Welcome to the Gornal and Sedgley Team Ministry website.

Our parish includes All Saints' Church in Sedgley, St Andrew's in The Straits and St Peter's in Upper Gornal.

We've been a 'team ministry' since 2005 - team-working allows us to provide spiritual and pastoral care to a wide area including Upper Gornal, the Straits and Sedgley.

If you need to talk to someone, and/or request them to pray for you, here is our team - please call or email them:

(PLEASE NOTE: For enquiries concerning Baptisms, Marriages, and arranging for 'Away Banns' to be read for marriages outside this Parish, contact Gail Griffiths our Administration Assistant, 01902 540289, email: admin@allsaintssedgley.co.uk )

Revd Catherine Mitchell

Acting Team Rector
Tel: 01902 677897
Email: vicargornalandsedgley@allsaintssedgley.co.uk

Canon Jan Humphries, Licensed Lay Minister

Tel: 01902 661275

Mobile: 07954 314102

janhumphries@hotmail.co.uk

ALL SAINTS CHRISTMAS FAIR - SATURDAY 7th DECEMBER - 10.30am-2pm - We are going ahead with our Christmas Fair this year, but more help is needed. Can anyone make pickles, chutneys or jam? Also, chocolate and bottles are needed for the bottle tombola and the chocolate tombola stalls. Thank you. Mary Zielonka 01902 672541

SAFEGUARDING

The Parish of Gornal and Sedgley takes the issue of safeguarding very seriously, ensuring that children and young people as well as adults are kept safe whilst in our care is an integral part of our church life.

If you, or someone you know feels unsafe, here is a list of people who can help:

Barbara Baker
Parish Safeguarding Officer
Tel 01902 882847
Email: safeguarding@allsaintssedgley.co.uk

Catherine Mitchell
Acting Team Rector
Tel. 01902 677897
Email vicargornalandsedgley@allsaintssedgley.co.uk

Diocesan Safeguarding Team
Email: safeguardingadvice@cofe-worcester.org.uk

Dudley Adult & Children’s Social Care
Tel 03005 550055 ( out of hours 03005 558574)
If you have concerns that someone is at risk of immediate harm, contact the police on 999.

SAFE SPACES

An independent service supporting survivors of church-related abuse.

Launched in September 2020, this service offers support to survivors of church-related abuse, whether or not a report has been made.

This independent service is run by the charity Victim Support and funded by the Church of England, the Catholic Church in England and the Church of Wales.

It is free to access via telephone, email or web-chat
Tel: 0300 303 1056 (answerphone is available)
email: safespaces@victimsupport.org.uk
Web-chat is available via the Safe Spaces website: https://www.safespacesenglandandwales.org.uk

The latest news, events and forthcoming services are included in our weekly notice sheets.

THIS IS WHERE YOU WILL FIND UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION:

Please note that this website does not now have a regular Web Editor. While we will endeavour to update the weekly Notice Sheet, it may not always be possible to do so until a new Web Editor is appointed:

Notice Sheet Sunday 3rd November 2024

The Beacon Magazine - September 2024 issue

Follow this link to the September 2024 Beacon magazine

ALL SAINTS' WHO'S WHO

All Saints' Who's Who updated October 2022

PATTERN OF SERVICES ACROSS THE PARISH OF GORNAL AND SEDGLEY

(updated March 2023)

ST. PETER'S 180 YEARS ANNIVERSARY

Come and join us at St Peter's, as we celebrate our 180 years' anniversary, and our patronal service on 30th June at 10am. This is a Team Service. We are having a bring and share lunch after the service. Everyone is welcome.

The original church is now closed and the service will take place in the adjoining hall.

A reminder of the church interior can be found here:

Tour of St Peter's Church by Martin Jones, last updated in 2015.

ASCENSION DAY 2024

Ascension Day Thursday May 9th 2024 dawned a gorgeous, bright sunny morning and we met at 8am outside the front door of All Saints' Church to sing the traditional Ascension Day Hymn, 'Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise' after which we entered the church for the service of Holy Communion.

As is All Saints' tradition, we then shared breakfast at Sandsy's Cafe, by the Post Office.

Many thanks to Revd Catherine for a beautiful service.

More photos of Ascension Day 2024

(Apologies if these are initially displayed the wrong way up...it's a software issue and we will ask the web company Church Edit to correct this!)

WEB EDITOR

After 14 years looking after the parish website, Martin Jones is stepping down from the role. If you are interested in exploring this role for the parish, please contact Revd Catherine.

I would like to express my thanks to Martin for all his support for the website over these many years.

Revd Catherine.

FAREWELL TO REVD CALUM AND FAMILY

On Sunday 7th April 2024 at the 11.00am service at All Saints', we said goodbye to Revd Calum Burke. He has spent the past year with us as Curate attached to Top Church Dudley, on an extended placement with the Gornal and Sedgley Team.

Here are a few pictures of Calum's farewell service:

Parish farewell to Revd Calum and family 7/4/24

Revd Calum will be Interim Priest in Charge in the Benefice of Thornbury, Woodhall with Waterloo in the Bradford Episcopal area.

St James The Great, Pudsey; and St. Margaret's, Thornbury

There are two churches in the benefice, St Margaret’s and St James.

Calum was licensed for his new role by the Bishop of Bradford on Thursday 16th May 2024 at 7:00pm at St James Church, Galloway Lane, Pudsey, LS28 8RA.

DEFIBRILLATOR INSTALLED AT ST ANDREW'S

A defibrillator has been installed on the wall outside St Andrew‘s Church on the Straits. This life-saving piece of equipment is now be readily accessible for anyone to use in the case of an emergency.

Defibrillators are devices that apply an electric charge or current to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat. If the heart rhythm stops due to cardiac arrest, a defibrillator may help it start beating again.

Thank you to Canon Jan and Revd Catherine for facilitating this great new initiative.

ALL SAINTS' GOOD FRIDAY CRAFT WORKSHOP

Barbara Price writes:

'The Workshop went very well today, with 39 children registering for the activities.'

Good Friday 2024 Craft Workshop pictures

ALL SAINTS' NEW CHURCH SIGN

Liz and Chris Williams, who arranged for All Saints' sign in Vicar Street to be brought up to date.

You may have noticed a new sign in the grounds of All Saints', which has been organised by Chris and Liz Williams.

The supplier is the Church Noticeboard Company; the new sign has two compartments allowing large posters to be displayed. They are lockable, and posters are attached inside using magnetic pins.

The adhesive vinyl lettering can be changed when required with the minimum of fuss.

It's a clean, bright and attractive improvement to the frontage of the church. Thank you so much to Liz and Chris for your work.

PALM SUNDAY 2024

The Blessing of the Palms inside the Church Hall.

On Palm Sunday we met in the church hall at 10.45am for the Blessing of the Palms, and our Palm Sunday Procession across the road to Church. Our palm fronds represented the palms laid down on the road before Christ as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

More images from the Palm Sunday Palm Blessing and Procession 2024.

Stained Glass at All Saints'

John Anderson has kindly compiled and printed an excellent report about the many beautiful stained glass windows at All Saints', based on research by experts Dan Humphries Stained Glass Ltd. Occasionally we receive enquiries from external researchers about them - and the eminent companies that fabricated them - as they are all of great historical interest, so it's very useful to have what we've found out about them available in a concise publication of this sort. There is a printed version available in church - a pdf version can be viewed here:

Stained Glass All Saints'

'CHURCH' EMAILS - PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS

Recently members of our congregations have been receiving emails purporting to be from Revd Catherine Mitchell and addressed to them personally, asking for 'assistance online'.

These do not bear Revd Catherine's real email address, and are almost certainly intended to defraud the recipient if replied to.

The names of other members of the congregation may also have been used falsely.

*RECENTLY OUR CHURCHWARDEN KEITH TOMLINSON'S EMAIL HAS BEEN CLONED

Please be vigilant - and certainly never reply to any unusual or unexpected communications or click on any links without checking their validity.

PARISH INFORMATION LEAFLET

Click here to see leaflet with info about Gornal and Sedgley Team Ministry activities

GENERAL INFORMATION

BEREAVEMENT HUB

The hub meets once a month in the Community Room at the rear of the Church Hall.

If you know someone affected by loss and grief who would appreciate a safe supportive environment to meet others, please encourage them to contact our parish office on 01902 540289 to book a place. We pray this will be a blessing to our community. Everyone in need is welcome!

ARRANGEMENTS FOR BAPTISMS AND WEDDINGS

There have been some recent changes in the information we provide about arrangements regarding Baptisms and Weddings...

BAPTISM BOOKINGS

For enquiries concerning Baptisms, please contact Gail Griffiths our Administration Assistant, 01902 540289, email: admin@allsaintssedgley.co.uk

DISCUSSING OR BOOKING A WEDDING

To discuss the Reading of the Banns, or to make any enquiries about arranging a wedding, please contact the Parish Office, from 10.00am-12.30pm, Monday to Friday:

admin@allsaintssedgley.co.uk

Phone number: 01902 540289

Please do not contact the Acting Team Rector directly.

GIVING TO ALL SAINTS' CHURCH

If you have a smartphone, use your camera to access the 'Give a Little' website, then press the arrow to 'thyg.uk' to choose how much you wish to contribute: