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| Reports |
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| January Restoration Grant, Men's Breakfast, Celebrating Grandparents, Thank You |
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| Thank You Evening | |||||||||||||||||
Bob May, our organist, played suitable light piano music as people arrived, there was wine and nibbles to consume, and the choir entertained with a selection of suitable songs including 'Bless This House', a setting of the 'Irish Blessing' and the theme from the 'Vicar of Dibley', or was that the Vicar of Dymock! Sue Coombes, made a welcome return from recent illness to sing several solos, accompanying herself on guitar. (Return to Top) Whilst we wait for our new Rector to arrive, our House for Duty priest, Revd Michael Bennett, thanked everyone for their contributions, which he pointed out is their 'ministry' on behalf of the church. (Return to Top)
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| Celebrating Grandparents | |||||||||||||||||
 Our Family Service this month, on January 23rd, celebrated our Grandparents. We developed a simple Family Tree of imaginary Parents, Grandparents and Great-Grandparents and traced how we inherit the family names. We also learnt what we can deduce from them, such as Great-Grandma 'Cooper' possibly coming from a family of barrel-makers and marrying Mr Singh because, at that (Victorian) time she was probably in India as part of the British Empire as a Teacher, Doctor, Missionary or Civil Servant, or Great-Gran 'Weston' being local as part of the Weston Cider Family of Much Marcle. (Return to Top)
We heard a bit of St Paul's second letter to Timothy in which he told Timothy that he'd inherited his faith from his Mother, Eunice, and that she'd got it from his Grandmother, Lois (2 Timothy 1:2-6). Paul told Timothy to use his inherited gifts well and we need to do the same. (Return to Top) |
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| Men's Breakfast | |||||||||||||||||
 Saturday 8th January saw the latest in our bi-monthly breakfasts. 15 men gathered in the Beauchamp Arms Pub for a 'Full English' breakfast and discussion with our guest, Will Windsor-Clive, who is a Gloucestershire County Councilor. Will told us something of how Gloucestershire County Council is addressing the need to cut costs and introduce the 'Big Society' as a result of the current national Government's policies. (Return to Top)
In the area of cutting costs, they have identified the amount of savings they are likely to need (around £108 million in a budget of some £300 million) and have analysed priorities to see how best to implement that. For instance, they've realised that there is considerable duplication in the provision of 'public' buildings - libraries, health centres, youth centres, medical centres, police stations, etc - and are liasing with the different authorities to see if this can be rationalised into fewer, shared premises to help cut the considerable running costs. Mobile libraries can be withdrawn and replaced with 'Village Agents' who represent varies public services and can order library books and advise on other services to meet an individual's needs. (Return to Top) On the 'Big Society' front, they are looking to see if they can involve local communities more, such as by handing over the local Youth Centres to their community instead of it being staffed and run by the Council. Not only would that contribute to saving costs but would meet the aim of involving the local community too. The aim is to complete the reviews within the first year, so they have four years of a five year target left to implement the changes. (Return to Top) |
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| Grant Towards Repairs | |||||||||||||||||
 We start 2011 with good news, we've received a grant of £8,000 towards our restoration repairs from the Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust for which we're very grateful. (Return to Top)
A representative of the Trust will be coming to present the cheque at our regular morning Service on Sunday 6th February (For report, click here). (Return to Top) |
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