The Jubilee Memorial Garden

2022-07-16T12:11:45+01:00

The weather was fine ( but a bit cold!) but we welcomed a good number of families along with our Mayor Cllr Perkins, his wife Abnet, and Sir Robert Buckland our MP to our commissioning event on Sunday. The Mayor and Sir Robert unveiled a beautiful oak sign made by one of our longest-serving congregants, Bernard Oxborrow. It’s worth noting, for posterity, that the oak was sourced from one of our original Baltic oak pews dating back to the 1850’s.

Our newly unveiled sign

The ceremony enabled us to thank the teams of professionals and volunteers whose efforts over the past 18 months have transformed the North-South section into a safer more accessible, and beautiful, managed garden – a fitting memorial to all those remembered there. Particular mention should go to Ian Handy without whose drive and intitiative, this project would not have begun. Also thanks are due to the Friends of Christ Church whose generosity with both time and funds have also been key to its success.

As we move on to planning the final section of the garden, the East-West area, it is vital that we can let as many families know of our plans. To do this we have a new Quarterly Email newsletter to let everyone know what we are planning, why we are doing it, and how they can find out more about it.
Please pass on the email subscription link below to anyone you think would value knowing more about the works to improve our former Rose Garden

Subscribe https://mailchi.mp/c79de914e698/jubilee

We have got this far by the generosity of local people – we still need more help to complete the garden. You can donate to the Memorial Garden using our Just Giving page? or by scanning the QR code below, on your mobile phone.

 

If you are not keen on on-line stuff, you can also give by cash or cheque to our Parish Office c/o Community Centre@Christ Church, Cricklade Street, Swindon SN1 3HB

The Jubilee Memorial Garden2022-07-16T12:11:45+01:00

Milestone reached

2022-01-17T11:39:15+00:00

Last year Christ Church achieved a Bronze award in its quest to become a more eco aware community. The organisation that promotes and helps with this process is called Arocha. We heard this week that they have celebrated a milestone. All 42 of the Church of England dioceses have now registered for the Eco Diocese scheme. This shows a significant commitment to getting more churches signed up to Eco Church but more importantly, that all dioceses in the Church of England are united in taking collective environmental action. This is also the case for the Church in Wales where all six of its dioceses have already registered for Eco Diocese.

You can read more about the work of Arocha and how they promote awareness about caring for our planet here.

Watch our for more information on how we take Christ Church forward towards a Silver award in the New Year.

Milestone reached2022-01-17T11:39:15+00:00

Friends of Christ Church Lecture

2021-10-30T16:56:03+01:00

Picture Janet French

This year’s Friends of Christ Church Annual Lecture was held last week. It told the story of the renaissance of the former Rose Garden at Christ Church. Introduced by Sarah Bowden, with contributions from Caroline Pitt, the chair of the Friends of Christ Church, the lecture was given by Sue Spielberg who designed the planting scheme.

Sue described her experience and approach to the design and seasonal planting.

Tea and cake was provided for those attending courtesy of Caroline Pitt and her team.

We encourage you to join the Friends. You can download their brochure and application form on the link below. Single members pay £5 annually, family members £10, by cash, cheque, BACS or standing order. Life membership is a one-off payment of £75; all these amounts can be gift aided by UK taxpayers, as the Friends is a registered charity, number 1088767.

Download brochure and membership application form

You can listen again to the talk

You can also watch a short (slient) film showing the plants and design ideas that Sue talks about below

Friends of Christ Church Lecture2021-10-30T16:56:03+01:00

Christ Church Eco Award

2021-08-07T11:43:08+01:00

We heard this week that we have definitely been awarded a bronze award for our eco-awareness in managing the Christ Church site.

We had to complete around 100 questions in a survey about our worship, land, lifestyle, buildings and community engagement that proved we were becoming more eco-aware and were committed to this for the long term.

Click to view our certificate

What does it mean?

The A Rocha scheme allows churches to assess their policies and approach to caring for God’s world. The process enables us to take a close look at how we operate the church, our grounds and other buildings. It also helps us identify new ways or working that will further improve our stewardship of God’s earth. We have our sights set on the Silver award next. If you have any ideas on how we might manaage our resources or environment then please let us know. Our Eco Champion is Phil Mansfield

Christ Church Eco Award2021-08-07T11:43:08+01:00

Rose Garden Plans

2022-02-02T10:12:32+00:00

The Garden plays an important part in helping bereaved families by providing a peaceful space where they can come and remember those they have lost.

The first phase of the project is well underway and is designed to give an indication of how the finished garden will look. The work involves  removal of the plaques at the North end of the garden. This is a temporary move to allow work to continue on removing the old and diseased rose bushes and the installation of new raised beds which will form the basis of the new garden. (parishoffice@christchurchswindon.co.uk or 522832)

(more…)

Rose Garden Plans2022-02-02T10:12:32+00:00

New website layout

2021-05-09T19:05:39+01:00

We are experimenting with a new layout for our website. This is slightly untried territory so please bear with us as we try to keep everyone up to date with what we are about.

If you have any thoughts on how we might use the web to connect with our community or you have any experience of website design then we would love to hear from you.

Contact Stephen@christchurchswindon.co.uk

New website layout2021-05-09T19:05:39+01:00

Rose Garden Search

2022-02-02T10:08:06+00:00

The Rose Garden

You can search our database of those remembered in our Rose Garden using the link below.

Search the Rose Garden Records

Our plans to re-design the garden are well advanced and we are keen to make contact with families whose loved ones are remembered here to ensure that they understand and are comfortable with our proposals.

Please consider a donation towards the Garden Restoration projecthelp us complete the works.

You can read more about the proposals here

Sign up for our Regular newsletter to stay informed of our progressfind out more

Rose Garden Search2022-02-02T10:08:06+00:00

Celebration of our new roof

2019-09-04T14:06:04+01:00

We held a special service on July 28th to celebrate the work done on our new roof.

Our Lord Mayor & his wife join members of the Roof Project team and the congregation to celebrate the successful and safe conclusion.

The project to replace the roof is the culmination of a major renewal programme which began back in 2013 with the new community centre building. This was followed in 2017 by a complete internal renewal of the church which saw the replacement of the old heating system, new energy efficient and modern lighting, improvements to our sound and video capability as well as a beautiful new wooden floor. 

All these changes represent a once in a generation, investment by the church and its supporters in the life of the local community. The newly revitalised buildings act as host to services, weddings, funerals, major civic events, beer festivals, Christmas markets, concerts and other performances, community cinema shows, dancing classes and a wide variety of activities.It seems fitting that this final phase, tops off this renewal with a new roof and insulation upgrade for the church itself.

The service was attended by our Lord and Lady Mayor, Robert Buckland our MP and Robert Skinner our roofing contractor and members of his family and team. Thanks were given for all those who have made the roof project a success and particular thanks was given for those, no longer with us, whose generosity in the form of legacies, enabled much of the work to proceed. Pamela Gilbert, Peter Ford, John Sondermann, John & Aila English, John Plaister and Ken Trennary.

Celebration of our new roof2019-09-04T14:06:04+01:00

Minutes of the March Buildings Committee

2019-03-27T12:19:41+00:00

Wheatsheaf Pub –11th Jan 2019

Present :  Stephen Grosvenor, Mike Palmer, Reg Hardwick, Daniel Pitt

  • Item 1. SG opened with a prayer.
  • Item 2. Minutes of last meeting (21/01/19) – reviewed and accepted. Any outstanding items have been are included in the agenda for this meeting.
  • Item 3. Budget 2019 and monitoring of payments – Discussion on the specifics of how this might be achieved. Since our buildings budget is so small this year, we need to monitor and agree expenditure. Stephen to discuss with Andrew our Treasurer and Ian Hamilton/ Helen how payments are managed and recorded.
  • Item 4. – Christ Church & St Mary’s Projects.
    1. DAC submission for Remembrance Garden. Passed to Chancellor for final approval but he has a question before grant of faculty. Stephen has forwarded this to Simon and the committee for consideration and reply to Janet Saxon/The Chancellor. Ian Handy is proceeding to provide an estimate of costs for the planned works. This will inform the budget process.
  • Progress on roof. Despite poor weather at times, the roof replacement continues. The chancel and east facing transept roofs and organ roofs are all complete and the new ridge tiles are soon to be fixed in place.
  • We agreed the final draft of a report on the project cost estimates for the March PCC meeting.  This is attached to these minutes.
  • Sound System – the reconfiguration of the sound controller is complete and should make the operation of the sound system significantly simpler.
  • Gas repairs – thanks to Daniel for his dogged pursuit of the outstanding documentation for the Gas heating system from Bayes. We are still awaiting a response to our request for
    • Gas safe certificate
    • The original drawings with pipe dimensions
    • 2 A1 copies of the heating schematic for the files
    • A certificate/acknowledgement of the Gerberit guarantee on our pipe joints (which should be a life time guarantee).
  • Also thanks to Dan for managing the recent repair to the Bosch heat exchanger which was done under guarantee. The new exchanger is guaranteed for a further 5 years.
  • Item 5 Victoria Road. All is going well at Firestorm games. Mike is producing a quarterly invoice for the rental.
  • Item 6 – Community Centre – The doors and locks are still causing some issues. Stephen will pick up with Chris.
  • Item 7 St Mary’s – Chris has submitted final costs for outstanding items for the refurbishment
  • Item 8 – Other properties:
    • 31 – some queries on the electrics in the kitchen – these are not dangerous but may require attention in the future. Gary has still not produced a quote for the new shower.
    • 32 Rob Skinner has looked at the roof and cannot see a problem.

Item 9 Any other business

Next Meeting: May 22nd 7.30pm Wheatsheaf Public House

Minutes of the March Buildings Committee2019-03-27T12:19:41+00:00

Application for renovation works to the Organ

2018-05-02T23:12:09+01:00

As part of our continuing renewal work this year, we intend to make extensive repairs to the church roof and organ as well as repair the South Transept window,improve  exterior lighting and make repairs to St Mary’s church.

The major works to the organ require us to obtain a faculty – effectively permission from the Diocese to carry out the work.

As part of this, we are required to advertise the scope and nature of the works for a period of not less than 28 days to allow public objections to be heard by the Dicoese.

You can download the notice on the link below or view it on the church noticeboards. Full details of who to apply to are provided on the notice, The expiry date for objections is 17th April 2018

Organ works Notice_2018_03_18

Application for renovation works to the Organ2018-05-02T23:12:09+01:00

Christ Church Renewal prayer

2017-07-14T14:43:39+01:00
Gracious Father God we praise you for all your guidance.
Thank you for the resources you have given us which have led to this celebration of the renewal work in Christ Church.
Loving God help us continue with all that happens here, in the Community Centre, at St. Mary’s and in our wider ministry; to connect with you, with each other and with our Swindon community.
Lord we pray for much spiritual and numerical growth, above all for your Holy Spirit’s renewing work in each of our lives.
Give us courage and imagination so that we make the most of our new opportunities.
Above all help us play our part with welcome, generosity and openness, encouraging one another in Jesus name and for His Glory
Amen
Christ Church Renewal prayer2017-07-14T14:43:39+01:00

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