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PARISH

COMPENDIUM

a look back at the year 2014

by those involved in some of the many

groups and activities of our parish

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INTRODUCTION

In preparation for the three AGMs of our churches and for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting I have pleasure in publishing this Compendium of various church (or ‘church-related’) groups that have met and activities that have happened during the past year in the Parish of Ringwood.

I hope this will be received as a welcome addition to the more formal sections of the Annual Report and Accounts which tends to summarise only those activities directly relating to the statutory responsibilities of the PCC and its committees. In this Compendium, on the other hand, we can see something of the variety of the more informal and enjoyable things our church members and their friends get up to on a regular basis which show our church community are able to mix work with pleasure in serving Christ and their neighbour and in ensuring that there is always ‘something for everyone’ in the parish of Ringwood.

I hope many people will be discovering in these brief reports some surprises about just how much is happening (remembering, as I say, that these are just the informal activities of the parish in addition to all the tremendous work of our committees and subcommittees).

So, for example, we hear from our Director of Music about the achievements of our Junior Choir and Ringwood Choral Society both, newly formed in 2014; we have a summary of the various activities of two sections of the Mothers’ Union, and of the Men’s Group, the Bellringers, the fortnightly Bible Study, Messy Church, the Beacons, the ‘Friends’, the Social Committee, the Prayer Group, the Julian Group, the flower arrangers, the Toddler Group, Poulner Players, the Guitar Club, the Wednesday Coffee Morning, Holiday Group, Bring the Family, not forgetting the ecumenical ones as well like Women’s World Day of Prayer, Foodbank, Christian Aid, Carers Group, Bible Society… The list soon becomes quite long so I have had to impose a word limit on contributors, many of whom could, I am sure, have written much more! Thanks to all those who sent me something to print. And thank you also to those whose photographs appear here. Special thanks to Pam Brown who must have brought her camera to nearly every parish occasion during 2014. Pam has kindly supplied us with a stock of images that must now run into thousands, and which will bring back happy memories for many years to come. How glad those who celebrate the next centenary of St John’s in 2114 will be, when they come to do the job Bob Johnson did in 2014 with his splendid display of archive material, that Pam has given us such a comprehensive record of the year just gone – that’s assuming they can figure out how to access the data on what will by then have become the antique technology we know today as the memory stick! There may be those who, now looking at the Compendium, feel their group or activity has been left out and should have been included. Well, I can only apologise to them that I’ve not been able to do the necessary chasing, but now they know what it’s all about I hope they will be among the first to send in something for next year’s edition! May what we read here inform our prayers for one another, help us to celebrate our achievements, and multiply our thanksgivings to God for all the many blessings of our life together in the Parish of Ringwood.

David Miell March 2015

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CONTENTS

BEACONS 3 BELLRINGERS 4 BIBLE SOCIETY ACTION GROUP 5 BIBLE STUDY GROUP 5 BRING THE FAMILY 6 CARERS’ GROUP 7 CHORAL SOCIETY 8 CHRISTIAN AID 9 CHURCH HOLIDAYS 10 COFFEE MORNING 10 FLOWER ARRANGERS 11 FOODBANK 12 FRIENDS OF BISTERNE CHURCH 13 FRIENDS OF RINGWOOD PARISH CHURCH 13 GUITAR CLUB 14 JULIAN MEETING 15 MEN’S GROUP 16 MESSY CHURCH 17 MOTHERS' UNION 18 PARISH CHOIR 20 POULNER PLAYERS 21 ST JOHN’S HALL 22 SOCIAL COMMITTEE 23 TODDLER GROUP 24 WEEKDAY WELCOMERS 25 WOMEN’S WORLD DAY OF PRAYER 25

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BEACONS

The Beacons meet at the Parish Church in term time except on the second Sunday (which has Bring the Family in the afternoon). Typically 6-10 children join.

This year we said farewell (for the second time) to Jean Sillitoe who has been an inspiration to the group for many years.

As our current cohort of children has got older we have increasingly given a free rein to explore, for example it was their idea to make and complete a stained glass window of St Lucy during Advent. We have also run longer thematic projects such as the story of Moses from birth to the Promised Land. We also mesh our teaching with the musical work in the junior choir.

The children are being encouraged towards participating in church life: they ran a stall at the fair and do small tasks like preparing the tables in the Parish Rooms for the Lent Lunch.

As always we are hard-pressed with leaders. We have two leaders and two helpers, the very limit of sustainability. It would be really great to have another couple of each. Even committing to one Sunday per quarter would be advantageous, with the children thriving on different approaches!

Paul Gray Beacons Leader

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BELLRINGERS

The bellringers year started with a change and the appointment of Chris Wright and myself as joint Vice Tower Captains, leaving the post of Tower Captain vacant. We have been running the tower together and as newcomers to the position have been very grateful for the support of our fellow ringers, in particular our secretary Colin Hale and treasurer Liz Davey whose hard work have helped with the smooth running of the tower.

We have had an interesting year with new methods learned and training evenings organized. As well as our usual Wednesday evening practices and Sunday morning ringing we rang for the opening of the town’s Fanfare for Spring in May and opened up the tower to the public for the church Fete. There was an outing to Wiltshire in September to ring for a wedding and at several other churches and we entered a team for a district striking competition in March.

We have gained 2 new ringers in the last year and we now have a small but committed band of 12. We would like to attract some more new ringers in the next year and continue to improve our range of ringing. 2015 is the 300th anniversary of the first peal ever rung so we hope to commemorate this and other special events with some quarter peals and hopefully a full peal.

Emma McNally Tower Vice Captain

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BIBLE SOCIETY ACTION GROUP

We held our Annual Meeting in May and Rev. Sandra Tebbutt was our Speaker. In July, Canon Michael and Sylvia Anderson hosted another Cream Tea event which was well supported and raised £200 for Bible Society. In October we held a Soup, Sweet ‘n Slides Evening with a talk from John Combes raising £150. Also in October, on Bible Sunday, we held a combined Service in the Parish Church raising £55. Our usual four Coffee Mornings in the Parish Rooms were well supported and raised £138.

Over £2000 will have been raised and sent to Bible House. This amount includes money raised from the Bible Society collecting boxes and other donations. Thank you everyone for your continued support during 2014. Forthcoming events are the Annual Meeting in the Parish Rooms on 21st May followed later by a Summer Tea at Cottage Mews.

Joy Snell Secretary

BIBLE STUDY GROUP

We meet on 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month (apart from August) and over the years have studied books from both the Old and New Testaments, currently using the Scripture Union Lifebuilders booklets called "Meeting Jesus". Everyone has their own copy to help them both prepare and follow-up after the meetings.

Open to anyone, people come from Ringwood, Poulner and Hyde and generally we see over 15 people - if we reach 18/20 then we divide into two or three groups, looking at how the Bible passage applies to us today. Informal prayer follows, when we remember the needs of the churches and individuals.

Michael Anderson

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BRING THE FAMILY

Throughout 2014 we held Bring the Family at the parish church on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 4pm. It involves a time of informal and child-friendly worship and usually some craft-based activities, for about 30 minutes, followed by afternoon tea at the back of the church. We are very blessed by a team of volunteers who make cakes and serve the tea.

A key feature of Bring the Family has been its strong connections to what happens in Collective Worship at Ringwood Church of England Infant School. We try to mirror the prayers and songs and candle lighting etc that the schoolchildren know, and their links to the church Calendar, so that we tie in theme-wise with the major Christian festivals and seasons.

As well as attracting children who also attend the Infant School, Beacons, the Toddler Group or Messy Church, we make a particular effort to invite families who are preparing for baptism. This gives them a chance to feel at ease in the church, to experience something appropriate of the regular worshipping life of the church, as well as providing an opportunity for them to discuss, in a relaxed way over tea, aspects of their forthcoming baptism.

As we move into 2015 we are keen to explore new ways in which Bring the Family might develop, particularly in encouraging activities which families can discover in church but continue at home to help children - and indeed the whole family - to grow in faith and discipleship.

Henriet Miell

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CARERS’ GROUP

Ringwood Carers’ Group was set up some ten years ago by Churches Together in Ringwood and District. Its aims are to offer support, information and relaxation to those who care for relatives, friends or neighbours (in a voluntary capacity, rather than paid care workers).

There are over 1100 carers in the Ringwood area. Often “caring” is just drifted into - a husband or wife begins to have problems and needs more looking after, so “the other half” takes the strain (and strain is what it can soon become).

Sometimes the need for caring happens suddenly and shockingly, perhaps through an accident or illness like a stroke. But also, parents have to care for children with problems, or children for parents and so on. The strain is just as great.

Ringwood Carers’ Group meets monthly at the Trinity Centre and offers an opportunity for carers to share their experiences - and discover they are not alone - and to gain valuable information as to what help is available.

The group is now supported by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and one of their outreach support staff is usually able to come to meetings. Sometimes, too, there are outings, and occasionally speakers - either on “useful” subjects like Powers of Attorney or on “fun” subjects.

Members of Churches Together take turns to serve the coffee, and their AGM nominates three members of the committee. Contact Anne Osborne, 476327, or go to www.ringwoodcarers.org.uk

Anne Osborne

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CHORAL SOCIETY

The Ringwood Choral Society, was newly formed in 2014 with over 40 singers under the baton of our Director of Music, Malcolm Harding. Rehearsals began weekly on 10 March, leading up to a performance on 12 April of Stainer’s ‘Crucifixion’.

This concert, which held on the evening before Palm Sunday, was a very fitting way of beginning Holy Week.

A further concert also appropriately planned for the evening before Advent Sunday, featured the Bach Cantata ‘Sleepers, Wake!’. Sadly we were unable to stage this as a public performance owing to a lack of funds which we hope we can address in the forthcoming year. It was however sung as a ‘dress rehearsal’ which enabled the choir (and the odd eavesdropper like myself!) to experience the full magnificence of this sacred music.

David Miell

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CHRISTIAN AID

The main campaign for Christian Aid is Christian Aid Week which in 2014 was 11-17 May. Already in January the Churches Together in Ringwood and District had been thinking about ideas: one was the sponsored parachute jump of the 80 year old Brian Walters. Happily, Brian is still with us! Also we had events throughout Christian Aid Week - noon prayer with soup in the different churches, a Christian Aid information stall at the Wednesday market and a Christian Aid Day at the Parish Church on the last Saturday.

People of our Parish made soup and baked Christian Aid cupcakes and biscuits. The Saturday was a success as lots of people coming to the Ringwood Fanfare for Spring also popped into the Parish Church and enjoyed the Christian Aid “donations only” cream teas in the churchyard. We decided not give out Christian Aid envelopes anymore as there were not enough people to collect them and many found it an unpleasant experience ringing on doorbells in the evening. The envelopes were available in all the churches and at other places in Ringwood.

All together we raised in our parish £1100 during the week and we have raised another £217 towards the Gaza Emergency Appeal in September and in December a further £450 for the Ebola appeal.

It is of course good and joyful that so many people have donated money to such a good course as Christian Aid, and some have given very generously indeed but it is sad having to report that so far no one in our Parish has felt the call to become our Christian Aid representative and would be willing to engage and promote the work of Christian Aid in our churches.

Henriet Miell

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CHURCH HOLIDAYS.

For a number of years we have organised 10-day holidays for people in local churches - and friends from further afield, including Bournemouth and Salisbury. From 30-35 people have visited a variety of Christian sites in this country and abroad, starting from Ringwood. We believe this has been an encouragement to some who otherwise would not go away, and has served to deepen fellowship and knowledge of our faith - as we also have an enjoyable time!

Michael Anderson

COFFEE MORNING

Every Wednesday – which of course is Market Day – a team of willing volunteers serves coffee (and other goodies) in the Parish Rooms. This is now, after many years, well-known and appreciated not only by our regular churchgoers but by many of the people who are just visiting the market.

Here are a few views about why people come:

“I enjoy meeting my friends and it’s a welcome rest from going round the market”.

“It’s a welcoming thing for the church to do”

“people appreciate having somewhere to come in out of the cold”

“I’ve been coming to the market for 50 years! It’s so good to meet my old friends here”

“It’s lovely to meet up with the people who come every week”

“I love to work behind the counter as it’s a service to the church which I can offer

“the buzz of conversation when it’s busy is just great!

David Miell

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FLOWER ARRANGERS

Linda writes:

“I have taken over the job of organiser of the Parish Church flowers from Bobs Guy who had the job for 8 years. She stepped back and has joined the other ladies on the roster having worked very hard at organiser for so many years. Having sold my businesses (2 Florist Shops) I retired to this wonderful part of the country with my family. I so wanted to keep my hand in and give my services having been a florist for 50 years. We have a group of very talented ladies who give their time on a roster bases to supply and arrange flowers every week for the church services.

The beautiful church lends its self to being decorated for different service, i.e. Weddings, Christenings, Remembrance Sunday, and Easter. To enable us to fund this we rely on donations and gifts of flowers from people’s gardens. To show your love of a deceased member of family or loved one, on an anniversary we can dedicate an arrangement for a small donation, which would help us fund and continue to decorate with flowers your Parish Church”.

Eve writes:

“Rhoda and I much enjoyed the challenge of providing flowers for the Centenary celebrations at St John's and the WW1 commemorations on Remembrance Sunday, aided by some very loyal and talented helpers. We tried to vary the colours for each occasion and hope that we provided the church with something to remind them of the occasion and the people over the past 100 years who have worshipped at St John's and also decorated it over that time.”

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FOODBANK

The number of clients coming to the two distribution centres operated by the Ringwood Foodbank continues to increase.

The first anniversary of the opening of the Foodbank at the Wesley Centre in Ringwood occurred in July 2014. During that first year 513 people received emergency food aid of which 183 were children. Up to the end of January 2015, a total of 891 people had been helped by the Foodbank – 527 adults and 354 children. On one day in January this year, vouchers were given out for 28 adults and children, to date the highest number in a single day.

A significant development in June 2014 was the opening of a second distribution centre in the United Reformed Church in Manor Road, Verwood under the management of David Kratzke.

Both distribution centres are open each Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 11.30 am and 1.30 pm and offer support and friendship as well as food aid to individuals and families in crisis.

Like all other Foodbanks, Ringwood and Verwood rely completely on donations both of food and funds, and on a wonderful team of volunteers working in the warehouse in Hangersley and the distribution centres as well as behind the scenes. Permanent collection points for food have been established in four local offices of Goadsby Estate Agents as well as in Ringwood Waitrose.

Our very grateful thanks are due to all those people who have so generously supported us and enabled this important work to continue.

Elizabeth Loving

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FRIENDS OF BISTERNE CHURCH

The ever-popular Bisterne Carols and the various ‘Friends’ events, like the clay pigeon shoot, new in 2014, raise funds throughout the year and attract many people to the church.

FRIENDS OF RINGWOOD PARISH CHURCH

Four fund raising events were held during the year. An April supper and talk by Colin Hobbs about his experiences working in the Sultanate of Oman was followed in September by tea and a talk from Jeremy Houghton-Brown about the life of Anna Sewell, the authoress of Black Beauty, and was followed in November by a very successful lunchtime talk entitled “the History of Surgery” by our own John Smith.

In February our annual season was capped by an outstandingly successful and enjoyable choral concert by Aurum Vocale. The accumulated income for the year including some generous donations totalled £7,800.

We are an independent charity solely to provide funds for the maintenance and improvement of the church building. Our programme for the coming year includes a garden party in May, weather permitting, as well as a similar pattern of enjoyable fund raising events to which all are welcome.

Peter Goodwin Chairman

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GUITAR CLUB

Guitar Club began in June 2014, and has been running every Saturday morning during term-time for half an hour in the Parish Church. Children between 7 and 12 years old are welcome to come along and learn the guitar for free, provided they bring an adult and a guitar with them.

Our small group of regular players can now tune their own guitars (albeit by using some sophisticated electronic gadgetry or mobile phone apps!), play at least half a dozen useful chords quite happily in various sequences, use basic strumming and fingerpicking techniques, play in time with one another, and accompany their own singing of songs like ‘Rejoice in the Lord always’ and ‘You will be done on earth, O Lord”. The aim therefore is not just to make great guitarists out of those who attend but to give them the ability and confidence to accompany worship songs. So watch out for some input from them one Sunday morning soon in a church near you!

David Miell

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JULIAN MEETING

Julian Meetings are named after Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth century mystic. The purpose of such meetings is “to foster the practice and teaching of contemplative prayer within the Christian tradition”, or “waiting on God in the silence”. This might sound a bit daunting to some: what it means in Ringwood is that a small group meets monthly, beginning with a short reading (sometimes from Julian’s own writings), followed by about half-an-hour’s silence, when people may use a phrase from that reading to focus the mind, or just try to sit without thinking at all, listening in the presence of God. A prayer and a gentle piece of music end the silence. Then a cup of tea and chat offer an opportunity for getting to know each other better.

Some who come find it a helpful oasis in busy lives; others are glad of sharing a time of calm; and, just occasionally, “waiting on God in silence” takes on a whole new meaning.

Presently the group meets on the first Tuesday afternoon of each month. This may not be convenient for some - it might be possible to add an evening group again. If you would like to give Julian a try, ask Anne Osborne (476327) to tell you more, and perhaps go to www.julianmeetings.org

Anne Osborne

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MEN’S GROUP

Thanks to Peter Jackson, the Men’s Group has become a ‘fixture’ within the Parish and is enjoyed by between 12 and 20 gentlemen. We meet around 8pm on the 4th Thursday of the month generally in what we call ‘The Upper’ room, but in reality it’s the Forest room, at The Elm Tree Pub.

We have enjoyed talks ranging from Recycling to Walking to Santiago de Compostela, and Skittles and Vittles in the Barn, and enjoyed quizzical puzzles whilst eating breakfast together at Christmas.

It is informal, more for the company than any deep thinking, not that we aren’t challenged by some of the things we hear, but stopping off at the bar for a drink, not necessarily alcoholic, and chat before heading off upstairs means we can catch up with each other.

This year we have speakers from Mission Aviation Fellowship, A Fencing Instructor (not the wooden type) a talk on Myanmar, some more skittles!! And food…. Plus a Street Pastor and a delve into the history of Bournemouth Airport.

Pick up a program in one of the churches and come along.

Terry Roberts

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MESSY CHURCH

Messy Church has proved to be an effective and engaging way of sharing God's good news with families. At St John's it has enabled some thirty families to enjoy a new connection with worship in an era when church attendance has been declining. Many of the families coming to Messy Church include parents who attended a Sunday School in their childhood and who would like to find time to be regular worshippers. And some families are what may be described as “unchurched”. All these people are currently enjoying Messy Church, finding the monthly format a manageable part of their busy lives.

Messy Church has been going now for two years. It could not happen without the dedicated group of people who offer their prayers, time, energy and talents month by month in the wonderful and selfless way that they do. The church owes a great debt of gratitude to these people. I personally wish to thank them all for their hard work and the way they show such continued enthusiasm and

support for Messy Church.

Each month there is a well attended, prayer-filled planning meeting which is usually quite lively! It results in an outline plan of crafts, a story, songs and food based on a theme. In 2014 Messy Church themes included the story of Moses told over three months, Jesus feeding the five thousand, Light, Harvest, Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho, and Going to

Bethlehem at Christmas.

Praise God that month by month we have been able to provide a Messy Church that is filled with fun, is engaging, is inclusive in worship and provides a safe and friendly Christian environment where children and adults are developing relationships within the church. My request is that all of us continue to pray regularly for this vital mission activity in 2015.

Peter Jackson

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MOTHERS' UNION

Evening Group

Our branch has 24 members and we meet on the 1st Tuesday of each month at 7.15pm in the parish rooms. The meetings always start with prayers using our Mothers' union theme plus others appropriate at the time for both worldwide members and those in our parish.

Our meetings are either a speaker of discussions evening and at least 3 times a year we have a communion service plus a couple of social events for members & guests to chat together.

The MU is a worldwide organisation so our prayers & fundraising are for the needs of the Mothers' Union. In our branch we have members who have been on the Family Holiday team and this is something we are very committed to raising funds for as it is a very worthwhile project in the Diocese and gives families a well needed holiday.

We join with the Afternoon MU selling cakes one Wednesday in the summer to send money for overseas work, also together we support the couples to be married at the parish church and meet them during marriage week and pray for them and their future wedding day.

Members also help at Bring the Family, Messy Church, Toddlers & Wednesday coffee as well as being available for church events.

Sue Brinkman Branch Contact Ringwood Evening MU

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MOTHERS' UNION

Afternoon Group

We meet in the parish rooms at 2.30p.m., on the second Friday of each month. One of our past members always insisted that we were the original Ringwood Mothers' Union! We are a small group now, but very sincere and faithful to the aims of the Mothers' Union Worldwide. An interesting range of speakers mostly from the parish give us subjects to think about and discuss. We regularly join with the Evening group to raise money for Mothers' Union projects as well as Parish occasions. Visitors are always welcome!

Dot Adams. Branch Contact Ringwood Afternoon MU

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PARISH CHOIR

An exciting development, new in 2014, is our mixed junior choir consisting of 10 singers age ranging 6-11years. Friday rehearsals are a popular and well attended activity, combining a good mixture of drama, as in their performance of Jonah Man Jazz. We are very grateful to Kay and Paul Gray who keep this group going. As the older children are maturing, at some stage they may need to separate forming a middle choir with recruits from local schools.

The main parish choir, consisting of 14 regular singers, maintains regular choral services each week with regular settings, hymns and psalms and occasional anthems at each office. The repertoire is being extended to new hymns and psalm chants, and a regular anthem has become a new addition. Despite illness, the choir has maintained fully choral services during the year and the rest period during August was both effective and welcome for the members of the choir. Extra singers were brought in for a special full choral evensong featuring Stanford canticles, ‘If you love me’ by Tallis and confidently harmonised Ferial responses. The Junior choir had their first experience in joining with the Seniors for this and the whole enterprise showed promise.

With the arrival over the past year of a couple of new members we look forward to continued enlargement of the choir so that the sound carries well (ideally the choir ought to be twice the size) to make a musical impact in services and give a strong lead to worship.

As the choir has grown in strength, congregational participation has gained confidence but Songs of Praise events would help us with practising hymns, especially as we begin to explore the new hymns book recently acquired for the parish church.

Three deputy organists have helped out at rehearsals and services: Susan Harmer, Celia Cologne and John Birch and we thank them for offering their gifts and their assistance.

Malcolm R Harding Director of Music

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POULNER PLAYERS The year started with a pantomime (1001 Arabian Nights & a Matinée) based on the story of Aladdin complete with a camel, which was a hit with the audiences who responded with great laughter, cheers and boos in their correct places! The May play was Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, a farce set in the 1890s based on the short story by Oscar Wilde, which received excellent reviews and feedback from audiences.

2014 was the centenary of the building of St. John’s who invited Poulner Players, and RMDS, to provide a summer evening of entertainment in the church, followed by a barbeque. Poulner Players provided monologues and extracts from various plays and RMDS gave singing renditions, all from shows and plays staged in the past 100 years.

Our August play, My Boy Jack, was selected in collaboration with St. John’s to commemorate their centenary. It tells the story of Rudyard Kipling’s determination to see that his son was enlisted as an officer into the Army during 1914. This very dramatic and moving play was performed to sellout audiences and we were very pleased to donate £1,200.00 profit from the production to St. John’s as a contribution to the maintenance of the church hall.

During 2014, the Society has raised £2,100.00, which has been shared between our selected charities; Julia’s House, Ringwood Foodbank and The British Legion. This amount was then increased to almost £4,000 through the Barclays Bank Matched Funding Scheme.

It is becoming more difficult to attract new members and there is no longer a guarantee that ticket sales will exceed production costs. However, the enthusiasm and hard work from our members has brought us to our 40th successful year and to celebrate we will be hosting a fun midsummer skittles evening on June 20th to which we are inviting members, families and friends of St. John’s.

Hugh Rossiter Chairman

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ST JOHN’S HALL

St John’s Church Hall continues to serve the community and is in great demand. The hall was well used for St John’s Centenary events and received a generous donation from Poulner Players donated from the profits from ‘My Boy Jack’.

The Hall continues to receive regular income from the Teddy Bear’s pre-school, New Forest School of Dance, Poulner Players and RMDS. Maintenance expenditure includes PRS charges, re-decoration of the hall, boiler repairs, new metal rubbish bin, works to the back of the church hall to address a damp problem and top up of shingle between the church and the hall plus regular maintenance to the boiler, electrics and water heater.

Quotes for a new roof will need to be obtained in Spring. This work will be scheduled in August 2015. We also expect to redecorate the hall walls and ceiling in August.

Bookings and invoices are dealt with through the Church office and Liz Cook is volunteer treasurer for the church hall, thanks are given to Bill Levings for his assistance.

The hall does require a lot of maintenance and there are minor issues that crop up almost every week. Tom Glasson and Mark Loader are very generous with their time and expertise in maintaining the hall in good condition, and our thanks are due to them.

Liz Cook

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SOCIAL COMMITTEE

Although we are only a small committee, Carol Goodwin, Dot Adams and myself, we are able to call on our list of volunteers to help and in 2014 we provided refreshments for six concerts, two lunches and two fairs! The fairs are very popular and enjoyable, and so we are busy in the interval serving numerous welcome cups of tea, coffee and juice, plus a bar-b-q at the Summer Fair and toasted tea cakes and mince pies at the Christmas Fair.

For Mothering Sunday volunteers met in the church rooms to make up the posies for the children to present to their mums at the service the next day. The Pre-Lent and Pre-Advent lunches, though not so well attended as in past years, are a very happy and sociable occasion, and the food is much enjoyed.

Each year for the summer and Christmas fairs we try to have something slightly different. This year the ice cream man and barbecue were both very popular as we had reasonable weather, and at Christmas Santa’s Grotto, decorated with Christmas trees and fairy lights, with the infant school choir children and the others in the audience rushing to visit Santa and collect their presents, while the mums and dads visited the stalls.

The Harvest Supper was a Bring and Share held at St. John’s Church, for the whole parish. As usual there was plenty of food and entertainment by Lerys and Peter Molyneux

The final event was the Christingle Service, when volunteers met in the parish rooms in the morning to make the Christingles. The church was packed for the service, and the children eagerly filled the manger with hay.

Next year there will be all the above events, plus a few more concerts so we will be busy.. Any offers to join the committee would be very welcome. Finally, I would like to thank my other two committee members for their support and giving up their time for the events, and also thank all the other volunteers we can ask to help out.

Dorothy Moore

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TODDLER GROUP

“Church @ The Market Plays” The group started in September 2014 with six families and we now have about ten children on average each week, although if everyone who comes regularly came at once, we would have about 16. We have a mix of people who have had varying degrees of contact with the church in the past – including some who come to Messy Church, some baptism families and some who have had no contact before but who have come through advertising and through friend’s invitations.

Each session of the group begins with a chance to play with a range of toys and an opportunity for craft. Later in the morning we then have a chance for a snack and then we worship using age appropriate songs and have a bible story before ending with a blessing.

Kate and Lerys have been running the group and have some helpers who have been faithfully coming in once a month to lend a listening ear, and bit of moral support – and occasionally doing the washing up as well. It has been really encouraging to see the way in which the group has begun to support each other, welcome new members and meet up together outside of the group. For the future we hope to get a few more people from church helping on a regular basis to continue the links to church and encourage those within the group to take on some of the tasks themselves.

Lerys Campbell

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WEEKDAY WELCOMERS

Visitors drop in to the Parish Church at all times of the day. Only a fraction of those who come through the doors sign the visitors book but in 2014 over 200 visitors were moved to write about how much they appreciate the peace, beauty and the holiness of the place. It is good to be able to welcome them and during the warmer months a team of volunteers has been on hand to make sure they receive a friendly welcome. Volunteers usually give an hour or so once a week or fortnight. Welcoming visitors can be very rewarding – if you would like to help in 2015 or find out more, please let me know.

Anne Osborne

WOMEN’S WORLD DAY OF PRAYER

The 2014 Women’s World Day of Prayer was celebrated at the Salvation Army Hall on 7th March. The service was well attended. The Service had been prepared by the Christian Women of Egypt who reminded us of how the River Nile has played such an important part in the history and in the lives of the people of Egypt. They took as their theme, ‘Streams in the Desert’ and the service was built around the meeting that Jesus had with the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well and his promise of life-giving water. We sang a chorus ‘She that trusts in me, from her deepest heart shall rivers of life flow forth’ and then, bringing us right up to date, we were reminded of how the recent events in Egypt have tested that faith and yet still the women have found the promise to be true. As the service concluded we were fortunate to listen to a very moving address from our Speaker, Lt.Colonel Anwyn Mingay of the Salvation Army. We began the planning for next years’ service on 6th March 2015, in November .

Liz Glasson

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