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Published on 02 October 2026

SAFEGUARDING

If you have concerns regarding the welfare of any Child or Vulnerable Adult click here to view our Safeguarding policy and contacts, or in an emergency, phone 999

Friday Coffee Mornings

All are welcome for Coffee/Tea and Cake in The Lounge

Every Friday 11am – 1pm

Berevement and Friendship Group
If you’ve suffered a bereavement or are feeling isolated and lonely come and meet other who know how you are feeling.  Every Monday, 1:30 to 3:30 pm in The Lounge.

Book Club.
The next meeting of the Book Club is on Wednesday 7th October.  The book for September is “Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Törzs.  If you love reading and would like to join us over a cup of tea/coffee you are warmly invited to our next meeting.

Guest Preachers
We are delighted to be welcoming a series of guest preachers at our 10am Parish mass during the season of Autumn and Advent.  See Notice above.

Dates for your Diary

October 4th will be St. Matthew’s Harvest Festival, followed by a Bring and Share lunch

On Saturday 10th October there will be a Parish Planning Day in the church hall from 11am-2pm. This is an opportunity to discuss the future of St Matthew’s together and to think and pray about possible plans. All church members are invited to come along.

Early notice of a new date for St. Matthews Christmas Fair.  This year it will be moving to Saturday 5th December

This Week’s Services

For details of the Scripture readings see here.

Sunday 4th October to Sunday 11th October

Forthcoming Events

Parish Giving Scheme

Thank you very much to members of our congregation who give regularly to enable our mission and ministry to continue.  If you have not already done so, please consider joining our Parish Giving Scheme and make a regular donation by direct debit.  This is very easy to do online at

www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/perry-beeches-st-matthew-birmingham

Or, see our Giving page for further details.

Other Giving Schemes

To make a one-off donation to the Church, a donation to our Sponsored Child or our work in Malawi use the appropriate link below.

Message from the Vicar

Dear friends,

Harvest Festival is an occasion that always triggers a fair amount of nostalgia for me. One of my earliest memories of primary school is sitting on the assembly hall floor during a wet autumn morning, singing ‘We Plough the Fields and Scatter’. Likewise, every year the whole school would walk to the local parish church for a Harvest Festival service, each of us armed with tins of beans, packets of rice, and other items of non-perishable food.

Food banks as we know them today didn’t really exist back then. My school used to donate to a drop-in centre called The Green Hut, which operated out of a church in Swindon. However, since the financial crisis of 2008, the need for emergency food provision has sky-rocketed. Here in Birmingham, there is a substantial and growing need. The Birmingham City-Wide Food Aid Count recorded 22,367 visits to food banks and other food-aid projects during its 2025 survey period, a 64% increase on previous figures. Perry Barr accounted for 12% of food-aid projects, the second-highest proportion of any ward in the city.

Harvest Festival, therefore, is not just about childhood nostalgia, or even about giving thanks for our food – as important as this is, the agricultural process can seem rather remote in urban areas such as our own. However, what is not remote is the scale of the need on our doorstep. Harvest is a reminder of our Christian duty to share what we have with those who are in need. In the Old Testament, God commands his people to ‘open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land’ (Deuteronomy 15:11). And in the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that when we feed the hungry, we are serving him too.

May this Harvest Festival inspire us not only to give thanks for the food we have received, but to keep our hands and our hearts open to our neighbours in need.

With my prayers,
Father George

Morning Prayer will now be held in the Chapel every Thursday and Friday at 9.15am. All are welcome to join in this short act of worship.

A reminder that we welcome contributions towards the cost of flowers, perhaps in memory of a loved one. Please place any donations in the pot on the table.  

Contributions of food for the FOODBANK are always welcome. Please give as generously as you can and place any items in the basket by the door.

Our church relies on the generosity of visitors and worshippers. If you would like to make a contribution to the ministry and mission of St Matthew’s but don’t have any cash, there is a contactless card reader on the table by the front door.

Please put your request for prayers during the intercessions on the sheet on the table.

If you could offer a lift to someone to Church, please let us know.

We are buying a memorial stone to commemorate Fr Michael Westlake’s time at St. Matthew’s. Contribution towards the cost of this would be gratefully received

This Week’s Notices

Welcome to

St. Matthew’s Church

Perry Beeches

Aldridge Road/Birdbrook Road
Perry Beeches
Birmingham B44 8RB

Phone 07467 832601

e’mail: Administrator @stmatthewsperrybeeches.org.uk

Sunday School every Sunday at 10am

We will continue our usual weekly e’mail news sheet to help everyone keep in touch with activities at St. Matthews. This weeks news sheet is here. You can also keep in touch with our Facebook page.

Want to hire a room?

St. Matthews has several rooms available, Click here for details

We have a card reader on the desk by the main entrance, Simply enter the amount you want to donate and Tap and Go.

Got

No

Cash

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