What does friendship mean to you? How far are you prepared to go for the sake of a friend?
Jesus didn’t want people simply to be followers, he called them his friends.
He used the gift of friendship to reach out to so many people who were struggling.
Jesus even laid down his life for his friends, for us.
This is the beginning of the 70th Christian Aid Week, stretching our understanding of friendship to include people who we hardly know!

We cant do house to house collections, but can you help with an online donation or one in church?

What makes you feel fully alive? Cold water swimming? A walk in the countryside? A hug? We believe that God longs for us to be fully alive! Jesus said he had come that we might have abundant life, life in all its fullness! An early Bishop in the church, Irenaeus, said that “The Glory of God is a human being, fully alive.” Today we explore how we can know that kind of living!

Have you been enjoying the gambolling lambs in the fields? This week we celebrate Lambing Sunday, to connect us with the agricultural world around us and some deep themes in our own Christian story. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who searches for the lost sheep. Jesus is the Lamb of God who lays down his life for us. Join us for this special service in church or online.
Next week we will be sending out our Big Church Survey to ask your opinions about how our worship has been for you online, to help us plan going forwards. Do look out for it and have your say!

Would you believe it? If you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes?
Do you tend to go along with the crowd, or are you determined to go your own way?
They called Thomas the Doubter, but I call him the Questioner!
In the end he came to a deeper understanding of who Jesus really is!
This Sunday it is about “Loving the Questions!”
Come and see for yourself!

This year is going to be different – we’re going to be outside!
Easter Service in the Churchyard for the first time anyone can remember!
Well, its been a year we will never forget! So it nakes sense!
More than ever we need this Easter Day, we need the hope of freedom, we need to be unlocked and released. We need to find our confidence, our courage again. We want to live again. So why not come and join us at 10.30am on Sunday? Bring a picnic chair if you have one. We will be wearing our masks but we are allowed to sing! See you there.

Have you ever been on a retreat? Most people would struggle to get away for that kind of deep reflection. But this week we begin Holy Week, and many of us will be sharing a retreat in daily life, using the Holy Week booklet as a basis. You can get your copy by clicking here. We will come together each evening at 7.30pm online or in church. It all starts with Palm Sunday! This week the clocks spring forwards and we lose an hour in bed!

Jesus first words were often “Do not be afraid” but even he was fearful of the path to Good Friday and the cross. But the deepest truth in Jesus was not fear but love. He could face the road ahead because he knew he was held in God’s love, and that love will win through. In the fears we face may we know that we too are deeply loved. May our deepest truth be love!

They say it takes a village to raise a child! Mothering Sunday can feel a tough time for many, but we all have a role in helping to nurture and support children and young people. This pandemic has been especially hard for the young, and we have not been able to be a “village” we have been separated. Parents have been pushed to the limit with home schooling and work. Today is a good day to reach out and reconnect.

Should we be getting back to the Ten Commandments? Do they work? We have been living with lots of Covid Commandments for the past year, rules that we have broadly kept for fear of infection. As we look forward to the post vaccine Promised Land, what will need to change? What kind of approach will we need to help us to know how to live? We are live in Church at St Andrew’s, and online, do come and join us!

None of us would have chosen to live like we have over the past year. This has been a costly path of separation, of lockdown, of furlough. For some it has meant lost jobs, missed medical appointments, no schooling, for others it has meant loneliness and a struggle to remain well. Jesus spoke of us needing to “take up our cross” the unchosen path of struggle and suffering. In following Jesus we learn to let go of our lives, to let go in faith, knowing we will be caught up in God’s love. The only way to find life is to let it go!

There is something about a rainbow that touches our hearts! For Noah it was a sign of God’s promise, to sustain all life on earth, a sign of hope.
Jesus also came with a message of hope – “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near”, but we need to change our ways.
In the face of climate change we need to rediscover the relationship with all living things, repent of our damaging ways, and embrace the covenant of God.

We are still in a national lockdown, which has placed many restrictions on the way we live our lives and the way our church operates. This doesn't mean everything has to completely stop.

Having a new website and the way in which technology allows us to reach you without you having to leave your home, means we can still deliver a lot of the content and courses which are very important to you. Starting on 24th February we have the 'Lent Bible Study Course' beginning. For detailed information on this course and many other things we still have available for you, download your copy of the newsletter by clicking here.

New Treasurer Des Rogers is taking up his role from today. You can contact Des on desrogers1@gmail.com Tel 07771745073.

We have also introduced a new card reader into church and on this website and over £400 was donated at Christmas! Your kind donations really do make such a huge difference to St. Andrew's Church and we thank immensely to all who kindly donated.

St. Andrew's Church Shifnal are pleased to announce the arrival of their new website, just in time for Christmas.

"It has been an exciting challenge getting the website ready on time, with over 40 pages and collating various amounts of information from lots of different people the pressure really was on. But I've loved every minute of the challenge, and I'm happy to say Christmas is definitely not cancelled", commented our website designer Gareth Payton who manages our online presence.

The previous website was created in 2011 and has stood the test of time and delivered very well. However, with many people consuming today's content on various devices such as mobile phones and tablets, our website needed a new responsive design. In basic terms that just means that no matter what device you load the website in, it will automatically resize to fit the screen of that device perfectly. Do let us know what you think about the fresh design!