St Mary in Window 3 St Mary's, Fairford

St Mary's Church
Fairford

St Mary's, Fairford Angel in Window 1

A Cabaret Evening
with Barry and Jean, 'Spindrift'

In The Palmer Hall
Friday, 22nd January, 2016
7.00pm Wine bar and Supper.

Tickets £10.00 from: Alison 713101 or Heather 712428

In aid of the Church Organ Appeal.

Church Organ Appeal

Church Organ Appeal

At the September meeting of the PCC a resolution was passed to apply for a Faculty for the much needed repairs to the Organ.

The Organ, which was probably built by Nicholson’s of Worcester in the early 1840’s, was last repaired in 1986. It is now needing urgent work on the Great Soundboard and Re-leathering of the Bellows. The estimated cost is in the region of £40,000. We hope to start work after Easter next year and this is estimated to be six weeks.

Obviously a lot of Fund Raising is going to be needed!
Alison Godsal, Co-ordinator of the Organ Appeal

Where do visitors to St Mary's Come From?

We claim that we get visitors from all over the world. What we can say for certain is that, in the year ending 30 September 2015, visitors from the following 41 countries signed the visitors' book:
Abu Dhabi, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eire, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

I was surprised that, in compiling the list, one encountered several political statements. One visitor wrote “Bilbao, Basque Country”. One visitor wrote “Eire” whilst another came from “Republic of Ireland”. Are we right to include Hong Kong as a separate country?

Compiling the list considerably improved my knowledge of geography. One couple came from Pardubice and Litomysl. Any guesses? They turned out to be the only names in the book from the Czech Republic. Americans who write LA – are they from Los Angeles or from Louisiana? [It is the official abbreviation of the latter].

Of course we have a great many American visitors – from 37 different states. Maybe we had visitors from the other 13 states but they did not sign the book. We have certainly had visitors from more than 41 countries – two examples: firstly, when I was on duty one day there was a lady from Luxemburg looking round. She, like many of our visitors, did not sign the book. Secondly, a few days after the closing date we had our first [?] visitor from Trinidad.

We are surely privileged to be able to share our church with visitors from so many lands.
David Lawrence

Charity of the Month:
Mary's Meals

Mary's Meals

This is a new charity to St Mary’s. This charity was founded in 2002 by Mary Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow who visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying from AIDS. When he asked her eldest son, Edward, what his dreams were in life, he replied simply – “I want to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day.”

This led to the founding of Mary’s Meals, which reaches impoverished children who can’t get to school because they’re working, begging or doing whatever it takes to eat. Thanks to the efforts of supporters around the world, there are now children sitting in classrooms with full stomachs, gaining an education that can be their ladder out of poverty to the future.

Most of the work is done by an army of volunteers, who carry out lots of little acts of love on behalf of Mary’s Meals. Our work is named after Mary, the mother of Jesus, who brought up her own child in poverty. We consist of, respect, and reach out to people of all faiths and none. The idea is a simple one that works.

The charity provides a daily meal in a place of learning to attract chronically poor children into the classroom where they receive an education which can set them free from poverty in later life. Mary’s Meals began by feeding 200 children in Malawi in 2002 – today they are feeding over a million children every school day across four continents. In schools where children receive Mary’s Meals, there is a rise in school enrolment, attendance and attainment. Running costs are kept low – for every £1 donated at least 93p is spent on the charitable activities.
Website.

Advent Drinks Party and Canapés

Mike and Alison thank all those who came to the Advent Drinks Party and also those who could not come but donated so generously. Thank you also to all those who made the canapes.  It is wonderful to hold a party in the Community Centre, as towards the end a magical party of washers-up always seems to appear. Thank you to them too.

The Grand total before Gift Aid stands at £1,369.

Posada Figures

Posada Figures

Once again this year Posada figures (Mary, Joseph and donkey) have visited homes in and around Fairford during December to help families remember the journey made from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

The figures, along with a prayer sheet were given to the first family at Family Service in November. After that, they were passed on to the next family on a list, finishing back at Church on Christmas Eve. At each new home, a prayer is said by both families, to welcome the figures, to bless the houses and to ask for a safe journey.

During this year’s journey, the figures were left at the wrong house in error at one stage, but in the true spirit of Christmas, they were found and returned to their planned route. Many thanks to the family that returned the figures and to all the families who played host each night.
Sandra Rymer

Jesus and Me Club

JAM Club

3rd January
10am St Mary’s Church, Fairford
Stories, craft, fun and food
JAM club is on the FIRST Sunday of the month.

Messy Church

Please note there will not be a Messy Church in January.

Messy Space, Sat 16th January

Messy Space

2.00 – 4.00 p.m. Fairford Community Centre
Crafts and Coffee Bar for families

Special Craft this month:
Learn to knit
Plus the usual K-nex, painting, junk modelling and more.

Adults and Children (recommended 4 years upwards)
£2 per child (max. £5 per family)
Concessions available

A project of Churches Together Around Fairford.
Enabling families to enjoy being families.


News December 2015
News November 2015
News October 2015
News September 2015
News August 2015
News July 2015
News June 2015
News May 2015
News April 2015
News March 2015
News February 2015
News January 2015
St Mary's News Round-Up 2014
St Mary's News Round-Up 2013
St Mary's News Round-Up 2012
St Mary's News Round-Up 2011

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