December 2024

We all enjoyed John's presentation on Mercy Ships. Apologies that it was a bit of a "Comedy of Errors" due to temperature, sunlight and projector screen problems but we got there in the end. I don't want to ever have to move that enormous 'portable' projector screen again and so we will use Heather's if she is able to bring it in future.

Ive updated the plan for our party on December 18th. Note that I've reduced the number of questions for each of you to bring to 5 each.

We discussed lifts for the Advent Service and the agreement was that Wendy would leave home at 9.30am to pick up Jan and Sheila and then drive to my house. Sally will pick up Lynda and Anna.

I will pick up the MU banner on Sunday 1st.

Sheila sent me a text following the meeting saying that she forgot to mention that she had received a thank you from GEH for the toiletry bags. They also suggested that we could knit items to sell. I'll let Sheila tell us more next time we meet.

November 2024

I have added photos of the poppy display and our toiletry collection to the gallery page.

I am looking forward to this months talk by John from Mercy Ships. I invited everyone in the notices at last Sunday's service and so, if you would like to bring anyone else, please do so. We will waive the visitors charge for this month.

We need to plan next month's Christmas party and so I have started the plan. I have printed it off and will bring it to the meeting.

The Advent Service is at Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, on 2nd December at 11am. We can discuss lifts at the November meeting.

October 2024

We had a very successful meeting completing the poppy display and making up toiletry bags for GE hospital.

Special thanks to Rachel for doing the bulk of the work in making the display from the poppies and to Sheila for taking the toiletries to GE hospital. Sheila wrote "I have managed to drop off the twenty bags and left my contact details in case they need any more. I explained to the Volunteer Office worker what they should be used for etc. and attached a label f.a.o. the manager who had the original email."

It was a very enjoyable Deanery Service at Holy Trinity, Attleborough on 24th October at 2pm, led by Revd. Denise and attended by President Karen Morris and Paul. Sadly there were only about a dozen in attendance.

September 19th 2024 update

As Wendy said "what a lovely afternoon yesterday, I think we even managed to achieve something in the end!!"

Rachel kindly agreed to continue stitching on poppies and I have put Sheila's photo of progress so far on the Gallery page. I also recently found a very easy crochet pattern for poppies which I have added to the Projects page.

As agreed, I have notified Nuneaton Deanery that we are unable to host the October Deanery Service due to Heather's absence and I have received sympathetic responses wishing Heather a speedy recovery. I have a Deanery meeting next week and so maybe another branch will take it on.

I am very happy that Anna has decided to join Mothers' Union and Anna will be enrolled at the Diocesan Advent Service at Holy Trinity, Coventry on 2nd December. As usual, we will sort out lifts to the Advent Service closer to the date.

As we no longer have to plan the service at the October meeting, instead we will complete the poppy display and create the toiletry bags for George Eliot, including taking a photo for Link Up. Sheila and Wendy have kindly agreed to buy all of the necessary items and we agreed that we will use the Sunshine tin to pay for them. (On reflection, if you can provide a receipt for our records, I would like to first use the remaining £21.97 from the Presidents' fund so that our future accounts are simpler and so that we have more left in the sunshine tin.)

Please don't forget to periodically check for News updates on the Coventry MU website.

September 2024

In September, we will be working on our Poppy display for Remembrance Day. This activity will be led by Sheila. I think there will probably only be 7 of us for this meeting but it is likely that we will able to do more work on the poppy display at the October meeting. We have more than 300 poppies currently. We have to give a lot of credit to Penny Randle for knitting 240 poppies! Thank you Penny!

I thought we should also have a discussion on Toiletry donations for George Eliot Hospital, since it is some time since we decided to do it and we do have some money available. The sunshine tin contains £46 and the bank account contains £138.87, of which £21.97 is Presidents Challenge money. Here is the information provided by Sheila and Wendy.

Toiletry bags for George Eliot. Information provided by Sheila and Wendy
		each	source
combs	£2.99 for 12	25	amazon
Toothbrushes -5 per pack for £2.00			asda
Asda sensitive soap -4 for £1.35			asda
Toothpaste Colgate standard x £0.99 each			asda
Sealable plastic bags - £3.00 for 20			asda
Pack of 20 30x30cm face flannels £10.99			amazon

Costing on the lower prices and not including flannels and combs twenty bags would cost about £54.00 unless someone can source them cheaper or we discuss possible donations of some items

My suggestion is that we proceed with 20 bags using money from the Mothers' Union account. Sheila, perhaps you could make up the bags and add a "given in love by Hartshill MU" to each one. We could put a bookmark in each one as I have a lot. I would like to take a photo for Link Up.

July 2024

We had a very enjoyable summer party at Sally's beautiful new house. It was lovely to be joined by so many retired members and friends. I put a couple of photos on the Gallery page.

June 2024

We had a very entertaining and soulful "Desert Island Discs" meeting in June. It was entirely spontaneous due to Mandy having to cancel due to an urgent appointment but, as Sally said, it was "God led".

For next month, Sally has kindly agreed to host the party at her new house. I have attached the list of food so far. For those who weren't at the meeting, please just bring what seems appropriate. I am away for a while prior to the party and so please contact Sally if you have any questions. Sally will be inviting the guests we discussed.

April 2024

I was sorry to have missed the April meeting but Sally told me that Lynda gave a most interesting "Lenten Walk" talk. I also missed the Mothering Sunday service but Wendy said that the service went very well and the posies were very well received.

Unfortunately, I am unable to make the May meeting and I know that a few other members won't be there either. I decided to speak to Mandy Williams to see if she could reschedule and she has kindly agreed to move her talk to the June meeting when there will hopefully be more of us in attendance. I've updated the programme and put a craft meeting in May. I thought you could make a start on poppies if you wanted to. Here is the pattern. If you want to do something else though, it's up to you.

Also, just a reminder that there is a Deanery Service at Mancetter on 17th May at 7pm. I return from holiday that day and I shall be going, so if anybody wants a lift, please let me know.

There is also a Diocesan Members Day meeting at St John's Kenilworth on Monday 20th May, 10am to 1pm. If anybody wants to go to that, I shall be going and would be happy to give a lift from my house if you can get to Bedworth. Again, please let me know.

March 2024

Thank you to Guy Willcock from the Leprosy Mission who gave a very interesting and informative talk.

We will be providing posies as is our custom for our Mothering Sunday service on 10th March. Several of us will not be here for the service but we seem to have a reasonable number for the making of the posies. We will meet in the conservatory at 10am on Saturday 9th. If you have any greenery, please bring some. I have some rosemary. Wendy is bringing daffodils, foil and ribbon, I am bringing labels, elastic bands and milk and Sheila is bringing kitchen roll.

Our AGM will be on 27th March at 2pm in the library. Sheila has kindly agreed to be secretary. If anybody would like to be Branch Leader, I would be happy to stand down. I have exceeded the 6 years which is authorised by MSH.

Heather is not available for the AGM but she has kindly provided the accounts for last year. We have since bought some Bible stories for Baptisms and so the balance is now £149.96, of which £48.02 is left from last year's President's Challenge money.

The main objective of the meeting will be to complete the programme for this year. Please bring your ideas. Heather has done an excellent job of completing the Coventry Diocese Mothers' Union speakers list and I have published the topics without speakers names on the Coventry Diocese MU website.

This is the agenda and here are last year's minutes.

February 2024

I think we had quite a useful discussion at our January meeting regarding what we want to do as a Mothers’ Union branch. It should provide useful background information for our AGM in March. Please note that the March meeting is a week later than usual on 27th. Can I have a volunteer for secretary for that meeting please?

Please invite friends who are interested in the talk from Guy Willcock from the Leprosy Mission. It would be good to have a good turnout.

Sally, Lynda, Heather and myself attended the Candlemas service which was held at Heather's Church in Fillongley an Saturday 3rd February. It was lovely!

I chaired the Deanery meeting at Exhall on Monday 5th February and Heather attended as Deanery Treasurer. We came up with a programme for the year which you will find on the covmu.org website under Nuneaton. You will see that we are hosting a Deanery Service in October.

We are planning to make posies for Mothering Sunday as usual.

January 2024

I hope you all enjoyed our Christmas party. Olwyn took a great photo!

Wendy, Lynda and I enjoyed the Advent Service at Coventry Cathedral.

We made quite a few baubles for the Christmas Prayer Tree. I haven't had any feedback on the success or otherwise of the prayer tree. Please let me know if you hear anything.

You can see photos from these events on the Gallery page.

Thank you to those of you who donated to Mothers' Union Christmas Appeal in lieu of Christmas cards. I have paid the £20 which you put into the tin at the party to the Mothers' Union, as agreed with Heather.

Our AGM is not in February, as I stated last month. It is in March because we have a Speaker from the Leprosy Mission in February. I have started a draft programme for next year where you can see the events for the next 3 months.

I am wondering if we should return to meeting in the library next year as we only moved to the conservatory because of the pandemic. In any case, we will meet in the library in January as I want to use the projector and so we can decide then.

We have about £100 of President's Challenge money left and we are supposed to return any we have not spent at the end of the year. I think Karen would be OK with us keeping it if we have plans for it. We only have a few copies of "My very first Bible stories" left for baptism children and so I propose ordering some more when they are back in stock at mueshop. I have asked to be informed when they are back in stock as their price of £2.99 each is much cheaper than anybody else's. If anybody has any other ideas as to what we should spend the money on, please let me know.