FOOD BANK we are still collecting food donations for
the Food Bank based at Gleadless. There’s a box at the back of church for food items
and thanks to all who’ve given.
CHRISTMAS
SERVICES Please take leaflets
for your family, friends and neighbours – there are plenty on the table by the
folding notice board in the Meeting Place.
Also, why not invite someone to a service – the Carol Service on 16th
would be a good one!
CHRISTMAS TREE
FESTIVAL/FAYRE A huge thank you to all who gave time and
worked so hard to support this event or decorate a tree for their group. It was wonderful to welcome so many new faces
to St Paul’s last Saturday, and people are already talking about next year’s!
To date a fantastic £600 has been raised for Talbot School & St Paul’s.
CHRISTINGLE
MESSY CHURCH will be on Sat 15th Dec from 10.00 am to 12 noon. It’s a
morning for families with children: includes art & craft activities, a
short creative worship & a light lunch. A contribution of £1 per person is
invited to cover materials & food. If you’d like to help out with crafts,
drinks or food, please see Ann, Pete or Jana. For more information please ring
2551945 or 2550144 or visit www.messychurchstpauls.blogspot.co.uk Thank you
MU ADVENT
SERVICE at 2.00 pm on Friday
14th December at All Saints Church, Ecclesall – see Jacqui for lifts.
NEWS FROM
CANADA! Last week Murray sent
a photo of the new notice board in its new place in the Meeting Place to Liz
Jacobs in Canada. You may remember that
the board was given in memory of Fran and Bill Morgan, and Murray realised that
their daughter Liz had not seen it in its new place. Liz replied:
“Thank you for the picture, it looks great and I am so happy that Mum and
Dad's memorial is so useful, they would have loved that. I trust you are
feeling better and getting ready for Advent and the Christmas season, here we
already have had snow for a month so it looks like Christmas even if we are not
really ready or organized for it. Please thank all the people who visited Mum
and took her to Mothers’ Union meetings, on trips, to choir and services, you
have a great group of people there and they made Mum's last few years easier
and happier.”
NEXT QUARTER’S
CHURCH ROTA Please note: Owing to
annual leave, the church & centre office will be open at limited times from
Mon 3rd to Thurs 6th December inclusive. If you have
messages regarding absences or holidays during the next quarter (Jan – Mar
2013) please put them in writing – a note or email is fine. It’s also helpful
if you’re involved with any groups that meet here, if you can give Joan a list
of next year’s meeting dates please, to save her having to count them all out
for the new diary. Thank you.
‘THE BIG PENNY
CHALLENGE’ Many thanks to everyone for a fantastic response – St Paul’s & the
Lee family raised £37.
There are a couple of newsletters out in church to let you know what
Nottingham YfC is getting up to. Thank you all!
Mon 3rd – Coit Primary
Wed 5th – Windmill Hill Junior
Thurs 6th – Porter Croft Primary
From Murray
If you missed our services last week I talked about the history of the
Paul’s – we started 135 years ago when William Mercer became our first
vicar. He had to get the church built
and gather together a congregation which must have been a tough challenge. Then in the early 1930s Cannon Rawlins raised
money to extend the church despite the depression. At St Paul’s we have a history of overcoming
problems!
Today we have a number of challenges.
The Church is less well respected – but that has happened before and
God’s Church tends to thrive in these circumstances. We are also going through a long and deep
recession – more of that below. Also we
need to express the Gospel in new ways for our world today – and we are
learning to do that.
I shared some simple monthly figures for our
church:
Income: Thanksgiving £3069
Gift Aid £750
Other £511 total £4330
Expenditure: Parish share £3272
Other £1175 total £4448
It is staggering to see that we give over £3,000 a month (and from only 38
sets of envelopes and standing orders).
You can also see that what we get from gift aid is very significant. But our costs are sadly even greater. Parish share is our share of paying for the
clergy of the Diocese and as you can imagine our running costs are significant
(we do receive income from running the Centre which is included above). At
present we have a shortfall of over £100 a month and for this reason we are
having another gift day.
I am excited to lead St Paul’s, we face challenges, but we also have
vision and opportunities. At 10 am we were seeing how much we are already
fulfilling our Vision Statement. So here’s
to the next 135 years!
