Message from Our Church Wardens for November

Brian Saxon
Church Warden

Eddie Baines
Church Warden

Dear Friends, 

Winter seems to have well and truly arrived and at the recent PCC meeting we discussed
a wide range of seasonal matters, not least preparation for Christmas (it won't have escaped your attention that it will soon be here!). 

Many of you will be doubtless want to help where you can and there are some specific occasions where your help and/or donations will be welcome: 

Christmas fair is on Sunday 4th December:

• We would be grateful for help to set up things in the hall from 5pm on Saturday 3rd December - if you don't normally help with this sort of thing come with a friend and just turn up at the hall and join in, there will be plenty to do.

• Donations of bacon welcome for the cafe , bring a packet with you on the morning


During Winter many older and vulnerable people are reluctant to go outdoors and also are prone to becoming ill so it is timely that our Parish Listeners are now vetted, and are soon to be equipped with identification badges. They are able to start visiting or supporting people so if you are aware of someone from our church family who is ill or needs our support let Jason Robinson know. 

We had a good sweep up of leaves around the church grounds recently and will plan a further clear up when the remainder of the leaves have dropped, so if you fancy some brisk outdoor work followed by a free bacon butty and a brew, watch this space. 
At each PCC we receive reports about our children's and youth groups. I'm sure if you are a parent or grandparent you won't need telling how much our children enjoy coming to Brownies, Cubs or Sunday School for example. 

We are pleased to be able to say that there will two children's Christmas parties for different age groups on 21st December, more to follow. These are great occasions, the kids had a whale of a time last year.  

We had a talk about whether our regular church parade, for our uniformed organisations, would be better placed in the Thursday evening service when most children attend. There are views for both options; if you have an opinion that you would like taken into account let a member of PCC know and they will raise it at the PCC in the New Year. 

That said, we assume that our work with young people in our uniformed organisations and Sunday School will be able to continue and sadly it is not clear that that is the case. Without new volunteers to help there is a real risk that some will cease to be. So please reflect on how much we value this work and also whether you know someone that may be able to help, please talk to friends and family members about whether you could give time to this. 

 If you would like to know a little more, speak to either myself or Brian and we will put you in touch with the right people. 

We will make sure you are kept updated with all dates for Christmas as we get nearer the time. 

While we think about Winter, we also discussed, at the meeting, how we might make more formal links with the Cold Nights charity that support rough sleepers. We have a few ideas but we will of course still welcome donations of food for the charity to distribute. If you would like to know what items are in most demand ask Steve Croft, or check the Cold Nights Facebook page. 

These were the main things we talked about but as usual a copy of the full minutes of the meeting is in the PCC folder at the back of church and if there is anything you would like further information about please ask either one of us, or a member of the PCC. 

With best wishes,

Eddie and Brian.