Community, Parish Council & Village
St Mary’s Church update for 21st June provides listings of services, bible readings and other events and appeals for support for their stall at Heathlands School Fayre.
Heathlands School Fayre – Friday 1 July – Sweets needed!St Mary’s will be running a stall at the school Fayre on Fri 1 July and have decided to offer 2 activities Continue reading “St Mary’s Update – 21st June 2016”
St Mary’s News update – June/July 2016The latest edition of Good News, St Mary’s Parish Magazine is reproduced below (together with additional material from most recent notices), use the links to the various stories & news items.
Issued on 7th March 2016 this lists notices, dates, services and other events for the upcoming fortnight.
As advertised in more detail in the previous news update:
Messy ChurchOur next Messy Church is this Sunday @ 9.30am when the theme will be the events leading up to Easter. There will be something for all ages so everyone is welcome. Don’t forget the pre-Messy Church prayer meeting on Thursday @ 7pm in church.
All the following are at St Mary’s, West Bergholt unless otherwise stated:
Thank you to Kate Penrose and Judith Fletcher for organising this years’ service and to all who baked cakes and served refreshments for the afternoon team beforehand. It was a lovely service and very well attended.
Sunday Bible Readings
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 ChurchLast 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.
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.
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.
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]”].
The following appeal has been issued by the St Mary’s Parochial Church Council.
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
St Mary’s is dependent on regular giving and donations from its members and supporters. We do not receive any external financial support.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Both the Methodist & St Mary’s Churches in the village have issued their latest updates in the run-up to Christmas 2015, the highlights are listed first and other detail dates below that:
PosadaThe churches in West Bergholt and Great Horkesley, as part of their Christmas preparations, are supporting Mary and Joseph on their journey around the villages. This was previously announced on another news update, click to read more.
The pupils from Heathlands School will be decorating Christmas trees with gifts for people at the Night Shelter. The trees will be on display in St Mary’s Church on Friday between 3pm-4pm and on Saturday between 1pm-3pm. Come and vote for your favourite!
Messy ChurchAt St Mary’s, the next Messy Church is on Sunday 13th when will be having a Messy Nativity! There will be something for all ages in this informal and friendly family service.
Carol Singing outside the Co-op – 18th DecemberBoth churches are calling on all to come and join them at the Co-op between 6:15 & 7:30, all voices are welcome and cogffee & mince pies will be available afterwards. This is in aid of Action for Children
This starts at 2:30pm.
This takes place at 6:30pm at the Methodist Church, Chapel Road, this service will also be a focus of the travels of Mary & Joseph on their Posada with their diary being available to view.
Christmas Coffee & Craft – 21st DecemberRunning at the Methodist Church Hall between 10:30 & 12:00, this is an event for (accompanied) children aged 0 -11 to engage in a range of festive crafts. Charge is £2.50 per family.
Starting at 10am help decorate the church for Christmas – all helpers welcome! If you can help, please contact Liz Dixon in the Parish Office tel: 243683 or email [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”].
This is now available at St mary’s Church – all money collected will be donated to the Children’s Society. Please gift aid if you can.
These are taking place in St Mary’s at 10:45am on 13th December and in the Old Church at 10am on 20th December.
These all relate to St Mary’s unless otherwise noted:
St Marys’ Notices – 11th October 2015Sun 18 October – 8.00am BCP Communion at St Mary’s, Langham; 9.30am Morning Worship, St Peter’s, Boxted; 11.15am Morning Praise, St John’s, Great Horkesley
Congratulations to Dorothy Chadborn who was licensed as a Pastoral Assistant yesterday at Chelmsford Cathedral, following her successful completion of the Diocesan Pastoral Care Course. In case you are wondering what is the role of a pastoral assistant, the following is a definition from the Diocesan web site:
“Pastoral Assistants are those in whom the Church has discerned special gifts for ‘pastoral care in the church and wider community. They are not people who know all the answers. But they are men and women of prayer; people who reflect on the dilemmas of modern life in the light of the Bible and Christian tradition, and people who want to communicate to others the message of Christ through caring action”.
Our prayers are with Dorothy as she begins her new role.
Messy Church – well done to Caroline Finlay and the Messy Church Team for another great service this morning on the theme of the Rugby World Cup. Lots of children had fun decorating (and eating!) rugby ball shaped biscuits, making puppets and taking part in a quiz. There will be no Messy Church in November as St Mary’s will be joining in with the Village Remembrance Service at the Orpen Hall on 8 November, so the next Messy Church will be on 13 December, when we will have a Messy Nativity!
Christmas Shoe boxes – thank you to everyone who has signed up to complete a shoe box or donate particular items. Completed shoe boxes need to be brought to church or to the parish office by Sunday 1 November, but if you are donating individual items, please could we have them by Sunday 18 October to allow time for making them up into complete shoe boxes. If you need labels for your boxes, there are a few left in church and in the parish office.
All Saints Day Service – Sunday 1 November @ 9.30am – Rev Paul Norrington will be leading and preaching in a special service on the theme of ‘gifts for the building up of the church’. Mandy will staying with us at the end of the service because she no longer has to rush off to take another service on the first Sunday in the month. Everyone is invited to stay for coffee and cake after the service and there will be a chance to discuss the Mission and Opportunity Fund.
Tools with a Mission – thank you to all those who have already donated their unwanted tools. The tools will be collected on 23 October, so there is still time to bring them to the parish office or Richard Chadborn if you haven’t yet had chance to look through your garage.
Best wishes
Liz Dixon, on behalf of St Mary’s