I have a date for your diary. Saturday 15th May 2010, we will be sharing in a ‘Building Vision’ Day at King Edward VI Grammar School, Handsworth. There will be a number of Key not speakers, workshops and seminars on a wide range of themes, a market place of people who work alongside us in serving communities and sharing faith, worship and prayer. The day is being structures in such a away that you can come for the day or just a part of it. If you are interested there is further information on our website. Take this as a personal invitation, and if you think you have something to add to such a day talk to the District office.

I guess by then the other date will be known and may have come and gone. I speak of the General election. I would like to make three observations about that day. I was listening to the radio (something that happen as a background to much of my life) and the conversation was about our parliamentary system of government. We should all remember, particularly those who lead our political parties, that Members of Parliament are elected by constituents to represent their constituency. For this to happen requires that the electorate vote. I am always encouraged to vote when I remember how our sisters and brothers queued to vote in South Africa when given the vote. It is a responsibility. My third point has to do with exercising that responsibility well. The Methodist Church working with the United Reform Church and the Baptist Church has produces a resource pack ‘Faith in politics’, which is designed to help us to move critically through our examination of the candidates before we cast our vote. It would make good material for mealtime or house group conversations, and is available on the Methodist Church Web site. Let us all think, pray and vote.

I spent some time earlier today looking at the papers for the Methodist Council, which meets in between the Methodist Conference to carry forward the work of our church. Some of the papers reminded me that we live within a worldwide family of Methodist Churches and Uniting/United Churches.  Like all families our relationships need to be given care. Keeping informed about the various stories that are unfolding, which ask questions of our part in the family and challenge our commitment to the family. This Summer we will invite representatives of this family to come and talk together to help us in our understanding. We will have chance to meet some of these visitors, but actually we have such visitors with us through the year. Some of these visitors come to reside in our Methodist International Houses, Wesley and Asbury, while they are studying here in Birmingham, others come to study at the Queen’s Foundation as part of the Selly Oak Centre for Mission studies. It might be that we could find ways of hearing their stories.

Finally, we are in the process of revising our web-site, I hope that this will continue to be a feature of the new site, but if you have any ideas about what we should include we would be glad to hear from you.

Yours in love,

Bill Anderson.

Flowers

Amesbury Road in the Snow

The Garden at 36 Amesbury Road