From the Old to the New Spring 2024

Flowering Cherry. Photo Brian Green

The print/paper version of Tides and Tidings was originally published in 2012, shortly after the arrival of Reverend Ian Shelton who found as he visited former members of the St Giles Congregation, and now housebound, were wanting to hear news, and keep up to date with what was happening at Church, future events and also to share their memories of Rowley past.

The very first of those interviewed for the Magazine was Mrs Joan Allen who lived half way down the very steep hill, Powke Lane by yours truly, i took along notebook, pen and a camera… Joan was thrilled to bits and to be in print!

Copies of the Magazine were circulated by Reverend Ian to all those on his home visits. Reverend Barrie, fleet of foot, still competing in Master-Class Athletics at home and internationally, then took on the role of “Roving Reporter” collecting stories from church members, with new and old and local interest stories. Whilst others researched the stories behind the names on the World War 1 memorials in the churchyard, sent me their stories of local ghosts (oh many of those) and personal memories, even more of those. Upcoming church events were announced in good time…. With baptisms, weddings and funerals… there were stories and colouring pages for the children, quizzes for grown ups, much more besides.

Tides and Tidings first years were very productive. Very few of our senior members of the church family had internet access, or smart phone … there are still some who don’t even these days. Our Sunday Services are now live streamed but for those without the means of accessing there is still a thirst for news. They are also missing some excellent sermons by Reverend John Bridge.

They are also missing Springtime arriving in the Churchyard.

The Flowering Cherry is one of two gifted to us from a descendant of a former Curate-in-Charge, Thomas Garratt 1698.

And Outdoor Church, where Sunday 21st April a group of intrepid explorers were out in the Churchyard learning about the Good Shepherd, looked for birds and made some fat balls for the birds in the gardens back home under the guidance of Emma Cartwright who is working with us as we grow younger.

St Giles Outdoor Church 21st April 2024

Keep me travelling along with you

Tides and Tidings is pleased to report this Springtime St Giles is truly travelling from the old to the new.

New Churchwarden Sarah Gronow elected 14th April 2024

and hopefully Tides and Tidings can keep pace with it all.

Jesus Loves me, this I know.

St Giles Church in its present skin is now 100 years and counting. In 100 years that’s a lot of worship services, a lot of the Lord’s sheep coming in, going out through the door of the sheepfold, the Lord Jesus Christ [John 10. 17] hundreds of baptisms, weddings, funerals … lots of Memories.

Although I am older, I am not a 100 years old but (yet) but have seen lots of those memories being made, have shared laughter and tears, with many of the Lord’s sheep in the years I have passed through the door, in and out – the Lord has blessed my comings in and goings out.

The Stamp Album Around 1930

Earlier in the week I came across this, not, my memory but that of one lady whose memories of Rowley’s Parish Church really do pre-date my own. Once upon a time the little ones attending Sunday School were given a nice new, blank stamp album like this one, every Sunday’s attendance won them a Bible picture stamp to stick in. When full the children were given a prize which they could choose, of either a book or a Bible.

In Mabel’s young years, Rowley’s Sunday School lambs numbered over 100. Nowadays we have no Sunday School as such, but we do have a growing number of little ones coming into our Church Service with parents and a Messy Church, once a month in the Church Hall, where mums, dads and grandparents enjoy getting Messy with crafts, listening to a Bible story and having some tea together.

The thing is all things change, our homes have changed, washing machines weren’t heard of in our bit of the world, definitely the things we put on the table have changed…. the pizzas, loved so much at Messy Church would definitely not have been on the menu, countless things have changed in the past 100 years.

Yet there is one thing which has not changed and that is the truth of this statement

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Hebrews 13:8

I am glad that is so.

These words of the Poem Jesus loves me so, written around 1860 by Anna Bartlett Warner were sung as a hymn by Mabel and Rowley’s Sunday School those long years ago.

Jesus loves me—this I know,
For the Bible tells me so:
Little ones to him belong,—
They are weak, but he is strong.

Jesus loves me—he who died
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let his little child come in.

Jesus loves me—loves me still,
Though I’m very weak and ill;
From his shining throne on high,
Comes to watch me where I lie.

Jesus loves me—he will stay
Close beside me all the way.
Then his little child will take
Up to heaven for his dear sake.

This posted for all those of riper years who may have sat with Mabel Tromans Sunday School back in the 1930s and for those young at heart with recollections of Sunday school since even before then. Would love to hear from you.

An Open Letter from the pews

Thoughtful Bear

The end of the Old Year and the Beginning of the New Year mean letters and cards from people not seen in awhile, news of house moves, of new arrivals to families and sad news. Any year, in any persons life brings its share of of joys and woes; not always in the proportions we would hope for and ask for.

Thoughtful bear arrived in good time for Christmas, the gift of our thoughtful Churchwarden, Yvonne and here he is sitting on top of my Bible with Reading glasses nearby. Thoughtful Bear has been reading letters and cards along with me, and because he is a thoughtful bear has been a very quiet bear, he’s “Been thinking all the more” – as we say in this part of the world. In this part of the world, as in all parts of the world, there is much to think about. I suspect that every person who may read this post has been thoughtful too, thinking through what ever New Year’s Resolutions might be appropriate, and whether to make any or not, as well as planning for this year’s events, here I can hear words from years past that were, constantly, on the lips of a dear friend, “What man proposes, God deposes”

Not every Resolution, or plan, however carefully made may bear the fruit we are hoping for, but at such a time I am thinking, that I can trust the Lord that in His good purpose for my life all will be well and all manner of thing shall be well

“Has anything changed for the better this year (2023)”

I asked, a friend as they say, on Facebook

I was delighted by this reply,

“Yes, many lives have changed for the better through the Grace of God”

When disappointment, sadness, tragedy or just plain old everyday trouble is staring at us like a hard stone wall it s always good for us to remember the Grace of our Lord Jesus who said to his servant Paul and says, if only we will accept it, to all of us

“My Grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness”

2 Corinthians 12.9

And from my pocket cross

Faith makes all things possible, Hope makes all things work, Love makes all things beautiful.

And now (2024) abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 1.13 NKJV

If older persons, who have walked with the Lord Jesus for many years, such as myself, have any advantage over younger friends it is simply this, we know from personal experience that the One who goes before us into this New Year has never and never will leave us or forsake us.

From me and Thoughtful Bear may every good wish, and prayer be given…. with the Lord’s Blessing

Sarah Presents

Sarah Gronow

This is Sarah.

Like so many members of our Church Congregation, Sarah is multi tasking, multi talented.

She is our senior Server and has been a Server at St Giles for many years, even before leaving St Giles to study at college, recently she became a member of the Parochial Church Council taking on another role as Electoral Roll Secretary…. And,

Since the arrival of Emma Cartwright on a mission to build up families and young people within our Church and the Deanery of Warley & Edgebaston, Sarah has become actively engaged with younger people in the brand-new Youth Group for example.

Happy, very happy to report that the little flock of children, young people and families at St Giles is growing, so Sarah may find herself with more tasks on her hands as the months and years go by.

On the 16th September Sarah gave a presentation using slides to illustrate several months of painstaking research into Rowley Past and Present over at our nearby Church Hall which was well attended and raised a goodly sum for the Church Renovation Fund. The presentation spanned the centuries from around 1199 to the near present was thoughtfully researched and given in a warm, friendly way.

This afternoon 19th October Sarah was interviewed on Black Country Radio please follow link to listen in

https://www.blackcountryradio.co.uk/player/black-country-xtra/on-demand/items/the-local-history-show-19th-october/

Tides and Tidings the paper version of our Church Magazine began as a result of a pastoral visit by our then incumbent Revd Ian Shelton, Mrs Joan Allen who like many of her age, at that time had no access to Internet and Social Media as a way of keeping in touch, and sharing on going stories, for older people memories and history grow in importance and so does listening and retelling their own stories … one thing which stands out for me about Sarah’s Presentation were the many in their 70s, 80s, 90s who had coaxed younger family members to bring them along, just hoping, hoping they would meet someone they knew and had lost touch with to have a chat with during the refreshment break to share their own personal memories of a Rowley Village and acquaintances now gone, but recalled with fondness.

Church is a gathering of Christ’s people, St Giles hopefully will continue to grow as we pray, and to seek to listen and share the stories of all Rowley’s people and most of all in the ongoing Gospel Story as it is proclaimed Sunday by Sunday and daily as we go about our business and work as Sarah Gronow does at the Black Country Museum

please follow link. https://bclm.com

Through many tribulations

I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s gotta be a little rain sometime
When you take you gotta give so live and let live or let go
Oh-whoa-whoa-whoa
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden

So the song goes. As we go through life, we do find that the loveliest roses do have thorns, that life has plenty of dark dreary days; that rain can and does make us wet.

When we first set out to follow Jesus I rather suspect that we do expect every day to be sunshine and rather naively that life will be and should be a bed of roses.

Did the Lord Jesus ever promise that?

No he did not.

When the Lord Jesus sent his servant Ananias to baptise the newly converted Saul of Tarsus, The Lord Jesus said,

“Go, for “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name*

And so the Lord did and suffer is what Paul did. But without giving up. If he had the New Testament would be very incomplete and many millions would never have heard, or received for themselves the Good News of God’s Saving Grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.

True, Saul who became Paul once held the coats of those stoning Stephen, but listen to this from Acts 14

Paul Stoned at Lystra

¹⁹ But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. ²⁰ But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹ When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,²² strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. ²³ And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts 14: 19-23

Very, very many times, Paul found himself beaten up, left for dead and worse … but he never, never gave up. Often as in the passage above it was his own fellow countrymen, those of the Jewish faith who were the cause of his pain and conflict. But did Paul ever give up on them? Did he ever once give up praying for them? Did he ever once stop or tire of speaking about the death, resurrection and the eternal life offered in Jesus Name?

Absolutely not!

Some of us have had a kind of bad week this week. It has rained quite a bit on our parade … we hope that those reading this have known the gentle touch of sunshine but if not would encourage our fellow believers not to give up ….

Take Up Your Crossand Follow Jesus

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and takeup his cross daily and follow me.

Luke 9.23

Rockets, Ships and Canaan.

I love the sea. Journeying, travelling seeing new things, learning new things and I keep a kind of ships log. These are notes from an entry dated 17th February, 2010. Which was, so the notes , tell me Ash Wednesday. St Giles was in interregnum and I recall feeling restless at that time. I can’t recall why that should have been, but I was. Not that that interregnum was boring. It was not, it was challenging but somehow it did feel like a long stay in port.

At Holy Communion and the Ashing – Reverend Ray Price said, and, look like a good traveller, I wrote it down;

“In our spiritual journey we need a boost, like the one we get at the beginning of Lent – like a Rocket needs to fire its boosters in order to keep the momentum going or it will fall back to earth under the pull of gravity”

Revd Ray Price 27.Feb.2010

Sometimes Journeys can be interrupted. This famous and far reaching one for the whole of humankind, was. But the Lord didn’t allow it to end in a safe harbour as it were – but gently gave Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham a wake up call and Abraham packed up all that he had and travelled on.

Genesis 11:31 – 12: 1-5

Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.

The Call of Abram

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.

Rockets carrying space probes to spy out Jupiter, Saturn and distant Galaxies need boosters to fire in order to escape gravity and the pull of earth. Abraham needed a wake up call to leave the secure harbour of Haran, and so it is with all who have heard Jesus call, “Come follow me”

“When your ship,

Being moored in harbour, gives the illusion

Of being a house;

When your ship

Begins to put down roots

In the stagnant water by the quay; put out to sea!

Save your boats journeying soul and your own pilgrim soul, cost what it may.

Pilgrim: Dom Helder Camara

Now, friends our little church on the hill is not in stagnant water but think if the building could talk, you would hear her say …. I must be on my way. Got a lot of things to do, a lot of things to say …. I’m Canaan bound.

The Unrefusable Offer

There are invitations and there are offers

Sister Mary Joseph Twitter

There is an invitation and an offer we should not refuse.

It’s not to Mcdonalds or to the chic coffee shop with the luxurious decor it is not priced for  added extras,  frills and froth and choices.

Forgiveness does not come in small  medium and large sizes.

Christ paid one price for all kinds of sin, for all those things great and small which every person does or does not do over a lifetime. The things which trouble us and bring us tears

Jesus Christ is waiting, standing  inviting all who will, to come in and accept forgiveness and  joy which will always taste heavenly, better than the finest roasts and divinest chocolate. Other acceptors of His offer will happily  bear witness to this. Jesus is waiting for you, me, everyone who is troubled in heart and mind to come as little children do and look towards the Green Hill and the Cross where he paid it all

He died that we might be forgiven,
he died to make us good;
that we might go at last to Heaven,
saved by his precious blood.

Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander (1818-1895) from There is a Green Hill Far Away

His Thoughts Said, His Father Said

His thoughts said, ‘My work is not important. Would it matter very much if a floor were left unswept or a room left untidied? Or if I forgot to put flowers for a guest, or omitted some tiny unimportant courtesy? His Father said, ‘Would it have mattered very much if a few people had been left without wine at a feast? But your Lord turned water into wine for them.’ And the son remembered the words ‘Jesus took a towel’

Amy Carmichael His thoughts said, His Father Said

Jesus Took a Towel

Every week someone in every church fellowship picks up a towel, fills a kettle makes tea or coffee, washes up. Somewhere in every home, office, school class or other place of work, always there is someone who thinks that what they do is unimportant. The opening quote from Amy Carmichael says it is very important

In serving God, nothing, not even the smallest thing, we do for others is overlooked by Him, if it is only a cup of cold water we can give to another Jesus tells us that we will in no way lose our reward for even that small thing, we should bear that in mind and do the small things with great courtesy and the smile, and gentleness which says ‘you are welcome’

Jesus has invited, and is welcoming all to the same great ‘feast’ The Bible tells us that at the last meal shared with his beloved friends … it was Jesus Himself who did the unimportant job of washing feet. If that unimportant task was regarded as important as changing water into wine. Who are we to argue.

This is posted with thanks to all who make me feel welcome at St Giles week by week. And in deep gratitude to the Father of Jesus for His gentle patience in showing me continually where my thoughts are not His thoughts and my ways are not His ways. My truest prayer would be that I might become more like Jesus who took up the towel and then took up the Cross and died for me,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55: 8-9

Rowley Villagers~The Way It Used To Be

At the end of June, in this our Centenary Year, Rowley’s Open the Book Team welcomed pupils from Blackheath Primary School into Church to help them make connections with the Rowley of 100 years ago. Letters of appreciation expressed the success of the venture

So here we are, Joyce Walker behind the counter of a local shop, Paul and Isobel Byrne getting ready for a tough day in school, Olwyn Plant getting ready for ‘knocking’ the house over, Emma Cartwright and Gwen Sidaway in their Sunday best, and that’s Paul again … he just had to pop into the shop to buy the loaf of bread, lastly David Walker and Tony Comfort off to the Quarry to chip away at stones for the road.

Rowley Villagers Or The Way It Used To Be

Bayley’s Post Office

Although I wasn’t around, most definitely wasn’t around ,a 100 years ago Bayley’s Post Office was and spending my sixpence at the sweetie counter was the highlight of my early years. All sorts went on in the post office including grinding coffee beans. Turning the steep corner, by the telephone box. walking down the even steeper Springfield Lane took me home to number 68 the ‘cottage’ where I was born. Both the Bayley Brothers were members of St Giles Church both were PCC members. And, both used to call it Rowley Church … not Saint Giles. Everyone knew the Church on the Hill as Rowley Church, with pride because every single body in Rowley contributed in ways small and large to rebuild it following the fire in 1913 which razed it to the ground.

Time does not stand still, outside the boundary wall new houses are being built in more or less exactly where houses remembered in my childhood, were demolished less than 50 years ago.

The Open the Book Team visit our local primary school nearly every week during Term Time, they present the stories from the Bible and share with children the precious news that we have a Father in Heaven who loved the world so much that He sent His Son Jesus to live amongst us as a Villager who worked in a Carpenters Shop.

Rowley and the lives of its people go on, the Church on the Hill reaches up to the sky, although the streets around us, the buildings come and go and of a necessity the present building will also change… but the Home. The Dwelling Place which God has prepared for us will never change…meantime, Open The Book Team, Reverend John and the whole church family have a “foundation” to build on.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ

1 Cor. 10. 11

When?

A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises.

Ecclesiastes 1. 4

Image found on Pexels

When?

Are we ever to late to start over, to begin with the Lord?

Are we to big a failure, hiding the things we wish we had never done, or regretful of the things we should have done?

There is a lot of planning done in a lifetime, a lot of planning in the lifetime of an individual or church family or even a building like St Giles celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Some plans come to successful conclusions, some fail, not every seed that is sown grows into a tree. Some To Do lists could do with a little judicial pruning My own, certainly could.

There is such a thing as being to busy to hear Gods call. Thankfully Abram (Abraham) was not too busy.

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’

Genesis 12.1

And Abraham did. Packed up all and set out for the land of Canaan.

And Abraham was 75 years old.

A new beginning. A fresh start.

The Book of Hosea tells the sorry tale of the faults, backsliding, sins and failures, of not one person but a whole Nation, who in time came to regret very deeply their faults and failings. But would the LORD listen to them, how could they even begin to speak about it to Him. Would he hear?

‘Come, let us return to the LORD; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up.

After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.

Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his appearing is as sure as the dawn;

He will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.l

Hosea 6. 1~3

The Lord is always ready to begin a conversation with us. From time to time we all know his chiding. From time to time all who are His are afraid, there is something very scary about getting down on our knees to say “sorry” But, and this is a Big But, the Lord Jesus has already had that conversation with the Father on our behalf.

What are we waiting for.

Gospel Matthew 9. 18-26

18 While Jesus was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”

9:19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.

9:20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak,

9:21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.”

9:22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” and instantly the woman was made well.

9:23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,

9:24 he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.

9:25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.

9:26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.

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Two women in distress. One healed. The other raised from the dead. The first struggled to get to the Lord in the crowd and had a long history of hiding herself away because of the nature of her illness. From the Lord she could not hide.

For the second, a little girl, life was over before it had begun. And the crowd were making a commotion… Christ told them to go away and they laughed at him. So when the crowd had been put outside Jesus went in, took the little girl by the hand and she got up.

Lord, teach us,

Teach us that no one is considered too old, and no one is considered too big a failure, teach us that in Jesus all are welcome .

Teach us that the Father is always ready to offer His cheek for our kiss.

Teach us that in Jesus we are your adopted children and that you are waiting for our prayerful conversation to begin, or be renewed.

Teach us gentle Lord, encourage us each one to “press on, to know the Lord whose appearing is as sure as the dawn”

You, dearest Saviour and friend are never to late.

You dearest Lord, are waiting to send the crowd away with their laughter… nothing is impossible with you.

You don’t need an audience nor a crowd of onlookers

You work miracles within the quiet heart…

New life is just a breath away. Your breath your Spirit

Teach us that Today is when.

Amen