PARISH MAGAZINE DISTRIBUTION
It is the end of an era for those who have been distributing the magazine and for all who have gone before them. At the end of January there were 40 volunteers delivering approximately 300 copies a month. While a few may be glad to be relieved of the task, many of us will miss the opportunity to make regular contact with those on our list. Thanks go to all those who have been involved over the years. Margareta Visser
WOMEN’S WORLD DAY OF PRAYER
“Let everything that has breath praise God.”
This year in February both the women of the Ashcroft Church and the Mothers’ Union had afternoons looking at slides of the Republic of Cameroon whose Christian women had composed the service.
The service was hosted by Holy Trinity Church, Watermoor. The address was given by Father Leonard of Cirencester Parish Church. He captured the spirit of the Cameroon, leading us all in singing and dancing, praising God, as the people of the Cameroon do, accompanied by home made instruments. We joined in with enthusiasm and the service, attended by about eighty women, moved joyfully to a close.
It had been hoped that Mothers and Toddlers would join us in the opening procession but this was not to be. The morning finished with a welcome cup of coffee and the fellowship was enjoyed by all.
Eileen Yeo. Hon secretary
HOLY TRINITY SACRISTANS
We were sorry to lose Helena and Warwick from our Sacristy team last April but were pleased to welcome Clare and Alan Jones and Fiona and Ray Hawes to join Pat and Jim Harris, Hilary and John Lawrence and Jenny and Terry Hopegood with Jenny preparing the rota and acting as coordinator. Each team is on duty early evening every fifth Saturday, firstly locking the Church. The altar is then prepared with the credence table and lectern for Sunday worship, changing the altar frontals with the seasons and putting out the linen, candlesticks, filled wine and water vessels, service books and lectionary. Back in the Vestry the wafers are counted out, chalices prepared and the Priests vestments laid out (all done in half an hour – not at all onerous).
These are enjoyable tasks undertaken in the peaceful secured Church.
If anyone else would like to join our team they will be very welcome. Please ring Jenny and Terry on 653007 – training will be given and a check list is provided.
PARISH PROPERTY GROUP
The Parish Property Group maintains its aim to ask challenging questions about the extent, nature and efficient use of all the Parish buildings, that they may be effective in the future mission of our Churches in Cirencester. This is of particular importance in view of the present financial constraints.
The Group has met six times during the past year including a brief inspection and report on the Parsonage.
Papers on 1 Coxwell Street and a second report on the Parish Centre have been presented to the PCC.
Don and Terry attended a seminar at St Andrew’s Church Centre in Churchdown titled ‘Building the Future’ and reported back to the PCC.
Recent meetings of the Group have been attended by the PCC Treasurer, in order to prepare and prioritise a tabulated capital works expenditure programme for all the Parish Properties covering the next 5 years.
Terry Hopegood (Chairman), Don Pines and Roy Archer
MID-DAY PRAYERS
Mid-day prayers resumed on Monday, November 30th, St Andrew’s Day 2009 and takes place now at 11.45am every day, as the daily eucharist is at noon.
I am very grateful to all members of the intercession team and it is good that we have been able to enlist new intercessors to the team, namely Mr Alistair Macdonald, Mrs Teresa Davis, Mr John Appleton, The Revd Race Busk, Mr Roy Archer, Mr Derek Barnard and Miss Penny Phillips.
Thank you all very much for taking part in this valuable service of prayer in our Parish Church. Jim Harris
CHRISTIAN AID
Cirencester Christian Aid Group currently has twelve members from St John Baptist, Holy Trinity and other churches in town.
The Group would always welcome new members and at present is particularly looking for someone with an interest in publicity. We see our main function as organising events and fundraising around Christian Aid Week in May. We have held a hunger lunch and talk, a quiz evening and a collection outside the out-of-town Tesco in addition to the usual door-to-door and street collections. The total
amount raised in the Week in Cirencester and the surrounding villages was £9720.
We have also organised events and fundraising at other times. We had a stall outside the Parish Church to coincide with the Climate Change conference in December. In February special collections were made for Christian Aid’s relief work following the earthquake in Haiti.
Pippa Burgon Holy Trinity (pippa.burgon@googlemail.com)
Ann Farrow St John Baptist (ann.farrow@virgin.net)
REVIEW OF THE CIRENCESTER CYBER CAFÉ FOR THE
ANGLICAN CHURCHES (2009-10)
The Cirencester Cyber café was formed in 2005, to give young people a place to ‘hang out’ after school, offering a safe and mature environment while also letting them have fun and allowing them to express themselves. The Cyber café has 5 computers, each with super fast Internet, two 37” flat screen televisions, a 60” projector, a pool table and a number of games consoles.
The Café is at the back of the old memorial hospital (in the rooms facing the back of Tesco), and run by Vic Trykush, an experienced youth worker with more than 15 years experience working with young people and the community. Vic is gratefully supported by 10 volunteers made up of people from various churches around Cirencester and young people who used to attend the Cyber café but now take an active role in running it.
While it may seem as if we have a wide range of things for the young people to do there is always a grey cloud cast over the work of the Cyber café and the future of it.
Funding is made up of donations from Cirencester Churches Together and fundraising; as you can appreciate this is not a reliable source of income specially during the current economic climate. It costs on average £50 every time we open after school (3 – 5pm); this money is for heating, electricity and for the stock needed.
The premises we occupy are provided by the council and while we are very grateful for them allowing us to use it, we are charged full rent a month, despite having charity status and providing a service for the community. 10 volunteers may seem like an able workforce but unfortunately it is not enough.
Recently we have been trialling opening the café for sports events; such as the Champions league football, England football games and the six nations rugby and it has proved a huge success. These openings have actually provided us with a profit which had never happened before. In order to maintain this we need more volunteers, which is where you can help. If you are available to help after school or at a weekend please contact us. If not you can also help by giving a donation and spreading the word. Many thanks and God bless, Joe Harris, Youth Leader
KNITTING GROUP
Another year has passed and Gill and I are still kept busy with the knitting group which meets once a month on the second Tuesday of the month, At the March meeting 25 of us attended. 25 blankets, 27 tops, 17 jumpers, 8 cardigans, 10 hats, 12 pairs of mitts and 1 toy were brought in. They go to a charity called Feed the Children, first to Gloucester and then they are taken to Bristol. Our group has been giving for 21-22 years now. We are always grateful for wool donations if anyone has any. Our meeting starts at 10.30am and lasts until 12 noon and all are welcome.
Gill and Di
CIRENCESTER PARISH HANDBELL RINGERS
Tuesday evenings through term time still sees the Cirencester Parish Handbell Ringers rehearsing. The year’s performances started in January as part of the Social Committee’s “Cirencester’s Got Talent!” when we performed two items: “Dancing Teddy Bear” and “Parade of the Tin Solders”.
In April the National Rally of the Handbell Ringers of Great Britain took place at the Royal Agricultural College. A number of the team helped with the car parking on Friday evening and Saturday morning and five of us took an active part in the sessions on the Saturday including performing in front of many other handbell teams. One of the sessions that we attended was an amazing performance by a team of six from Estonia which included Paul McCartney’s Blackbird. The Estonians had a well deserved standing ovation. The rest of our team joined us, but did not take part, in a concert on the Saturday evening.
Later in April was the first of two appearances at Barclay Court when we performed a medley of musical hall tunes to which the audience sang along. They also had a chance to try and play. Amongst the pieces that we played was a piece especially written to celebrate 150 years since the casting of Big Ben.
The Barton Senior Citizens requested us again this year and we were pleased to visit them in July before our break for the summer. They were also treated to our medley “Sing-along-a-ring” and invited to play the bells themselves.
As a result of our playing at the National Rally we were invited to attend a rally in Wincanton by one of the local handbell music composers. We performed “Moon River” which was described in the report of the rally as played “hauntingly”!
December was particularly busy with our second performance of the year at Barclay Court and a return, after a while, to another venue in Cirencester – Hunters Care Home. The second half of our performance was seasonal and finished with the singing and playing of Christmas carols. We also played our Christmas programme at Ashley House.
We were invited to play at Orchard House in Bishops Cleeve where we entertained the residents with a mixture of non-Christmassy and Christmas music and carols.
Prior to the Holy Trinity Carol Service we played a selection of Christmas music.
For further information and bookings please contact me.
Peter Cottey (01285 654038)
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