THE CAMPAIGN FOR CIRENCESTER PARISH CHURCH
THE TOWN HALL PROJECT
Now that the interior works to the church are largely complete, the Campaign has really focused on the Town Hall, or South Porch. This time last year, I wrote that we had submitted a Round 1 Development bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund and would be awaiting its outcome in summer 2009. I’m glad to say that we were successful in that bid, which produced a grant of £97,500 towards the work on the Town Hall.
Since then, we have spent the majority of our time in the Campaign Office on development of the second stage of the HLF bid for a further £250,000 to deliver the project. Having submitted it early this year, we now wait until the end of June for the result. The last year has brought good results from trust applications despite many of these bodies having diminished funds to distribute due to the economic slump. Grants from the Sainsbury Trusts, the Schroder Charitable Trust, Gloucestershire Environmental Trust, the National Council for the Care of Churches, Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust and several others have improved project funds by £122,000. We are grateful to them all and will continue with applications in the months to come. We are delighted with the response which met our appeal for people to plan their own fundraising events to swell Campaign coffers. These have included tea parties, concerts and talks and we will soon add a series of garden openings throughout the summer. News of dates and of other events will be given in our regular Campaign newsletters, the parish magazine (The Market Place) and Pew Sheet. We also launch a Campaign website soon at www.cirencesterchurchappeal.co.uk.
Our target to fund work on the South Porch is £1.5 million, providing stabilisation of areas of the building under immediate threat, cleaning, removal of corrosive deposits and preservation and renewal of eroded stonework and statuary. The project will be aided by work we do alongside it to explain and interpret the building for the public. The project also offers a valuable opportunity to begin discussion on the long-term use of the interior of the building.
If we are successful with the HLF bid, we will be in a very good position to achieve the total required but a last push is needed and we do ask for active support and participation to reach it. In the office, we continue to work hard to ensure that the much-needed work to the Town Hall can go ahead in the late summer of 2010.
We’re always glad to hear from anyone who has a fundraising idea they would like to carry out. Thanks are due to many Campaign supporters and helpers; our board members, those who have partnered us in the HLF bid, people planning and running their own fundraising events. Sadly there is not space to list them here, but I would like to mention, and give our thanks for, the unstinting help and generosity of Campaign Chairman Kevin Ronaldson.
Please contact Alison Giles, Ailsa O’Connor or Laura Franco on 01285 656206 or e-mail cirencestercampaign@tiscali.co.uk. We will be happy to answer questions on any aspect of the project. Alison Giles Campaign Director
TRINITY KIDS
Trinity Kids meets on Sundays at 10 am in the hall during term time. Children of all ages are welcome. Once a month our teenagers join us. After Trinity Kids, we go into church in time for a blessing, share our news with the congregation, and join in the final hymn with worship flags. There is usually a supervised area in church for pre-school children with small toys, books and crafts. This past year we have welcomed many new families to the Holy Trinity family. The first Sunday of the month is usually ‘All Age’ worship in the church. In January we enjoyed a family Epiphany party. We acted out the story of the Three Wise Men, played games and Father Howard, with his guitar, led us in singing. Our last family event was a ‘Donkey party’ following the All Age service on Palm Sunday.
Our Teenagers have just learnt about Fairtrade and run a very successful sale at coffee during the Fairtrade weeks.
The Trinity Kids Leaders, joined by other volunteers from the parish, have run two most enjoyable Messy Church events for Harvest and Epiphany.
Dawn Miller
PARISH CENTRE ACTION GROUP
The Committee has met three times during the year.
A gas safety valve with associated ventilation works has been incorporated in the Kitchen. A new lower cost servicing contract for the air conditioning, cooker and hot water boiler has been implemented and the fourth input air grille connected in the Abbey room. Parts of the buildings electrical installation are still cause for concern with potentially unsafe wiring in the roof space and to two emergency light fittings in the Lobbies. Following detailed research of the building records the original electrical contractor has been pursued since May last year over the emergency lighting (only accepting responsibility after invoking the NICEIC complaints procedure).
Proposals for replacement, simple to control, brighter lighting in the Abbey room and its rewiring in the roof space have been obtained.
A second report on the building fabric and service installations was prepared by Terry Hopegood in December 2009. It was presented to and approved by the January 2010 PCAG meeting then circulated to the February PCC meeting for consideration at the April meeting. This report covers the above and a number of other as yet unresolved problems. In March 2010 the Abbey room air conditioning unit required a new compressor at a cost of £2,031.58.
The building will always be expensive for the Parish to maintain and operate.
The accounts for the year show the income from lettings is 20% less than forecast with expenditure £4,900.00 in excess of income. This is partly accounted for by the increased use for the very successful and well attended Parish events and courses because their fees and income are not included in the accounts!
Terry Hopegood
WORKING WITH, AND SAFEGUARDING
CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE, AND VULNERABLE ADULTS
Those of us who work with children and young people, and vulnerable adults, are aware of the need to be CRB checked*. However this is only part of the process which extends to safeguarding our Church community and is the concern of all Church members. Statements declaring the whole Church’s responsibility to care for and safeguard those in its community are displayed in all our three churches. These are backed by written policies and guidelines promoting good practice, and have been accepted and approved by the PCC. These statements are available for all to see in the Parish Office and on the Parish and Diocesan websites**. The following are extracts.
Safeguarding Children & Young People.
As members of this parish we recognise our responsibility to aim for the highest possible standards of child care and to protect our children from harm. We therefore seek to provide a caring, warm and consistent environment in which children and young people can develop and grow, and in which they can learn in safety. We require all those who work with children and young people within our church communities to uphold relationships of the utmost integrity, truthfulness and trustworthiness.
Safeguarding Adults
As members of this Parish we commit ourselves to the respectful pastoral care and safeguarding of all adults to whom we minister, with particular reference to those who are vulnerable. We recognise that everyone has different levels of vulnerability and that each one of us may be regarded as vulnerable as some point of our lives. We believe that our Church should be a place where all people feel welcome, respected and safe from harm.
Should you have any concerns or observations please don’t hesitate to contact:
Mrs Pat Sutcliffe (Appointed person for Child protection) tel. 850948
Revd Rosemary Franklin (Appointed person for Vulnerable adults) tel. 654282
* Mr Howard Gray (Parish Administrator) is the Counter-signatory for this Parish, and will advise about obtaining CRB disclosure forms. (tel 659317)
**Parish website: www.cirenparish.co.uk
Diocese of Gloucester website: www.glosdioc.org.uk
Pat Sutcliffe
FRIENDS OF GOD
We meet during the 10am Parish Church service in term time at the Parish centre. We leave near the beginning of the service and return for communion. We welcome all children, their parents and young people. We greatly appreciate the help and support of the parents who come with the younger children.
We have fun sharing news and what we know, singing together, praying, playing games and doing arts and crafts and learning Bible stories. On many Sundays our theme is based on one of the readings used by the rest of the church. We have made posters to put up in church, the children have prepared for their parts in all-age services and we have acted out some of the stories.
Most importantly we aim to learn and explore together and grow with the help of God’s Holy Spirit to be friends and followers of God, trusting our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ and our loving Heavenly Father.
As part of learning to love our neighbour we help to support Mark and Giselle in the Philippines through our collections through the Philippines Community Fund. We enjoy hearing about their progress and sending and receiving letters and cards.
Highlights of the year included our summer and Christmas parties, where food and games were enjoyed by all and the Nativity Crib service in Church where many of the children dressed up and took part in the story.
Some of our older children are no longer able to come and we pray for them as they continue as friends of God and followers of God. It has been a pleasure to welcome new, younger children and families and we pray for them and all those who come to the fog club that they may continue to do the same.
With many thanks to all who have helped Fog Club in any way. Your help has been much appreciated. Christine Greaves
CIRENCESTER PARISH MUSIC – ANNUAL REPORT
As I write this report, we are in the middle of the Cirencester Organ Festival and people are converging upon our church from all over the country to hear the newly rebuilt organ and see what the parish has to offer musically. It has been an incredibly busy year, much of which has led up to this still more incredibly busy week.
Advent Sunday 2009 saw the Father Willis organ of Cirencester Parish Church return to liturgical service. It is testament to the quality of the workmanship that has gone into the instrument’s reincarnation that it did not put a foot wrong over Christmas. Whatever they might say, most organ builders would secretly hope that their new instruments would enter service in a quiet and pressure free time of the year as, inevitably, there is a bedding-in period to negotiate which may include some teething troubles. There was no such luxury in Cirencester, where the organ was launched straight into the busiest period of the year. It has continued to fascinate and delight all who have seen and heard it from the first Sunday onwards.
On 17th April, in the presence of a congregation of over two hundred people, including many clergy formerly associated with Cirencester, the instrument was blessed by Fr. Leonard at Choral Evensong. The guest preacher was Fr. Michael St. John-Channell, former vicar of Cirencester and now Precentor and Sacrist of Winchester Cathedral, and it was my honour to conduct the choir to organ accompaniments provided by David Briggs, who gave the first public concert on the instrument later the same evening. The church was packed to bursting for the opening concert, at which we launched the new C.D. recording of the rebuilt instrument. This album was recorded by me for Priory Records, Britain’s leading label for organ and choral music, in February. It is a great accolade for Cirencester that the album has become the eighty-first entry in Priory’s long-running Great European Organs series, which immediately puts our instrument up alongside such masterpieces as the organs of Lincoln Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in England, and the Parisian churches of Saint-Sulpice and La Madeleine in France. The series has distribution throughout the U.K. and abroad, so the reputation of Cirencester’s new organ will travel far and wide.
The festival itself is showing every sign of being a huge success. We have been fortunate to secure a line-up of very fine players, all of whom bring their own personalities to bear on the instrument and create something different with it.
Elsewhere within the parish the music is going through exciting times of change. Following the retirement in January of Gordon Webb as Director of Music at Holy Trinity, Watermoor, in March it was my pleasure to accept a new post as Director of Music for the whole Parish of Cirencester. We are in the process of seeking to appoint a Deputy Director of Music to assist me in this new role, whose principal responsibility will be for the day-to-day running of the music at Holy Trinity. It is hoped that a suitable candidate will be found who possesses organ playing skills sufficient to undertake some additional accompanying work at the Parish Church, where the choir continues to thrive. At present we are somewhat constrained by being able to do only such music as can be directed by the organist from the organ console, which is rather an inconvenience. The triumph of the Organ Festival Choral Evensong is evidence of what could be achieved with both a conductor and an accompanist present at a service.
After such a hectic year, with many events taking place of major historic significance, it might be expected that there would be a time of consolidation and breath-drawing. True to form, the Parish Church Choir scoffs at such a suggestion. In May we will welcome a choir from Tibro, Sweden, to sing with us for the Ascension Day Eucharist and in July we head across the water to Dublin to provide a weekend of services at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. There will be hard work to be done in advance of both of those events but then, perhaps, there is the outside chance of a bit of holiday!
Anthony Hammond – Director of Music
HOLY TRINITY PASTORAL REPORT
Having lived, worshipped and ministered with Holy Trinity Watermoor for a little over six months now, I am able to say that Susie and I have definitely found ourselves in the right place and we are very glad God has called us here. We have found Holy Trinity, and the parish more widely, to be a very happy and friendly place.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the care and support we have received from everyone since our arrival. A special word of thanks, though, to Peter, Graham, John and Roger who have been better wardens than I could ever have hoped for. I would also like to thank Howard Gray and Katie Bannister who, with the volunteers in the office, help enormously with the pressures of running this church. There are many people I don’t have space to thank here, but to all of you I would like to say thank you for all you have done to ease me into the life of Holy Trinity as swiftly and painlessly as possible!
I believe that the central heart of what we do as a church is our Sunday act of worship, and thus this has been my key priority since arriving. The fact that on more Sundays than not we have new families visiting us for the first time has only added to this focus. I am grateful for the flexibility of all those involved in our worship (and especially the serving team) as we have worked together in developing our worship. My vision is for worship that feeds the regular worshipper, whilst also being accessible to newcomers. And in a similar way I believe our worship should be appropriate for older and younger people alike. I am extremely pleased with how our worship has evolved and hope we can take this forward whilst at the same time remaining faithful to the distinctive Holy Trinity ethos.
Music is clearly a vital part of our worship and it was with some sadness that we saw Gordon retire in January after a lifetime of service to church music. We wish Gordon well and hope that we will soon find someone to nurture our musical resources and take our music in the parish forward. This has not been an easy time for the choir and we are all very grateful for their continued commitment.
We are blessed with a large number of very capable and committed people over the age of 50, and whilst we are very lucky to have so many people who help keep the show on the road, we do need to make sure we continue looking to the future. There is a desire to see Holy Trinity grow, and people are particularly concerned that we should encourage people of a younger age to attend church. With this in mind, I am grateful for the support of a group who have met to think about our vision with regards to our work with young people and families and how we might begin to bring about this vision. Many of the initial ideas of that group are in process, and though there is still much work to be done I believe we are already seeing results in this area.
We do have a fairly small but very committed team of people who work with children and young people and I am very pleased to say that they are doing an excellent job. I have also been pleased that a number of extra volunteers have come forward in recent months, but the numbers of those involved still restricts what we are able to do as we look to the future. We do hope that more people will feel that they can come forward to support this vital area of our work.
And finally, to pastoral visiting. Unfortunately, I have not been able to allocate as much of my time to pastoral visiting as I would have liked. Whilst I am overseeing the first full cycle of the church year, addressing this will not be easy, but I do hope to spend more time visiting soon. As part of this, I shall shortly begin my part of the parish scheme to visit every member of our congregations; so many of you should soon be receiving a ‘knock on the door from the vicar’!
The Revd Howard Gilbert
Associate Vicar
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