Back in July this year, the choir got together over a weekend to produce their new CD entitled Skyline Sounds III. It features a wonderful selection of music spanning 400 years by, amongst others, William Byrd, Henry Purcell,Handel, Charles Villiers Stanford, John Rutter and John Tavener. Jubilate, a piece specially written for the Choir of Christ church by David Bednall, receives its first recorded performance. The CD was kindly financed by the Friends of Christ Church.

Watch a video we made about how the CD was made and listen to a bonus track. The full CD is available priced at £10 or you can purchase a very special box set of all 3 Christ Church CD’s for only £20. All proceeds go towards the work of the Church and will make splendid Christmas presents for the music lovers in your life. Buy online from our shop and listen to more samples or order from Caroline Pitt (01793 521732) or carolinempitt@googlemail.com

Plans for the new building are proceeding well. We have short listed two possible contractors to complete the project and are in the final stages of completing a specification for the final design and configuration of the building.

In order for the demolition and building work to start, we have to have a Diocesan licence to make necessary changes to the access and pathways on the south side of the church. This has been applied for and once permission has been granted, we can enter into a formal contract with one of the contractors. There will be a 28 day consultation period during which members of the public can comment or question the proposed changes. You can find full details of the application and how it will affect the church yard here.

If all goes well, building can start in March or April of next year. Financially we are in good shape having so far received grants from:

• Swindon Borough Council     £230,000.
• Landfill Communities Trust     £50,778.
• Garfield Weston Foundation      £5,000.

The remainder of the funds required to complete the building will come from our own resources.

Plans include the provision of ground source heating and photo voltaic panels as well as high specification thermal insulation. This will make the centre highly energy efficient and consequently, cost effective to run.

The new centre will also feature a Garden Room at the east end that will allow us to offer hospitality to those visiting both the church and the burial ground. It will provide toilet and refreshment facilities as well as a garden of reflection and information area.

The final design for the interior is yet to be finalised but it will include a large hall, kitchen area, meeting rooms, storage area and will incorporate the Parish office at the west end.

We intend to appoint a community development manager who will promote and manage the centre and our other resources at St. Mary’s. This post has been made possible by a 3 year grant from the church commissioners. Applications for the post will be sought in January/February 2013. The successful applicant will play a significant role in shaping operational procedures, recruitment and marketing for the new centre and will be a major resource to enable us to connect more effectively with our local community.

We are always looking for offers of help – we are in particular need of assistance in applying for grants both for the Community centre and for the overall church renewal project. If you would like to be part of a team helping to deliver our church plan then please contact the parish office 01793 5228322 or email s.grosvenor@gmail.com and someone will contact you to discuss what needs to be done.

If you have been looking at the site over the last day or so you may have experienced some unexpected results. We have been transferring our news feeds over to a new platform. All should be fine now – you may need to refresh your browser ( usually done by pressing CTL F5 on your keyboard). The new format allows us more control over how the news and articles are displayed and organised.

If you visit the latest news page or follow any of the links from the Headlines box on the home page you will find yourself at the new Christ Church Blog page. Here you will find all the news and info

rmation as before with the addition of information from our working committees. You can also see our Church Plan here along with a calendar of meetings.

The Blog opens in a new window so if you wish to return to the Christ Church website having viewed it, just close the window.

For some, of a nervous disposition, the information above may appear to be in a foreign language – if so sorry but if you have any problems with accessing the news or any other part of the website then contact Stephen Grosvenor – s.grosvenor@gmail.com -01793 341034 and he will be delighted to help.

Buy the new 2013 Friends of Christ Church Calendar now. It contains 13 new and original photographs taken locally by members of the Partnership and sold in aid of the Friends of Christ

Church.  Spiral bound on heavy-weight silk paper and printed by Kite Press, A4 size, one month to a page, with envelope, price £5. Ideal Christmas Gifts which aid the work of the church. Available to callers at the Parish Office, from Christ Church after 10.00 am service on Sundays, or by post £5 + £1 p&p.  Please ring 01793 522832 for enquiries.

COMMUNITY CENTRE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Full Grant funding has been made available for 3 years to appoint someone into this key role to help us manage both the Community Centre & the community use of St Mary’s and build links out into our community.

CHURCH CENTRE

Project Planning Progress

Planning Permission & Grant Funding from the Borough is in place for the new Community Centre (which, as now, will be run by Christ Church). We are now considering build methods, engaging suppliers to provide outline costs with a view to securing detailed specifications and costs by October, with a Contractor being appointed by the end of this year.

Antony Feltham-King will remain our Architect, also acting as an advisor and consultant throughout this important phase. Antony will help us develop the specifications, introduce potential companies and make our applications for the required consents from the Diocesan Advisory Committee.

Funding

We have received the first part of the £230,000 Section 106 Grant from the Borough, which coupled with the £245,000 remaining from the sale of the Devizes Road Hall, the existing £26,000 in the Development & Renewal Accounts and a £5,000 Grant received from the Weston Foundation, leaves a not inconsiderable available ‘pot’ totalling £506,000.

We have also recently completed the sale of Upham Road making another £208,000 available, and continue to pursue other Grant sources to secure additional monies between now and April 2013.

The estimated current project cost is in the region of £670,000. Obviously, we will make every effort to minimise these costs, seeking to leave monies available to maintain momentum for the next stages of the Programme. In the worst case i.e. with no additional grant funding, we would still have enough to complete the Centre and some smaller projects within the Church building itself.

The Community centre should be completed by July 2013.

CHURCH
Phase 1

We are planning to complete three smaller projects in 2013-2014 :-

• Replacement of the lighting, to significantly reduce maintenance & running costs and give more flexible, efficient & effective lighting. (£30,000)
• To improve the heating, we must first plan restoration of the West Porch to reduce drafts. (£25,000)
• Upgrade & improve Audio/Visual system (£25,000)

Phase 2

• Building a toilet at this time does not represent good value for money, so this will be integrated into the later work in the Church on the heating and flooring.
• In order to minimise costs, we are investigating ways to retain the central pews by making them free standing to maximise flexibility to re-configure the interior space. This and the removal of the few remaining aisle pews would save up to £45,000 (the cost of the proposed replacement stackable pews).
• Subject to raising the required funding, we will then level and re-surface the floor and replace the heating system with an Under floor & radiator based system. Our latest estimate for this work is £400,000.

It is unlikely that any of this work could be started before 2014/15 due to wedding commitments, and lack of funds.

If anyone wishes to contribute to, or discuss any aspect of the above in more detail or get involved with the programme, then our project managers, Mike Palmer or Stephen Grosvenor will be happy to talk to you.

• Stephen : 01793 341034 – s.grosvenor@gmail.com
• Mike : 01793 436220 – michaelailsa@o2.co.uk

On the first day we conducted a sports day which the children thoroughly enjoyed, also playing lots of group games. These children were incredibly inspiring in how much responsibility they had in the school and how they appreciated everything they had. On one day there was severe flooding causing the classroom I was in to be a foot deep in water, yet all the children took the responsibility of clearing it up and the school was back to normal by the next day. I had great fun teaching the children who were all eager to learn new things. However, this does not cover up the reason why we were there. All the normal teachers were local volunteers many of who were too tired to teach in the afternoon meaning many children were left to revise under their own steam. Even though the children were fed 2 meals a day at the school, the portions were small and due to the shortage of water, everything was “washed” in the same water which after the first few classes was more a case of moving the dirt around the dishes.

Alistair Senior

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News of our plans to replace our church hall has begun to spread. You can read what the Adver had to say about it here.
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/9702480.Dilapidated_church_hall_to_be_replaced/