Over the past seven months St Stephen’s Church in Redditch has been regularly present on Ward 12, a dementia ward at the Alexandra Hospital, offering music as a simple but powerful way of meeting people where they are.
By 2030 we plan to renew around 12 churches across the Diocese so that every major population area has at least one larger church with 150 attendees. This film seeks to showcase and celebrate the progress so far.
Gornal and Sedgley parish have been very encouraged recently by a new member of their congregation. Since joining in September Andy has attended every week and within a few months sought to renew and affirm his baptismal vows.
Many people will come into our churches for Christmas services who might not attend at other times of the year. This provides great opportunities including informing your local community of exciting things coming up. Here are some ways in which our renewal churches are planning to do that.
St Stephen’s Church in Redditch has hosted a gathering of Christians in education from across the West Midlands. The event aimed to connect school staff, volunteers and students across the region to find creative ways of working together to share the gospel.
St John’s church in Halesowen welcomed over 90 people on Saturday 15 November for a special Messy Church, which included a film-showing of 'The Snowman' by candlelight, bringing the whole community together!
Members of St Stephen’s Church in Redditch have been sharing hope in different locations across Redditch, offering people free tea and coffee and a chance to talk about faith and about anything which might be worrying them.
Former primary school teacher Emily Holmes has recently joined St Peter’s Bengeworth in Evesham as ‘Children and Families Worker’. Emily is keen to bring more families into church and has a real heart for creating neurodiverse-friendly spaces where all children feel safe and valued.
Former Corporate HR Manager, Grace Wrigglesworth, has been Operations Manager for Kingswinford parish for just over a year and her work is already making a difference to the whole Kingswinford community about which she is so passionate.
It has been just over a year since Fraser Oates was installed as the Renewal Church Leader at St Stephen’s Church in Redditch. The church has received funding as part of our renewal programme and the team are already seeing new people encountering God and growing in faith.
Former CE primary school teacher Louise Hicklin recently started as Children and Families’ Worker at St John the Baptist Church in Halesowen. Thanks to this appointment and the installation of new toilets, St John’s Church have been able to launch their first Messy Church.
At All Saints church in Sedgley on Sunday 21st September, Giles Joiner was installed as Team Vicar in the benefice of Gornal and Sedgley by Bishop Anne Hollinghurst. It was a joyful service, designed to offer a warm welcome to Giles and his family.
Each September, the churches in the Halas Team in Halesowen come together for ‘HalasFest’, a joint service which celebrates the whole team and all they are doing in their communities. This year they were joined by Bishop Martin who was able to dedicate a set of new toilets which have recently been built inside the church.
Our Diocesan Stewardship team are running training courses this autumn for PCCs and churches on how to run a legacy campaign. While it can feel a tricky subject to broach it is vitally important when legacies can make such a difference to churches and the communities they serve.
St John’s Church stepped in to host the Halesowen Uniform Exchange during the school holidays, after the usual venue had become unavailable at short notice.
On the morning of Thursday 21 August St Johns church in Halesowen hosted a special session of what has come to be known as 'Donut Club' to support local year 11s who were collecting their GSCE results.
During the first week of August, Kingswinford parish hosted an exciting iSingPOP holiday club at St Mary’s Church featuring iSingPops catchy worship tunes and dance moves. The club proved hugely popular, with attendance peaking at 53 children.
Since launching as a renewal church, the congregation at St Stephen’s Church in Redditch has already doubled in size and some of the funding they have received from the national church is being used to build a core team which will help support continued growth.
Sue Harding is a baptism rep at St John’s Church in Halesowen, one of our renewal projects. She recently accompanied Team Rector, Hazel Charlton on a baptism visit to a family who had recently arrived from Iran and has supported the Mum in her request to be baptised at the church.
Back in May, St John’s church in Halesowen which is one of our Renewal projects, launched a post GCSE exam chill-out space for year 11s nicknamed 'Donut Club' which was really popular. They're now building on that success by offering a Bibles and Brunch session to the same group.
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5th February 2026