It has been a strange year this year. Our A.P.C.M. (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) was deferred due to the restrictions and so we were unable to close off our usual formal review of the past year and plans for the coming year. We are now able to hold our A.P.C.M. which will be held in the Church immediately following this Sunday’s (25th October) service. Social distancing measures will be enforced.
These da
ys, Christ Church rarely has a plate collection for donations during services, although there is always an Offertory plate at the rear of the church before and during services.
If you find yourself without change though but have your mobile phone handy you can donate to the work of Christ Church via a simple text.
All you need to do is send a text with the code CCSWINDON £5 ( or however much you wish to give us) to 70450.
The acknowledgement of your text has a link allowing you to agree to add Gift aid to your gift (worth an extra 25% to us at no extra cost to you) if you are a UK taxpayer.
There are a number of ways to give to support the church and its work.You can find out details of how to give to our work in the community here.
Thank you
During the coronavirus emergency, our church, like many organisations today, is suffering severely from a lack of funds.
Our finance team is working hard to implement cost savings whilst still allowing us to maintain a clear and effective presence in the community. We are especially grateful to our many regular givers, either as members of the Parish Giving Scheme or as donors via regular standing order for their continued support.
Like everyone, we are exploring new ways to connect with our congregation and friends. These include a new Pastoral contact scheme called Keep in Touch (K.i.T.). This will be administered by volunteers from our Community and is aimed at ensuring that everyone is regularly contacted and, if required, practical help or reassurance can be provided. We are recording our Sunday services and these can be found on our website. You can find out more about both these on www.christchurchswindon.co.uk.
Inevitably though, income from plate collections, the community centre, church events, weddings and funerals has dried up, leaving us in an increasingly difficult financial position. Fortunately, we do have some contingency reserves and our cost savings and government cost mitigation schemes will help. Unfortunately, this will not last for very long.
How can you help?
By Regular Planned Giving
Regular giving enables us to plan our work and helps reduce administration time and effort as well as improving our cashflow.
Please join us in praying for change and transformation in our country and especially in our own hearts and minds as we confront the reality of the past, the challenges of the present and work towards God’s vision of racial harmony with hope for the future. We thank God for the gift of sisters and brothers from around the world who bring so much to us at Christ Church. May God help us to become more fully the rainbow people of God. Do pass your ideas on about how this might become more fully a reality.
Thank you gratefully
Simon
We are publishing a series of pen pictures each day celebrating the lives of people of colour on our Facebook pages. To follow them, why not subscribe to our page
One of the PCC’s key goals for the year was encouraging us all to grow in confidence and action as an eco-congregation. With this is mind we are looking forward to all that God will
teach us over the next two months through our sermon series.
This week can we recommend the excellent free podcast which can be heard on BBC Sounds entitled ‘What planet are we on?’ launched last Thursday with Sir David Attenborough giving a perceptive interview. Also please consider joining the staff team on one of the series of five webinars produced by the Bristol Diocese Deconstructed Environment Online Conference starting on 19th October when Ruth
Valerio will speak on Why should Christians act and why now?
You can sign up here: https://www.bristol.anglican.org/news/deconstructed-environment-conference-online-thisoctober.php
If you missed last Sunday’s Bereavement Service, you can watch an online recording below.
We promote a number of Christian charities throughout the year and our most recent Mission Sunday supported Send a Cow and The Willows counselling Service
Thank you on behalf of both charities for your kind support. If you missed the opportunity, then you can still give directly to the charities.
To support Send a Cow – donate online please make sure you mention Christ Church Swindon (please include Swindon as there are a few other Christ Churches who support us!)so that we can add that to the church total. You can also leave your gift in the plate on Sunday. Thank you so much for your support
To Support Willows Counselling – Donations can be made by Bank transfer to Willows Counselling –Lloyds, Sort Code 30-98-41 Account 00368513
Prayer support is much valued
Thank you again on behalf of both Mission partners
Tim Eyles, our Director of Music, has completed a series of 4 lunchtime recitals on our recently refurbished organ to raise much needed funds for both the church and The Friends of Christ Church.
Thank you to all of you who supported Tim and gave generously. His recitals raised more than £250, split between the Friends and the Church. The organ can still be heard in the 2nd and 4th Sunday 10 am services or you can catch up with a recording of the service each week, after 1pm.
If you missed the chance to hear our organ in full flow, you can hear an extract below.
Tim Eyles – Music Director at Christ Church Organ
As we develop together as Eco congregations across our Old Town Partnership, Harvest Thanksgiving and Creation tide have an increasing significance. These days, from 1st September into October have been designated the International Season of Creation. This year the global reach of Covid 19 has revealed anew our shared human nature and the interconnectedness of our lives, economies, healthcare systems, food chains, energy and transportation systems. The pandemic has also demonstrated that this complex web is rooted in the earth and limited by the earth’s capacity to sustain our economic and ecological needs. The unjust effects of climate change are a consequence of our inability to find a sustainable balance of this web.
It is the time of year when we start to plan for 2021, including preparing our budget for Christ Church. In normal times, we would review the current year to date, and develop a stewardship campaign to support next year’s budget based on our future needs.
This year, of course, is a little different.
Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has continued to give generously according to their ability throughout this year, both through regular giving and through the very welcome one-off donation that we have received to support our mission.
As you know, when the lockdown hit us in the spring, we had to carefully consider how this would affect our budgeting, especially given the reduced income from many of our usual sources. In mitigation we have made use of the government’s furlough scheme and reluctantly reduced the value of the Parish Share paid to Bristol Diocese. In this current financial year to the end of December however we are probably looking at taking about £35,000 from our reserves which is manageable for a year, but it is clearly not sustainable in the long term.
As we enter into the budget preparation for 2021, and with a likely continuing reduced income from many of our sources, we will be relying more heavily than ever on the generosity of our parishioners to meet our budget and deliver our mission, including running and staffing the PCC and the community centre.
Our message for the 2020 stewardship campaign is therefore simple: We always welcome legacies and donations at any time but increases in longer term regular giving in 2021 will help us to sustain our mission and that of the diocese into the future. Find out ways to give your financial support to the work of Christ Church
Andrew Yeoward – Treasurer
Stephen Grosvenor – Gift Aid Secretary
Over the past 6 months, we have come to realise, more than ever, the importance of keeping in touch with our friends and supporters. Our KIT team has been making calls and connecting, where they can, with our friends across the town. The church closure has meant that many of our traditional ways of communication via leaflet, notices and flyers have not been possible.
At the same time, as we start to consider the implications of being a committed eco church, we have come to realise just how much paper we have saved and the benefits to our planet of doing so. It’s a small start, but like all such initiatives, it needs us all to think differently about how we find out what is going on in our Community.
If you are reading this, then you have taken the first step and signed up for our weekly newsletter and you hopefully know about our website https://www.christchurchswindon.co.uk/ which works hard to keep you up to date with the parish and town. If you know of someone who might appreciate receiving our weekly news, then encourage them to sign up for our Newletter email at https://www.christchurchswindon.co.uk/newsletter.php
Let’s identify those we are not in contact with due to Lockdown. What we are worried about though, is all those who do not have access to the internet or email. We need to ensure that we can continue to engage with them and share our news and events. We have set up a telephone number to enable those who cannot come to church to listen to our weekly service. If you know of anyone who would value using this service then please encourage them to dial 01225 541162. Calls are charged at local rates and you should warn the caller that there is a small 15 second silence whilst the audio file loads. Services typically last 45 minutes.
If you know someone – a friend or neighbour, who feels they belong to our community, then please encourage them to contact us – our parish office number is 522832 so that we can make arrangements to keep in touch with a regular newsletter. That way, what paper we do use is put to good use.
Although congregational singing is still not allowed, Limited choral singing is now permitted. The choir will return on the second and fourth Sundays, starting on the 13th and again on 27th. Just in case you have forgotten what we sound like, you can hear us here.