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Posts Tagged ‘Inner city’

Happy in Sandwell

Posted in Black Country, Inner city, Sandwell, tagged , , , , , , , on 1 October, 2009| 11 Comments »

Happy is our new lodger. He’s also the Vicar’s new apprentice (aka the ministry trainee). Yesterday he went to a training event about our area. It was laid on by diocesan missioners with input from speakers from the local council and other taxpayer funded bodies.

We live in Sandwell, one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. Happy came back with lots of bumf and today I thought I’d just share a few choice statistics on our area:

  • 8% of people in our borough are on Jobseekers Allowance – twice the national average.
  • House prices round here are below the national average by 35%.
  • There is not a single bookshop in the borough (though this does not include the W H Smith in our high street – I guess they mean independent booksellers or Waterstones and the like).
  • There is no cinema in the borough.
  • Most of the famous people from the area appear to be comedians (although the folk at the session kept on talking about Bishop Asbury, who neither Happy nor we had heard of before, but Wikipedia has enlightened me).
This place needs Jesus

Where we are

Happy came back with a lovely poster with photos of all the local councillors, including the three who represent the ward we live in. Sadly, when I contacted them by email more than a fortnight ago to ask about an issue that has been bugging me for a while, I received no acknowledgement and no reply. And not a single councillor showed up to a controversial meeting about a new local housing development last night. So I don’t think I’ll be putting the poster up any time soon.

But if you would like to start a business with an eager workforce, or commute to Birmingham City Centre in 15 minutes, you like to laugh a lot, you’re happy to use a library or The Book Depository for reading matter, you don’t mind watching your films on dvd a little after release, you want to buy a cheap house and get involved a local church which wants to make a difference, this is the place to be.

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Dealing with Drugs

Posted in Inner city, tagged , , , , , , on 16 September, 2009| Leave a Comment »

So the kids are back at school and everyone is busy catching up on the local gossip. The neighbourhood drug dealers are a popular topic of conversation. Chattychap thinks that some of the teenagers in the area are being recruited to make the actual drug deliveries. This distances the dealers from the deals. And sadly some of the local kids don’t have very clear moral frameworks and would find the idea of making easy money very appealing.

Everyone knows who the dealers are, even the local police (I had a chat with them the other day about it). But to nick them, they need to catch them with the stuff, or in the act. This is extremely tricky, with a single PC and two PCSOs covering an area a good bit larger than our parish, which is home to nearly 3,000 souls.

The PCSOs told me that the best way that local people can help to get rid of these guys is to note any deals or activity that we see happening and pool them together to give to the police. But mostly it feels like nothing is being done, even though everyone knows what’s going on.

I saw the dealers just the other day, hanging about with some other guys at the top of our street. I couldn’t see a drug deal, but they were just standing around looking suspicious, maybe waiting for a deal or a delivery. Can the police use that? I doubt it.

Recently an elderly lady in our congregation was badly hurt when she was mugged very near to the church. The thief stole her handbag in broad daylight. Most people agree that it was probably a drug addict. We need to rid our neighbourhood of the dealers, but it seems an almost impossible task. I believe in the transforming power of the gospel, but we need to know people first to tell them of the forgiveness Jesus can give and how he can change lives. And I’m a little nervous about introducing myself.

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What scares you?

Posted in Inner city, tagged , , , , , on 29 July, 2009| 5 Comments »

What should we fear?

Some folk think that it must be scary living in our parish, with its deprivation, drug dealers and people like Gone. Last week I found some great quotes on what we should really be afraid of, selected by étrangère from Tim Chester’s recent book ‘The Ordinary Hero‘. I’ve been thinking I should buy it to read this holiday, but slightly fearing to aswell.

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Regular Vicarage Meals on offer

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 24 July, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Vicarage cuisine is on offer for those keen to serve

Cooking lessons are also possible

Together with a room in the Vicarage, tons of interesting ministry experience in our parish and a place on the Midlands Ministry Training Course. See the Vicar’s post and check out his blog to find out who’d be training you.

We’d love to have someone join us who’s passionate about Jesus and keen to share that passion with folk in our deprived multi-cultural parish.

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More on Cheap Inner City Shopping

Posted in Fun, Inner city, tagged , , , , , , , on 9 June, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Buy it round the corner, not at the supermarket

Buy it round the corner, not at the supermarket

Jessica Hagy has lots of clever graphs at her Indexed site. She posted this one today, but it’s not accurate for our parish.

Our milk costs between 99p and £1.20 for 4 pints at local shops. It’s £1.53 at Tesco’s. We use a lot of milk in our house.

I love living here.

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A (Rather Shallow but Still Good) Reason to Live in the Inner City

Posted in Fun, Inner city, tagged , , , on 5 June, 2009| 1 Comment »

There are lots, of course – the closeness of community, the terrific range of ethnic cooking ingredients available locally, the way that people are real, the great public transport, the wonderful places to eat bacon butties and drink strong tea…

But today it is the value of the shopping experience that I’m chuffed about. I know it’s shallow, but I was very pleased to get these summer strappies yesterday afternoon.


They cost £2. That’s a quid each. I’m tempted to become Imelda Marcos. I now think it would be perfectly possible, even on a Vicar’s stipend.

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Pigeons – a rant

Posted in Inner city, tagged , , , , , , on 28 January, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The other morning I got really aerated about pigeon food. As I’ve mentioned before, people put food out to feed the birds in our local shopping precinct. Unfortunately, they overcater, so this was the sight that greeted me on the school run. This food will either turn to mush for folk to slip over on or will be snaffled by greedy rats.

Overcatering for the pigeons

Overcatering for the pigeons

It’s such a nice touch the way that the food is laid out beneath the sign which reads ‘THE FEEDING OF PIGEONS IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED’.

Pigeons not interested in the food

Pigeons not interested in the food

And here is a shot of pigeons taking no notice of the food but making a lot of noise for the occupants of the house opposite.

Then yesterday morning, on my way back from my mums’ coffee morning I noticed a not-so-delightful pile of torn chapattis and chips, also intended for hungry birds, just by the church hall entrance. This encourages the massive rats that we sometimes see lurking around the infants playground.

I felt like roaring at the bird feeders rather than the birds themselves. But I couldn’t see them so instead I’ve just ranted at the internet. I feel a bit better.

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The Beautiful City

Posted in Inner city, tagged , , , , , on 7 January, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Beautiful City 1

Beautiful City 1

The Curate remarked that my artistic shot of a beer can might give you the wrong impression of the lovely place where we live. Empty beer cans are a fact of life here, where excess alcohol is the cause of many troubles. But you mustn’t think that discarded beer cans are all there is to life in the inner city.

The picture above was taken in our local country park on New Year’s Day. We can get there in ten minutes in our car and you can see our church spire from the top of this hill, if you look in the right direction. About twenty of us from church climbed the hill and enjoyed seeing our breath in front of us and feeling our legs beneath us as we walked off some Christmas calories.

Beautiful City 2

Beautiful City 2

This shot I took last night from my kitchen window as the light faded on a bright and cold snowy day. This magnificent tree lifts my heart when I do the washing up (so that’s nearly every day).

There is much beauty where we live, as well as brokenness. And not just in the scenery.

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A Snowy View

Posted in Alcohol, Inner city, tagged , , , , , on 6 January, 2009| 1 Comment »

Here’s a snap I took in the snow on the way home from our mum’s coffee morning today.

Snowy Days in the Inner City

Snowy Days in the Inner City

You may not be able to read the strapline across the pale blue at the top of the can: ‘Enjoy Extra Cold’. I guess the drinker who deposited this with the fag end was probably extra cold. Not sure about the enjoyment part in this weather though.

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An inner city advantage

Posted in Inner city, School, tagged , , , , , , on 22 December, 2008| Leave a Comment »

In the last three weeks of term the Curate and I attended three school Christmas productions. The first one we attended was performed by the morning nursery.

The Engineer was dressed as an elf and had to work in Santa’s workshop, rather gruesomely using a saw on the teddy bear he was carrying. The nursery children enthusiastically sang along to Bob the Builder’s ‘Can we fix it? Yes we can!’ as the Engineer and his friends ratherly sullenly appeared on the stage area. The Engineer looked like he felt it very much beneath his dignity to perform for us.

The Engineer looked about as grumpy as this elf

This elf looks cheerier than the Engineer did

As well as Santa and the elves, we had a snowman dance, a Christmas tree dance and and a full nativity scene, complete with a laughing angel and Mary broadly smiling from ear to ear. The children sang ‘Happy Happy Happy Birthday to the Baby Jesus’ and the nursery teacher reminded us that the Baby Jesus is the most important thing about Christmas. There were children of many different colours, nationalities and religions in the show and everyone there was very pleased with the performance.

My friend Sunshine, who lives in a beautiful university town, has a daughter who is also in a nativity play this Christmas. Her school, however, thought it should send an apology and explanation, I guess because they were concerned that parents would object. They reminded the parents that the nativity play happens only rarely, and asked for the parents to indulge them this year.

What a blessing to have kids in a church school in a happy city, where many cultures are able to celebrate Christmas without anybody feeling the need to apologise.

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