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Published on 18 September 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 8th October.  The book for September is “Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Törzs.  f 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 20th September to Sunday 27th September

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,

On Sunday we will celebrate St Matthew’s Day, our patronal festival. This offers us an opportunity to remember who exactly St Matthew was – the real, flesh-and-blood historical figure who lived in Judea two thousand years ago, and who now has thousands of churches around the world named after him.

You may recall that Matthew was a tax collector before accepting the call to follow Jesus, but to our modern ears that phrase ‘tax collector’ fails to adequately capture how reviled a man like Matthew would have been. He was not the equivalent of an HMRC bureaucrat, but more like a loan shark working on behalf of a corrupt and oppressive regime, overcharging the people and lining his own pockets in the process. Tax collectors were social outcasts, reviled by the Romans as socially inferior servants of the Empire and rejected by their fellow Jews as traitors and collaborators. No self-respecting Jew would have been friends with a tax collector.

And yet, Jesus did befriend tax collectors, and even asked one to be among his band of 12 disciples. He saw them as people, and did not define them by their role within Roman society. In doing so, he set the bar high for his Church to be a truly inclusive community that welcomes all.

The 20th Century Anglican priest Percy Dearmer once stated his belief that ‘all the apostles would have been excluded from the Church of England… with the possible exception of Judas!’ This may be overly cynical, but we should ask ourselves how we respond to those whom society would rather reject. Do we turn them away, or do we welcome them, just as Jesus welcomed the outcast and the stranger? After all, we are all equally in need of God’s grace and healing, whoever we are.

With my prayers,
Father George

Some Photos from Last Weeks Confirmation can be found here

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

Click on a poster to see it full size