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New Door

Everyone needs a listener. New Door volunteers have received training in active listening to enable them to come alongside people at a time of need and help to clarify their problems. Maybe you are recently bereaved, or are having family problems. Maybe you are depressed and feel you need to talk to a friend, but don't know who to ask. New Door is a confidential listening service, available by appointment, at its own room in the Oliver Bird Hall, Church Hill Road, Solihull B91 3RQ. On the other side of the door is a warm welcome. Leave a message on 0121 704 2355 and a volunteer will call you.

 

The Bereavement Fellowship Group meets regularly at St Helen’s Church. Meetings are held usually on the fourth Monday afternoon of each month between 1.30 and 3.00pm. We begin with a cup of tea or coffee, and then spend about an hour or so listening and sharing together.  Those who have attended the group so far have found it has helped them to explore and express their feelings and have benefited from sharing with others who are going through a similar experience to their own. We usually end with a short period of reflection which might include music, poetry and/or prayer.

The group is open to all those who have been bereaved during the past year or so.  It aims to provide an opportunity to share the experience of bereavement with others, to reduce the sense of social isolation felt by many bereaved people, and ultimately to give the participants the confidence and encouragement to move on with their lives.

If you have been recently bereaved or if you know of someone in your church family who you think might benefit from this fellowship group, please contact the Parish Office who will be happy to provide you with more information.

 

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Solihull Parish is committed to caring for the pastoral needs of all of God's people, not just those who come to church.   Christian care is particularly relevant at times of personal stress, worry or bereavement.

 

If you need a personal pastoral visit by a member of the clergy team to your home or to a relation or friend's home, or if you need a priest to visit those who are sick in local hospitals, the hospice or in nursing homes, see the details above.  Clergy visits are supplemented by regular visits from lay members of the congregation, some of whom are authorised to administer communion at home. 

 

At a home communion service either a priest or a lay person licensed to administer home communion will visit the person and offer to them the sacrament of the body of Christ in the form of a communion wafer.  There is no celebration of the Eucharist in this service, instead home communion should be seen as a continuation of the celebration already offered in church.  In effect the church service is continued in the communicant’s home.  As such the recipient is being brought into the church’s worship.  A simple service of prayer, confession and thanksgiving is offered, culminating in the visited person receiving the blessed sacrament.

Home communion can be arranged by contacting Sandra Oakes (the verger at St Alphege Church), the Parish Office (0121 705 5350) or contact a priest.

 

See details on the Bereavement Fellowship Group above.

 

See details on New Door above.

 

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