Kings Norton Parish
Part of the Church of England
The Parish Church of St Nicolas, Kings Norton, incorporating Hawkesley Church LEP
The Parish Magazine : January 2025
From The Editor
You can now, if you wish, buy a digital version of the Parish Magazine by clicking here. The printed edition is still available for £1.50 at the Parish Office and in St Nicolas' Church. We have no plans to phase it out. You can even have it delivered to your door. Click here to find out how.
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To whet your appetite, here are this month's Editorial and a glimpse of some of the articles which await you in the current issue. Older copies, published more than three months ago, are available free of charge here.
This month, I complete my 11th year as editor of your parish magazine. If my sums are correct, this will be my 132nd editorial and, of course, my 11th opportunity to wish you a very Happy New Year!
Looking back 10 years at the January 2015 edition, it is interesting to note what has changed and what has not. The Rector, Canon Rob Morris, looked ahead to a complete change of the clergy team by September, to the appearance of the first women bishops, and to a general election in May (‘the least predictable that any can remember’). The Revd Donald Sampson, true as ever to his Methodist principles, urged Christians to social action. At the Toy Service, held on the Patronal Festival in December, parishioners had donated 853 Christmas gifts, 5 hampers, and 178 food items. Pauline Weaver had once again appeared in a onesie, this time as a cow, during the Nativity play. Some things never change. Sixteen funerals had taken place in November. We featured the Nature Reserve, the Sweet Project, the homeless, and a book review. Michael Kennedy had researched the life of Baron Kings Norton. The back page announced that the parish’s churches were ‘alive and growing’.
To all who have contributed so faithfully to these pages over the past decade, my sincere thanks; particularly to those who continue to write so faithfully month after month. However, none of us is getting any younger, and we are in need of fresh talent if your magazine is to continue to thrive. Maybe that talent is yours. If you doubt your potential, or if you fear you may have too little to offer, may I remind you of something the Dalai Lama once said: ‘If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.’
