General News Update

 

The last Sunday of the old year of 2018 was marked with a United Eucharist Service at St. Mary’s with members of the congregations of our three churches coming together to celebrate a fitting end to a year that has been good in parts. Weather wise we had the coldest season of Lent with the “beast from the East” dumping so much snow that many were unable to get to church, followed by the hottest summer for many years. Church attendance can be affected by weather conditions, be it heavy rain or gales or heat, but the church doors are always open to offer worship to the God that loves us.

Back in the Summer, when Bishop June visited the parish, she was concerned by the number of services Jon was taking each Sunday, in the three churches, and he was asked to consider cutting back on the work load he was carrying.

Jon,s response has been to arrange for a retired priest, Canon John Oeppen to take the 9.30am Eucharist at St. Mary’s on the first Sunday of the month, and a similar arrangement is also in place at St. John the Baptist Church in Sully. Our pattern of services will remain as at present, but Jon will have cut back on his work load; let us hope the Bishop will accept this arrangement.

The Building committee has received the plans for the proposed lowering of the Chancel step and floor from our new architects Sutton Davies. The recommended work includes the removal of the blue carpeting at the Altar, the Chancel and the Nave of the church. When inspected, the underlay and the carpeting were soaking wet and rotting, resulting in the historic tiling on the floors being damaged with a build-up of salts on the surface of the tiles. This can be seen on the nave tiles where there is a white layer of salt quite visible. The plan is to restore the Chancel to what the Victorian restorers had in mind, and the tiles are quite decorative and after restoration and cleaning will look more suitable for a building that has a Grade ll* listing. There are only 700 buildings in Wales with this category of heritage listing, so our church is very special in the grand scheme of historical buildings. A Faculty for the work has been submitted to the church authorities and a meeting of the committee, which decides on these matters, has met in the church and we await their decision. In the meantime, a Notice of an Application for a Faculty has been affixed to the church door for the proposed works as described above. Any person wishing to make representations regarding the proposals has 28 days in which to do so. Copies of the relevant plans and documents may be examined at St. Mary’s Church.

Jude Billingham, who looks after our Fair Trade and tradecraft products in the Parish, has reported another good trading year from all the stalls set up during the year. In total, since we first had the products on sale since 2005, we have achieved sales of £41,403.12, a great result and Jude and her team of many people over the years have to be congratulated. Long may it continue.

Our Christmas Charity in 2018 was Shelter Cymru and collections were taken at the special services over the Christmas period. This charity helps people in Wales to get expert advice when in need of housing by providing free independent expert housing advice and they campaign to overcome the barriers that prevent people having a secure home in Wales. The total amount raised came to £1,034.42 and this has been forwarded to the charity. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this wonderful amount from the congregations of St. Mary’s and St Bleddians’s churches.

Dates for your diaries in February…

Faith in Film… the next film will be “Invictus” at the Rectory on Friday 8th February.

The Chattery meets on 14th February at 10.30 am

Annual Fun Quiz in the Community Centre on February 16th at 7.00pm with Ian Moody as Quiz Master. Tickets on sale at £6.00 from Carol or Sandra. No paid bar this year. Bring your own drinks and snacks.

Have a good month Parry Edwards