The latest edition of Transform Magazine will be reaching parishes this month with a special focus on big public events happening this year. In his introduction, Bishop David encourages us to make the most of the Diamond Jubilee:

"Queen Elizabeth II, reaches the 60th Anniversary of her reign this year. One of our best evangelists, as any who watch and hear her Christmas broadcasts knows, the Queen has asked us to use a special grace at meals during the Diamond Jubilee. This is a great opportunity to eat together and celebrate, with our neighbours, the witness and service of an outstanding fellow-Christian."

A new website launched last month offers Church of England churches, the opportunity to highlight the wide range of community and parish events being organised for the Queen’s Jubilee.

jubileenearyou.com will showcase the diversity of events planned for the Diamond Jubilee weekend at the beginning of June.

Building on the success of a similar website the Church of England ran at Christmas, any one of its 16,000 churches can add details of celebration events to the existing website achurchnearyou.org. Suitable tagged these entries are automatically migrated to the jubilee site.

“jubileenearyou.org builds on the popularity of a similar Christmas site which received 21,000 visits during December,” says Nick Clarke, from the Church House Communications Office. “The new site offers anyone details of the nearest Jubilee celebrations to them.”

Parishes throughout England will either be running their own events or supporting other community events including the Big Lunch celebrations.

The extended Jubilee holiday culminates with the National Service of Thanksgiving to Celebrate Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee at St Paul’s Cathedral on the morning of Tuesday 5th June. The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and Members of The Royal Family, will attend service will be conducted by the Dean of St Paul’s, The Very Reverend Dr David Ison, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will preach. A special prayer for the Diamond Jubilee will be included in the service.

If you'd like to share your ideas in a more local forum you can do so at either:

facebook.com/brumcofe

bcofeshare.wordpress.com

Let's plan well and show our communities that we know how to celebrate in style! Or, if you're not doing anything locally, why not join others in celebrating at Birmingham Cathedral on Sunday 3 June from 11am for a special service followed by a Big Lunch.

Diamond Jubilee New Testament a ‘bestseller’ as more than 400,000 ordered by UK Churches as gift for the nation
 
Since going on sale in the first week of April, more than 400,000 copies of the Diamond Jubilee New Testament have been ordered by churches of all denominations around the UK and other countries too – more than double the expected amount. Due to the success of the project, the deadline for ordering has been extended to 14th May at 12 noon, for delivery by 30th May. Copies can be ordered via email from lynn.robinson@biblica.com or by calling 028 9073 5875.  For further information, click here.