November 2025
In November, we held a craft and natter session which turned into a bit of a planning meeting. We planned the Christmas Party. Here is the plan.
As it is the 16 days of Activsim from November 25th to December 10th, we will display the red chair in our church and also display it at Galley Common for the joint service.
Sheila kindly volunteered to take Rachel, Lynda and Anna to the Advent Service. Sue will take the banner and mince pies as our contribution towards refreshments.
We will put up the MU Christmas prayer tree as usual when the church is decorated for Christmas.
We have decided that a blue bin for Homeless donations would not work in our Church but we would like to help. Sue will establish what Doorway in Nuneaton need and update the group.
We would like to hold a Deanery Candlemass at Fillongley again on Saturday January 31st at 12pm. We would provide tea and coffee and people would bring their own lunch as usual. I have had a positive response from the Deanery and Heather has provisionally booked the room and the vicar.
We will hold a coffee morning on Saturday January 10th. Any donations will go towards Comfort Bags for GEH Oncology patients. Sheila has been in touch with Aphra. This is what Sheila wrote.
“Hello Aphra, Just to let you know that Hartshill Mothers Union members are going to compile some packs in the new year. We are holding a coffee morning at the Hartshill Community Centre on Saturday 10th January between 10.30 and 12.30 to raise some money to fund the packs. As suggested we will put soft toothbrushes, puzzle books pencils/pen, sensitive hand cream and soft top socks in each pack with a message from MU. We will have one on show at the coffee morning with the list of suggested items needed. Obviously if you have any publicity material we can display it on the day. We could supply some books too with the packs together with hats, scarves and blankets at a future date depending on funds. The coffee morning is held with the support of Holy Trinity Church, Hartshill and are held about every six weeks for the benefit of Church funds and MU charity work. Is it acceptable to keep the books separate so that the person can choose their book? It would also mean we could use the bags we currently have in stock which we use for the Emergency packs for A and E.. It may be possible that you could come to a future MU meeting(held 3rd Wednesday of each month between 2.00-4.00) to receive the packs otherwise our Branch Leader and myself could bring them to the Hospital. I’ll update you as and when the packs are ready which I hope will be late January/ early February at the latest. Regards, Sheila On behalf of Hartshill MU.
This is Aphra’s reply.
Hi Sheila, Thank you so much. This is very generous of you and the Mothers Union. It would be possible to keep the books separate to allow people to choose.
We should be able to produce a flyer about the Comfort Packs. Explaining who it is for and what they look like. We would also be delighted to come in person to a Mothers Union meeting. Its really important to show our thanks for the difference your generosity makes. Best Wishes, Aphra
We decided to use Mothering Sunday as our “Take over Sunday” to celebrate 150 years of Mothers’ Union, as we already almost takeover the service. In addition to posies and refreshments, we will take responsibility for Preaching (Sally), prayers, reading and music (Wendy). Sally will advise the rota team.
October
Thankyou to Trustee Paul Morris his most interesting talk on Coventry MU’s work with the homeless in Coventry Diocese. We donated some big soup and a food processor which had been donated by one of our congregation. Paul took them to Gateway Homeless hostel in Coventry. See October gallery photos.We are planning what we can do to help the homeless in Nuneaton through Doorway.
Thankyou to everyone who knitted chain links for our anti slavery display in church. There is a photo of the display on the gallery page
September 2025
Thank you to Tracy from Attleborough Mothers’ Union for teaching us to make Autumnal decorations. The results were beautiful, so beautiful that we used them in our Harvest display in church. See September gallery photos.
August 2025
At the June MU meeting, it was suggested that we hold another coffee morning on August 9th as a community event. I made the offer to Nick Miles and he said yes. Wendy has booked the conservatory and meeting room from 10am. Wendy has also created a poster which she has put on the church FB page and I have printed and displayed it at church. Anna, Rachel, Sheila, Jan and Heather have said that they are available to help. Nick will put out the board he had made a week in advance of the event. Unfortunately, the board says 10am and the posters say 10.30am but everyone has said they can be there at 10am.
July 2025
By all accounts, the summer party was a great success, I am sorry I missed it. I have added the photo which you posted on our whatsapp group to our gallery page.
June 2025
Thank you to Sue Nightingale for her most interesting talk on Mary's meals. Sue kindly gave us 2 copies of the book "The shed that fed a million children" by founder Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow which I will circulate among MU members and the church congregation.
May 2025
Thank you all for providing the coffee morning on May 10th. We raised £69 for Church funds, £64 in cash and £5 via QR code. I bought some tea and coffee which I put into the Church box. If it is acceptable to you all, I will claim the cost back from MU funds. I did speak to Sally about it first.
I also bought 2 Bible books for older children and 2 low cost New Testaments for Baptism families.
Thank you for your votes on programme ideas. I have produced a programme based on your votes.
Lynda, Heather and I attended Members Day at St Paul's Stockingford.The keynote speakers were Siby and Namkha Moleakunnel. They are missionaries of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) from India and they work with International University students in Coventry, building a culture of relationship and hospitality. It was a most inspiring talk. It was also lovely to enjoy fellowship with other members. There were only about 2 dozen of us there though, so Hartshill were actually well represented!
Lynda and Jan will be bringing games for the games afternoon this month. I'm sorry I can't be there. I hope you have fun.
April 2025
Thank you for all your efforts for the Mothering Sunday service. I think it went very well.
We agreed at the AGM that we would continue to give Bible story books to baptism babies ay Holy Trinity and St Peter's. However, "My Very First Bible Stories" are really only suitable for children up to 4 years of age. I have bought a few books for older children and adults.
March 2025
At our February meeting, I did a short presentation on "Our Mothers' Union Year 2024" in preparation for next month's AGM. There were a few actions for you to complete before the AGM on the final slide of the presentation.
We also came up with a plan for making daffodil posies on Saturday 29th March at 10am in the conservatory.
Wendy is bringing daffodils for 40 posies and ribbon.
Sheila is bringing elastic bands.
Rachel is bringing Rosemary and other foliage.
Sally is bringing foil.
Lynda will supply kitchen roll in advance as she won't be there.
Sue is bringing labels and milk for coffee.
We discussed a few topics with the result that we will add items to the AGM agenda for:
Contributing to the Church
Coffee morning for the community as suggested by Sally
I have added the draft programme to the programme page. Last year's minutes and the draft agenda for this year are on the Publications page.
February 2025
Thank you again to Mandy for her inspiring talk on her Pilgrim's Walk and her update on her women's refuge in Azerbaijan.
I attended the Branch Leader's Zoom Meeting on 16th January and there was a long discussion on the use of Mothers' Union funds. It prompted me to write a few words about this in preparation for the AGM. See document Use of Hartshill Mothers' Union Funds.
I have added the Sunshine Tin record to our Publications page.
We had a brief discussion on Mothering Sunday (30th March) at our January meeting. It was agreed that we would donate daffodil posies again. Note that these can be paid for from our Mothers' Union funds. We will make them at 10am in the conservatory on the day before. We will decide who is bringing what next month. Sally and I offered to make a cake to serve with refreshments after the Mothering Sunday service. I will also ask Nick if he could give duties for that service to MU members where possible and include the Mothers' Union prayer.
January 2025
Congratulations to Anna on her enrolment into Mothers' Union at the Advent Service at Holy Trinity, Coventry. It was a very enjoyable occasion. We also enjoyed the Christmas Party. I've added a coupleof photos to the Gallery page.
Lynda, Heather and I also attended the Commissioning Service at Holy Trinity, Attleborough on 11th January. Again, it was a very enjoyable service and I especially enjoyed singing the Mothers' Union Anthem to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. I think we need to incorporate that into one of our services.
We are looking forward to hearing Mandy speak today on her Pilgrims walk.
In addition, we need to discuss 2 things following refreshments:
1. The money that was put into the sunshine tin last month. Was it in lieu of Christmas cards and so do I need to send it to Mothers' Union?
2. The Candlemas service on 1st February.
Next month, we have no activity planned and so I thought I would prepare and present a 'Branch Leader's Report' to focus our minds for the AGM in March, if that is acceptable to you. Don't forget that we are looking for a new treasurer as Heather wants to step down after having done an excellent job for several years. I will repeat what I said before, I am happy for somebody else to take on the Branch Leader's role. If you would like to take on either of these roles , or if you would like more information, please let me know.