In these pages on Stages of The Way you can find;

What Stages of the Way will Give Us

What are we asking of everyone

Looking Ahead

Why do some stay and some leave after Confirmation?

What is the wider church doing to help?

And what is happening here?

The heart of the Stages on the Way

Stages on the Way of Faith: Four Key Texts

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Introduction

As God’s people, we must enable as many as possible to:

• Affirm and renew all that we hold in common in Christ
• Gratefully celebrate, encourage and deepen God’s rich variety here
• Draw in those who feel on the edge of church life

The Church’s calendar from January to May asks us to prepare for and do all these with all God’s people through Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Confirmation

In 2007 we invite you to share as you can in Stages on the Way; a Parish Programmeto help all these.

We believe that Stages on the Way will give us:

• a framework for preparation for Confirmation on May 13th
• a framework for Lent groups and activity
• a framework for nurturing confident discipleship, prayer and giving
• opportunity for affirmation and renewal of our essential oneness in Christ
• room for each congregation – and individual – to develop as they are
• opportunity to draw in those on the edge whom we know – or don’t yet

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What are we asking of everyone?

1. To make the last Sunday of each month (28th January, 25th February, 25th March and 29th April) a day to be in church – when and where you prefer.
2. To pray for growth in God’s faith, love and hope – for ourselves and for all.
3. To share as fully as you are able in the journey God calls us to – and promises to make with us.
4. To explore four key Christian texts – one each month - and make them your own.

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Let’s Look Ahead

Confirmation on Sunday 13 th May is a key date is in the life of our parish.

Our new Bishop of Birmingham comes to Kings Norton for Confirmation at 10.30am in St Nicolas. We want Bishop David’s first visit to be enriching and inspiring for those being confirmed and for us all – and we pray for him.

Many of us have strong memories of our Confirmation classes. We made friends. We learned of God and the Church. And in the end, we were confirmed and became grown-up Church members, sharing fully in its life and in Holy Communion. ……… or, after a short time, we stopped.

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Why do some stay and some leave after Confirmation?

Some world-wide research on this was done in the 1970s.

It found that the vital question was not as we might think “Are the Confirmation candidates ready?” but “Is the local church ready to receive them?”

It did not matter how short, long, deep or wide the preparation was.

The key factor in people staying after receiving Confirmation was the faith, warmth, welcome and maturity in God’s life of the congregation.

Where it shone, people stayed. Where it didn’t, people left. That is even more true today – but not only for those being Confirmed.

It is true for all who meet the church now in so many different ways – and with increasingly different journeys, stories and needs. Some have little experience of church; some have much. Some have deep question and hurts; some have few. Some are seeking; some are just passing through.

The wider church is responding. Can we, by using Stages on the Way?

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