorrell aged two. Win was not always well enough to accompany me in my official duties as Lord- Lieutenant but she was with me at Buckingham Palace in 1995 to see me receive my OBE from Prince Charles and my CBE from the Queen in 2004. However, she gave me wonderful support over the past 48 years, and when I left on official duties she was surely behind me making sure I was turned out properly with no cat hairs on my uniform! Christ be praised for keeping Win alive for so long, through her steely determination to fight on and her wonderful caring doctors and the NHS.
We extend our sympathies to Paul and family and give thanks for Win’s life, Pageill-health. lived so fully despite
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The Magi Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye, In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones, And all their helms of silver hovering side by side, And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more, Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied, The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor. WB Yeats (1865 – 1939) From: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12892/themagi
We often see TS Eliot’s famous poem “Journey of the Magi” at this time of year, which recounts the exhausting and cold journey of the Wise men to see the infant Jesus and their probable apprehension at what they were doing and what they would find. Listen to TS Eliot reading it at: https://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi I think this shorter poem by Yeats is worth a look too! ST
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The third and last hymn which we studied was the very popular ’Teach me my God and King’ written by George Herbert in the seventeenth century. This brought us to consider our dedication to God of the very ordinary things of life, such as cleaning. The whole meaning of this hymn could be summed up in the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 25 verse 40 when Jesus says ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Our study was interspersed with times of group discussion, short meditation periods and the singing of each of the three hymns which we felt, following the study, held much more meaning for each of us. The day finally ended with a service led by the Revd Paul Duckers. We are indeed grateful and thankful to Carol for the obvious effort she had put into the preparation for the day. We all relished the opportunity of studying, discussing and eating lunch together and are looking forward to our Lenten study day on ‘Redemption’ to be led by our Rector, the Revd John Routh, on Saturday 10th March 2018 at Holy Trinity. All are welcome. See you there!
Nina Hollow Church charities for 2018 We have chosen an international charity—Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)—and a local cause, Acorns Children’s Hospice. We will seek donations from congregations at weddings and give from any fundraising at events through the year. MAF is a Christian organization that provides aviation, communications, and learning technology services to more than 1,000 Christian and humanitarian agencies, as well as thousands of isolated missionaries and indigenous villagers in the world's most remote areas. https://www.maf-uk.org/ Established in 1988, Acorns Children’s Hospice Trust is a registered charity offering a network of care for life limited and life threatened babies, children and young people and their families, across the heart of England. https://www.acorns.org.uk Page
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2018 dates coming soon!
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Heritage at the heart‌ hots up! Despite the cold weather, the church heritage project is hotting up on all fronts as various strands of the project begin to bear fruit. First we have the exciting work being undertaken by Secret City Arts, the Birmingham-based artists who have worked with Town Junior School pupils to produce 3 short films relating to the history of our town. We hope to launch these in the New Year with special showings both to the school and to the congregation and wider public. Watch out for dates! The artists will also produce a family trail for visitors to church with online links to the films. This cannot happen without our new website which will allow us to be much more effective in reaching out to all the different parts of our community by highlighting not only the history and heritage but our facilities like the Trinity Centre and all our events. The end of November saw two training courses run for our stewards who will enable the church to open during the week from January. This is really exciting. Some are understandably nervous, but those of us who have recruited and trained them are confident they will be just right in the role, especially as they gain experience over the coming months. If any one reading this would like to know more about becoming a steward please look at the description on the website and see if you think it might suit you. We do need to follow our recruitment processes and you would need to receive training too, but we hope to run a further set of courses in the spring. Date for diaries: Heritage Open Day - Saturday 15th Sept 2018
Updates are on the website as follows: www.htsc.org.uk/heritage-project/
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History Spot
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How old is the church?
This often-asked question is one our stewards are learning to answer. As with so many buildings with roots going back hundreds of years it is not possible to give a definitive answer, and large parts of the building have been re-built or extended at different times. All we can say is that the earliest part of the church is ‘late thirteenth century’ and the evidence is in the brickwork below the East window (altar end), visible only from the outside via steps and grass and close proximity to the drop to Coleshill Street! We then know the tower was added in the fifteenth century, but we have no real idea of the shape or look of the main church area at that time. Our knowledge improves with the considerable amount of work undertaken at the behest of Bishop Vesey in the 1530s, notably the addition of the north aisle (now the inner Vesey aisle) and the south aisle. Galleries have been added, extended, removed and replaced with what seems like indecent haste in some cases. Special galleries segregating boys and girls from each other and the rest of the congregation were erected swiftly in 1828 (after Town School was established in 1825) only to be removed 40 years later. The current north aisle (and gallery) was part of extensive work in the 1870s. In the eighteenth century the disturbance of foundations while constructing new pews led to the collapse of the nave roof and a considerable rebuild. The roof was raised at one point too. Evidence of many of these changes can be seen in little ways in alterations to the stonework. Extensive plans for an extension at the East end of the church in 1891 were never executed. ...and our recent re-ordering has altered a number of features. Our heritage project will endeavour to record all the changes so that we are as accurate as possible in our presentation of the church’s history! Page
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Friends of Holy Trinity Sutton Coldfield Update Now into our fifth season, the Friends of Holy Trinity are on a roll— planning and overseeing a wide range of concerts and theatrical events, and raising significant sums for our church fabric. So far we have raised an average £10,000 each year and look set to achieve this again for 2017-18. Just recently we have enabled a new sound system to be installed in church. This is an improvement on the previous one not just in terms of equipment bought but (I am led to believe!) through better technology to maximise availability of radio frequencies so that there are no ’cut-out’ moments. In the autumn we thrilled to the Night Watch in September and the most amazing young folk-singer Jack Rutter on 25th November. Our next concert will be a very different kind of ensemble again— Fret and Fiddle– on Sat 3rd February 2018
Make sure you join us at 7.30pm Learn more at their website: http://fretandfiddle.co.uk/
If you have missed out on our concerts so far, do sign up as a Friend to ensure you receive regular updates on all our activities. Join us online via www.htsc.org.uk (press the Friends’ symbol on the screen to reach our page) or ring the Trinity Centre on 0121 321 1144 for an application form. Page
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Children’s quiz
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Margaret’s memories from the December 2017 PCC meeting Finance & new treasurer
▪ The deficit on the main fund to the end of Sept is £12,300 against a budget of £18,200. Half of this improvement comes from a legacy, but some is due to improved giving in the last few months. We expect some further improvement in the 4th quarter. ▪
The deficit on the Trinity Centre is £5,800, against a budget of £4,100. 4th quarter lettings are usually good, so we expect to recover this additional shortfall by the year end.
▪ After allowing for restricted & building related funds, we have sufficient cash balances to sustain perhaps 30-36 months of deficits at the current level. So whilst we have time to address our costs and income, it is a high priority. ▪ Stewardship Sunday has brought 31 responses so far on giving, with promising results – but many people have still to give the Stewardship Officer a pledge for 2018. ▪ The appeal for someone to take on the role of Treasurer has borne fruit. Bill Bickerstaff has offered to take it on, with two others offering to give book-keeping support – for which we are very thankful. Committees & working groups
▪ Phase 1 of the re-ordering is complete, subject to some ‘snagging’. The digital organ has arrived and is in the process of being installed. The pipe organ will continue to be used until the end of the year, when it will then be removed. Phase 2 (mainly the tower work) is scheduled for Jan to March 2018. The project has come in on budget and is fully funded. ▪
The church website is being updated, with a substantial section on heritage (funded by the project), as well as improved marketing of our buildings’ availability for hire. We expect the new site to be live in Feb 2018.
▪ The process of appointing a new Music Director continues. We have made arrangements to see us through the immediate & medium-term if necessary. But we also have a promising application which is being progressed. ▪
I reported in the last edition that discussions had begun within the Sutton Coldfield Group as to its future direction. As a result of these discussions the three PCC’s agreed that the ‘Group’ should continue, but generally with meetings of the three incumbents rather than a wider group council.
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The Knit & Natter group have produced enough knitted squares for two blankets, and also a set of knitted characters for a Nativity trail around the local shops.
Holy Trinity Christmas cards, pens and mugs have been produced and continue to be available and can be purchased from church or the Trinity Centre Page
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FROM THE REGISTERS ... Baptisms 29th October Joshua Onatto 19th November Isla Grace Smith Hugo Thomas Swannell 17th December Darcey Jessica Lewis Darcey May Langhorn Sebastian Townsend Isabella Townsend
We welcome these children into new life with God, as part of our church family Marriages 21st October - David Barton & Lindsay Grubham 9th December - Craig Drake & Amy Jones
We wish these couples every blessing in their future together. Funerals 8th November - Felicity Bernadette Harding 10th November - Marguerite Stephens 21st November - Winifred Sabapathy 23rd November - John David Eddy 24th November - Lilian Dorothy Pearson 5th December - Frederick George Wareham
We remember all who have died and ask for God’s comfort to sustain all who are bereaved. From p20
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Plans to have the church open during the week are going forward. The first group of Heritage stewards have been recruited and trained.
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The Sutton Coldfield Deanery is trying a new pattern for confirmation with a Deanery service on Ascension Day 2018, rather than individual services in each church.
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Plans for various services and social events were noted. Details can be found elsewhere in this publication, on the website, on Facebook or in the weekly notices Next meeting—13th March 2018 Page Margaret Le Brocq , PCC Secretary
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2018 Join with other Christians from the Town Centre Churches to pray for our community and the life and witness of each Church. Thursday 18th January 12.30 PM Sutton Coldfield United Reformed Church Friday 19th January 7.30 AM Sutton Coldfield Baptist Church Monday 22nd January 7.30 PM Duke Street Church Tuesday 23rd January 11.00 AM St Peters Church Wednesday 24th January 2.30 PM Holy Trinity Parish Church
And come together for the United Service for all the Churches: Sunday 21st January 6.30 PM Sutton Coldfield Baptist Church
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Trinity Arrangements for 2018 The cost is still 60p per issue, and an annual subscription just £3-50. Please pay annually by cash or cheque to “PCC Holy Trinity Sutton Coldfield”. If you have any queries relating to the magazine, please contact the Trinity Centre in the first instance on 321 1144 or admin@htsc.org.uk
Publication schedule Cover date
Copy deadline
Publication date
March/April
4th February
25th February
May/June
8th April
22nd April
July/Aug
27th May
17th June
Sept/Oct
5th August
19th August
Nov/Dec
7th October
28th October
Jan/Feb 2019
25th November
16th December
Please submit material for the next issue by the deadline above to : Louise Chubb 240 6366
louisejharden@hotmail.com
Bible verse Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
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Thanks to all who supported our Advent and Christmas services and gave in so many ways.
Winter morning
- Shepherd’s Pool Road
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