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.

As a charity, Christ Church relies on the generosity of our members and friends to ensure that we make the maximum impact of our Christian faith in our Swindon community and further afield. At least once a year we have a particular focus on financial giving. We share what the Bible says about giving and what we have achieved in recent months and what we plan to achieve in the coming year.  At the beginning of this month we sent out a number of Pledge packs to members on the Church electoral roll  – this invited them to review their giving to the church for the coming year and let us know what they can commit to. This helps us to predict our income for next year and how much we can budget for both our own mission and that of the Bristol Diocese. Remember the church doesn’t get any outside financial help from the government – all our income comes from our friends and supporters.

If you have not received a pack but would like to join us in supporting the work and mission of Christ Church in our local community and further afield then you can download the pledge document and a leaflet explaining our financial position.

Pledge2014 – please return in confidence to Stephen Grosvenor, Gift Aid Secretary, 51a Broome Manor Lane, Swindon, SN3 1NB

Stewardship2013 – a document explaining about our finances and mission.

Standing order mandate – give to Christ Church regularly via a standing order with your bank.

Remember also that, provided you are a UK tax payer, any gift you make may be eligible for gift aid which allows us to claim up to 20% back from the tax office. Find out more here and download a gift aid form.

Local artist Laurie Plant has been hard at work producing preliminary sketches and drawings for the Community Centre artwork project. He has been seen seated at his easel in a number of prominent locations across Old Town and there has been a great deal of interest in his work. Earlier this year, Cilla Slipper led an Old Town walk around the town to produce ideas for iconic locations or buildings to be included in the finished work. The local community have been invited to put forward their ideas for what landmarks or features make Old Town special. Laurie is excited by the project.

Sketch detail of Christ Church by Laurie Plant

“I couldn’t have predicted how much interest I’ve had in the Christ Church Art Project.

Following the highly successful community effort earlier in the year, the Pipers Way Residents Association are organising another event.  The Autumn planting and tidy will be on the 29th September from 2- 4pm. Meet outside Tony Knowles Interiors Shop in Devizes Road for an afternoon of sprucing up our Old Town ready for the Winter.

You can find out more details on http://www.pipersarea.co.uk/