Mulled Wine to Keep the Bell Ringing

Mulled Wine to Keep the Bell Ringing

The Friends of St Mary’s invite you to join them for mulled wine, mince pies and refreshments at the Old Church. Taking place between 12-2:30pm on Sunday 11th December the event is a social occasion to meet friends, chat and look at the decorated Christmas trees. You could also become a member (or renew your membership) of the Friends of St Mary’s Old Church. All are welcome, no admission charge but donations gratefully received. Any funds raised will go towards the urgently needed repairs discussed in a previous article on this site.

Christmas Cards

The friends are also selling packs of Christmas Cards featuring the Old Church in wintry scenes. Costing £3.50 you can buy the cards from Scissorhands, the Pharmacy or directly from Teresa (241878) or Jane (240167).

November 5, 2016November 25, 2016

Keep the Bell Ringing Appeal for St Mary’s

Heritage of St Mary's Old Church, West Bergholt — The classic view of St Mary’s Old Church – our local heritage

Keep the Bell Ringing

Friends of St Mary’s Old Church have launched the “Keep the Bell Ringing” appeal for £10,000 .

Why £10,000?

Our 1,000-year-old West Bergholt Old Church in Hall Road is now in need of serious care and attention to give it the chance to continue another 1,000 years. Its roof is leaking in 2 places requiring repair of the valley gutter and dormer window, and the belfry needs work on its weather cladding. The estimate of cost for this external work, by the Churches Conservation Trust which now cares for this redundant church, is an eye-watering £127,200. The CCT secured grant funding for most of this sum, but we have to raise the funding shortfall of £10,000 locally.

How you can help

We need your help! The plan is to erect scaffolding and do this specialist work next Spring, so we need to raise the funds quickly to make this happen. To confirm the grant the donors need to see that we can raise our share of the money.

We will ring-fence all donations to this appeal, you could help us in the following ways:

Firstly make a donation either:
- by cheque to the ‘Friends of St Mary’s Old Church” sent to our Treasurer: Rhys Lloyd, 4 Coopers Crescent, West Bergholt, CO6 3SJ.
- by electronic transfer online to a/c no. 65515734, Sort Code 09-92-99. Please indicate who the donation is coming from.
- through justgiving.com: to the “ St. Mary’s Old Church West Bergholt” appeal.
Next, consider coming to the events we are planning this autumn:
- Table Top Sale: Saturday 19th November at the Orpen Hall, 10am-2pm at the Orpen Hall. We will be serving Light lunches and refreshments. Call Gill Poole on 240512 to book a sale table. Entrance 50p.
- Mulled Wine and Mince Pies in the Old Church – Sunday 11th December from 12.00 – 2.30pm. Come and admire the Christmas trees decorated by various village groups, and meet friends and neighbours. This is a free event but donations will be gratefully received, and memberships (just £5), renewed.
Buy our Christmas cards of the Old Church:
- at our events,
- the local shops, or
- from Teresa on 241878 or Jane on 240167. 6 cards for £3.50.
Become a Friend of St Mary’s Old Church or renew your membership (just £5). Phone Rhys or Carrie or visit the church for details.
Make your friends aware of our Appeal; also that the Old Church is open to visitors from 10am – 4pm every day.
Hold a fundraising events or help us with one of ours. To offer help, please contact Jane or Carrie.

Internal works as well

While this external repair work is undertaken we will also carry out urgently needed plastering work and decoration inside the church. This will be funded by the very generous legacy of Mrs Yvonne Henderson which was left specifically for this purpose.

Thank you for reading this appeal. We hope you will be able to help us preserve our lovely ancient church for future generations and keep it available for the use of our village. Please be as generous as you can.

Celebrate Christmas with us

Start your Christmas celebrations this year by coming to the 2016 Candlelight Carol Service at the Old Church on 18th December at 2.30pm.

Contacts

Jane – [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”] or 240167,
Carrie – [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”] or 240466.

January 12, 2016

St Mary’s Appeal & News Update

This update includes a number of items including Messy Church report, notice of a funding appeal, being launched to avoid running into a deficit in coming years, and news of upcoming events.

Messy Church

Last weekend’s Messy Church was great fun and featured a mini pantomime with the story of the Three Wise Men, together with lots of fun activities for children and grown-ups alike! Thank you to our Messy Church team who put so much effort into preparing the services.

The next Messy Church will be on Sunday 14 February.

Upcoming Events

Senior Citizens Lunch – Satrday 16th January

Our next Senior Citizens’ Lunch will be on 16 January @ 12.45pm. If you would like to come or can help with food etc. please contact Murray Harlow on 07989 720256.

Joint 3 Parishes Sunday Worship Service – Sunday 31st January – 9.30am @ St Mary’s, Langham

St Mary’s will be joining folk from the churches from Great Horkesley, Langham & Boxted on Sunday 31 January to worship together at a joint service @ St Mary’s Church in Langham. If you would like a lift, please contact the parish office on 243683.

Wings for Worship Workshop – Saturday 6th February 9.45am-4.00pm @ St Mary’s

St Mary’s is hosting a deanery wide course designed to equip lay people to take a more active role in public worship. The course is open to everyone at St Mary’s as well as other churches in the Colchester area. Please let Dorothy Chadborn have your contact details if you would like to attend: [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”].

Other Diary Dates

At St Mary’s

Tuesday 12 Jan – 11am village Communion
Tuesday 12 Jan – 8pm Home Group @ Richard & Dorothy’s House
Thursday 14 Jan – 9am coffee morning; 8pm PCC meeting
Saturday 16 Jan – 12.45pm Senior Citizens’ Lunch
Sunday 17 Jan – 11.15am Communion service with baptism of Ruby Tomlinson
Thursday 21 Jan – 9am coffee morning; 10am Rachel’s Home Group
Saturday 23 Jan – Marriage Preparation Day in the church hall
Sunday 24 Jan – 9.30am Morning worship
Wednesday 10 Feb – 8pm Ash Wednesday Communion Service
Tuesday 16 Feb – 8pm Lent Group in the church hall, then 23/2, 1/3, 8/3 & 15/3
Sunday 27 Mar – 9.30am Easter Sunday Communion Service led by Geoff Read

Elsewhere

Sunday 17 Jan – 8am & 9.30am Communion, St Mary’s, Langham; 11.15am Morning Praise, St John’s, Great Horkesley
Sunday 24 Jan – 8am HC @ All Saints, 9.30am HC @ Boxted, 11.15am Family service @ All Saints GH

Sunday Bible Readings

Sunday 17 Jan – Luke 4:14-21 – Jesus preaches in Galilee.
Sunday 24 Jan – John 4: 19-29a – Jesus talks to a women at the well.
Sunday 31 Jan – Luke 2:22-40 – Mary & Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple

Funding Appeal

The following appeal has been issued by the St Mary’s Parochial Church Council.

What gives?

St Mary’s is dependent on regular giving and donations from its members and supporters. We do not receive any external financial support and we are spending more than we receive.

Our main expense is the contribution we make to the costs of our Diocese. In recent years, St Mary’s has benefitted from a reduced “parish share” as we have not had our own vicar. This year, we expect to pay our full share. The PCC also wants to support Mandy’s ministry to help grow our church and we are planning to fund a new administrator position to help her focus on her ministry.

This means we expect to spend nearly £10,000 more this year than we received in 2014!

We have approved changes to the use of our reserves which mean we don’t expect to run out of general funds until 2017….but that’s just two years from now!

We will be talking a lot about giving over the next 2 years and explaining how we receive and spend God’s gifts. The PCC wants to encourage an £8,000 increase in annual regular giving by 2017. So, whether you’re a long-time member, new member, village resident or visitor, we are asking you to prayerfully consider your personal financial commitment to the continued, healthy life of this church in West Bergholt.

Thank you.

St Mary the Virgin PCC

Ways to give?

St Mary’s is dependent on regular giving and donations from its members and supporters. We do not receive any external financial support.

Regular giving

Most members of the Church give by standing order.

Gift-Aid allows us to claim back tax already paid on the gift. This means that every £1 gift-aided is worth £1.25 to the Church. If you already give by standing order or want to do so, please consider regularly the amount you give. Standing order forms are available in the Church.

If you are a UK taxpayer, please gift-aid your donation.

Sunday collections and donations

There is a plate, a donations box and white gift aid envelopes in the church for one-off donations. If you pay tax, please complete and sign one of these envelopes and put your donation inside – then we can claim tax back on these gifts too. Please don’t use these envelopes without signing them – it means you haven’t understood what they’re for!

Non-taxpayers

Even if you don’t pay tax, we can claim tax back from the Government! There’s just no need to fill any forms. Please don’t give £50 notes! We cannot claim the tax on a single gift of more than £20.

Other

Perhaps you can help with fund-raising, helping to explain church finances or with book-keeping. Your help does not need to be just financial. For further information, speak to our Treasurer, Jon Wilson, or a member of the PCC.