Are you able to help?
Dear Friends
The Easter Experience has become an established event in our area. Schools who have been before are already keen to come again with new groups of children, and to meet demand we would like to run more sessions than ever before. This is such a great opportunity for children to come into church and experience the Easter story in an engaging interactive way!

BUT it can only continue to happen if people from the churches in Shirley will commit to running an area covering part of the story, on one or more weekdays between 17 – 26 March 2020 at St James’ by the Park. Leaders work mostly in pairs, and the script and activities for each area are already prepared. The children are divided into groups of up to ten and visit each area for about eight minutes.



Please could you lead, or help with, one or more of these area sessions? You need to be available from 9.30 to 12 noon or 1 to 3.30 pm. We realise this may require you to take leave from work or other commitments, but previous volunteers have found it very rewarding. There is a training session planned for March 9th at 7.45 at St James’ by the Park, plus support during the event.
Please let me know by Monday 3rd February if you are interested in being involved, with some idea of when you might be available. You can do this by returning the attached form to me at St James’ by the Park Parish Office, or by sending the same information to ceh@nohumps.me.uk .
Thank you
Catherine Humphrey
On behalf of the CTiS children’s workers

It’s over two and a half years since I had a vision to set up a litter picking group in the Shirley community, and I am encouraged to have seen its development over this time. We have welcomed over 100 different volunteers, half of whom have no other links with the church.
We have had volunteers of all ages, including some families who make it one of their regular monthly activities. It has been fantastic to see over 20 children involved in enthusiastically caring for their environment. On one occasion, a child chose to litter pick instead of attending a friend’s birthday party! The children love using the new dinosaur grabbers funded by a donation.

We have seen that whilst out in our high-vis jackets, people have noticed us at work, and have encouraged us with words of thanks, and at times will stop to talk. Some have even started volunteering.
An important part of our litter picking sessions is building relationships with our volunteers, through talking whilst working, and also at the end spending time together chatting over refreshments, including well-deserved Danish pastries. We also reward the children with badges for their efforts, which they are keen to earn.
We are grateful to Southampton City Council for providing us with some equipment, and with whom we liaise for removal of the rubbish collected; so far that’s 375 black sacks and interesting items.
We have been really encouraged that the amount of rubbish has generally decreased.
We would value your prayers as we continue to develop this community activity and deepen relationships with our volunteers. New volunteers are always welcome, enabling us to expand the areas which we can cover, and together we can make Shirley a cleaner place to enjoy.
Sally Ketteringham

We recently had the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to Israel with a group of people from Highfield and St Michael and All Angels churches led by Revs. Erica Roberts and Sheena Williams.

We spent six nights in Jerusalem visiting nearby places and then travelled up the Jordan valley to stay three nights in the Galilee area. At many of the sites, we paused to read the relevant Bible passage and pray. We also had a variety of worship times and services of communion, and a renewal of baptismal promises at the River Jordan. We were accompanied on our travels by an excellent local guide, from whom we learnt a lot about both Israel’s history, and its current political situation.
It was an exceptional experience to visit this special land. Being in the places where events in the Bible happened brought them to life. The Mount of Olives for example has an amazing view over Jerusalem and it was moving to consider Jesus looking over the city and weeping. Walking around Caperneum and taking a boat on the Sea of Galilee, it was easy to imagine Jesus and the disciples being there in the familiar stories of the gospels. We were also particularly impacted by our visit to the Western wall in Jerusalem where the Jews go to pray. Both of us felt a very strong sense of God’s presence there as we prayed.
On the social side, we enjoyed meeting new people, eating together and having fun floating in the Dead Sea.
It was a spiritually significant visit for both of us, which will have lasting impact as we read the Bible stories afresh with the wonderful pictures in our mind of where they occurred.
John and Jean Fleming

Is this your view of welcoming? It’s not our view either, nor is it God’s. Romans 15:7 tells us that we should ‘welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God’. We have been called into God’s family and as God’s children we are called to receive others into His family too. We might be the first Christian that someone meets when they come into our church building and we can play our part to show something of God’s love to them.
We have welcoming teams at St James by the Park, but we can all be part of making others feel welcome. They might be a new person or someone who has been to church hundreds of times before. A friendly smile and asking some
one how their day is can be a great start. Maybe introducing that person to someone else in the congregation or asking if they want a drink could help them feel a part of God’s family.
We are looking for new volunteers; if you would like to serve with us on the welcoming team, we would love to hear from you.