Parish Newsletter
Happy Crossed Fingers!
What’s On at St Peter and St Paul’s:
Dec:
- Weds 4th : Crafty Coffee and Cake Club 10-12, Village Hall
- Weds 11th: Crafty Coffee and Cake Club 10-12
- Sun 15th : Messy Church Christmas – 2-4 Village Hall
- Weds, 18th : Art Club, 10-12, Village Hall
January:
- Weds 88h : Crafty Coffee and Cake Club 10-12, Village Hall
- Weds, 15th : Art Club, 10-12, Village Hall
- Weds 22nd: Crafty Coffee and Cake Club 10-12 Village Hall
- Sun 26th : Messy Church, 1.30 – 3.00 Village Hall
It has been a tough year at the church: the work on dry rot has meant it has been closed for much of the time; we are once more without a parish priest, and the restoration and re-ordering project to save the church from permanent closure seemed at times to be heading for failure. However, as the year draws to a close, we are starting with a very different perspective.
As you know, we were awarded a £1.8 million grant from the National Lottery for the church. However, this means we have to raise over £300,000 in match funding before the project can go ahead. By anyone’s reckoning, that is a huge mountain to climb. In June of this year, the Heritage Lottery issued a very stern warning, that the cash was not coming in fast enough, and if we couldn’t reach our target very soon, we would have to forfeit the grant. As you can imagine, this was devastating news. We had been so proud of the village collection – which raised over £400, and our crowdfunding campaign. But it was time to get out the big guns!
Since then we have relaunched our appeals to major charities and grant funders, and the results have been very cheering. To date, in total we have raised over £140,000 and there are a lot of applications still out there, waiting for answers. In fact, the results have been so promising, and the actions of the Algarkirk Major Project Group and our volunteer supporters have so impressed the Lottery Fund Committee, they have agreed to an extension of our original start date to give us until April to complete the fundraising. So from doom and gloom, we now have real hope. This doesn’t mean the hard work is over – not by a long way. And we still need your help.
Our next event will be the Messy Church Christmas on December 15th at the village Hall. Join us, and bring the kids or grandkids for some seasonal singing and stories, Santa, craft fun (make a Christmas decoration) and yummy Christmas treats!
And, to all of you, young and old, on behalf of the PCC may we take this opportunity to wish you a joyful Christmas, and the happiest and healthiest of New Years.
“God Bless us, everyone!”