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| May Men's Breakfast, Supper Dance, Pets Service, Nave Floor Repair |
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| Nave Floor Repair | |||||||||||||||||
 The wooden floor under the Ministers' seats at the front of the church had to be removed as some of the wood was rotten and only the carpet was stopping your foot going down the hole! The void was temporarily replaced with plywood whilst we organised a permanent stone replacement (click here for picture). (Return to Top)
This month, and some two years later, the work was done to remove the temporary plywood, fill the void with lime-based mortar, and cover with Portland stone in keeping with the rest of the stone floor. We hope in time to be able to enlarge the space in this area to bring a better focus to our new altar table as the hub of our worship. (Return to Top) |
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| Pet Service | |||||||||||||||||
 The morning of May 22nd was very windy with occasional showers, so 40 people, 16 dogs, 1 hamster and 1 rabbit gathered in St Mary's Church instead of the village green to give thanks for our pets. Rev'd Marilyn Adsetts said this was the third year she'd led our Pets Service but it was the first time the weather had beaten us. (Return to Top)
We sang together All creatures of our God and King, Who put the colours in the rainbow? He's got the whole world in his hand, and Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, whilst the junior and senior choirs sang My dog is a good dog and John Rutter's version of All things bright and beautiful. (Return to Top) The children led our prayers and Marilyn blessed the animals and people before we all went home, after only one little accident! (Return to Top) |
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| Supper-Dance with a 60s Theme | |||||||||||||||||
The generous meal comprised a choice of Goulash, Chicken Supreme or vegetarian, followed by Black Forest gateau, lemon meringue pie or fruit salad, which were all the height of fashion in the 60s. Sue led her band at the start playing all the hits from the 60s whilst were gathering, and then after the meal for dancing. Their regular bass player wasn't able to come, so the quartet was reduced to a trio, which they decided should therefore be known as 'The band with no name'! (Return to Top) Most joined in the spirit and dressed in something appropriate to the era - the oldest hippies in town! For more pictures, click here. At the time of writing, nearly £500 was raised towards our Restoration Appeal. (Return to Top) |
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| Men's Breakfast | |||||||||||||||||
It's based on the premise that central government doesn't always know what's best for a local community. Groups of people and charities will be encouraged to propose local initiatives and to bid to provide local services. For instance, the Council's refuse collection staff might tender in competition with a large subcontractor to provide rubbish collections, the authority will be obliged to give proper consideration to the proposal as the group have demonstrated they can do it (they already are), and not automatically rule it because 'it's not Council policy'. There's a good chance that, as a smaller organisation, they may be cheaper so will give better value for money. (Return to Top) It should make it easier for charities to bid to take over services that are part of their core purpose, or a church to run the local Post Office on days and times to suit the users etc. A group of local people might offer to take over and manage the local youth centre or any of the myriad of other local services. Similarly, a Parish Council might propose a local development such as low-cost housing for which they've identified a source of funding. If they can make a proper case, the authorities will be obliged to accept the offer. It'll provide the chance for all those who've always said, "I could do that better". (Return to Top) Bill said it should help in contentious areas like appeals to proposed developments, because the development will have been proposed 'bottom up' by the local community who will have discussed it and want it to happen, rather than 'top down', imposed by bureaucrats from above who thought it would be a good idea (possibly to justify the existence of their department); although there will still be a need for central proposals such as a new power station because local communities are unlikely to propose that. (Return to Top) All this will be enabled by the 'Localism Bill' currently going through Parliament, which Bill Wiggin thought might become law by the end of this year (2011). (Return to Top) |
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