In response to a dare, 4 members of the choir will be taking part in this year’s Santa Fun Run on Sunday 1^st December at Lydiard Park.  The course is 5km and is completed wearing a full Santa suit!  The event is organised by Phoenix Rotary Club and all monies raised will go to the Wiltshire Air Ambulance.   There will be a sponsorship form at the back of the church from this Sunday and also one at St Mary’s and we would very much appreciate your support for this worthy cause.  Thank you in hope.  Beth, Carol, Simon & Verity.

The gates are open

Following extensive works to the roadways and paths around the church which have led to the closure  of some of the usual entrances, we are now able to report that the works are completed and that normal access has been restored.  The tarmac team,were initially delayed by the bad weather which prevented the ground from being prepared but this week has been kinder and the weather has allowed them to make good progress.

The tarmac teams withdrew from site on Thursday afternoon after giving our car park a good sweep and clean up. Access to the church and burial ground are now back to normal although the contractors comfort cabin and equipment will take up a bit of space in the car park for a further few weeks as the centre’s pedestrian access paths are completed and the finishing touches are applied to the centre itself.

Sweeping the car park

Community Centre Photo Gallery

The interior of the new centre is almost finished – there was a slight delay as the floor has not dried sufficiently to allow the floorers to fit the new floor. A further inspection will be carried out next Tuesday and if successful, the floor will be laid on the following day. The underfloor heating is up and running, the solar panels are ready to be commissioned ( if the sun ever shines again). The decorators are finishing off the final touches, the hearing aid loop is fitted ready for the audio system, plumbers are ready to fit the loos as soon as the floor is fitted. The electrics are finished.

You may notice that the two large yew trees that threatened to block the access and light to the centre have now been cut down. We received permission from both the council and the Diocese on the condition that we replace them with two similar trees. We intend to reinstate two new Iberian Yews on either side of the new main entrance pathway.

The roadway works were  necessary to comply with current fire safety regulations and have caused a degree of difficulty for which we apologise. The kerbs and bases have all been finished and the levels sorted so we are ready for the tarmac team next Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st.  The work will be noisy and dirty and for safety reasons it will be necessary to close both the church and the car park for those 2 days. Everything should be back to normal however ( with nice flat paths) by the end of next week.

We hope to be able to confirm a date for the congregation to take a first look around the centre very soon. Look at the photo gallery here.

Take an early sneak preview of our new Community Centre website

For anyone interested in getting more people cycling in Swindon the next Swindon Bicycle Users group (BUG) would like to invite you their next networking meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to celebrate 2013 as another good year for cycling in Swindon, and to plan together for 2014 and beyond to encourage more Swindon people to cycle more often.

For planning purposes please respond to  glad.barr@ntlworld.com by the 8^th October at the latest.

For more information about BUG and Cycling in Swindon  click here Cycle Swindon

This short course will be held on 6 Wednesday evenings from 7.30 – 9pm at St Mary’s starting on 23rd October. The co-ordinators are Genny Williams and Ailsa Palmer. There will be a short talk each week followed by a general discussion. Refreshments will be available. Read the brochure and sign up here. Enquirers Course2013

On the afternoon of Thursday 12^th September a group of 10 volunteers from Intel came to Christ Church and started to help with the preparations for the new Community Centre Garden. They spent the afternoon breaking up wood from trees that had been kindly cut down by local gardener and congregation member Ian Handy.

Intel Volunteer workers

The weather was wonderful and the volunteers were buzzing at the opportunity to get away from their computers and to put in some real physical labour.

They also had time to help out with some planting of flowers and tidied up some of the graves at the front of the church in time for the Autumn Fayre on the 14^th September.

The next group of volunteers came to Christ Church on Friday 20^th September. They were from Nationwide, aged between 18 and 55 and were very keen and  raring to go well before the agreed start time of 9am.

After 4 days of solid rain, the sun was shining brightly and we were truly blessed by this as everyone was very pleased to spend the day away from their desks with a chance of getting a sun tan. The morning was spent finishing off the demolition of the tree wood as well as weeding, levelling and generally tidying the garden area at the back of the new Community Centre. Thanks to this excellent work, the garden is now ready to be landscaped, and  made good for the future users of the Community Centre @ Christ Church to enjoy.

The afternoon was spent weeding and tidying up the rose garden at the back of the church, the difference was amazing and one person visiting a grave of his loved ones thanked the volunteers for what they were doing. He was generally grateful that they had given up their time and their efforts had really touched him.

Nationwide Volunteers

Jess Robinson aged 18 from Nationwide said that the day had been great for team building, it had given them a good sense of achievement to complete something and had really helped to boost team morale. Another one of the volunteers had never gardened before and also learnt something new as he had never known the difference between a weed and a flower before.

The help of volunteers is vital to the future of the Community Centre and these volunteers have really helped to make a great start to making the area surrounding the Community Centre a pleasure to see.