December 2020 News

Lisa Overton, Secretary of the Friends of St Mary’s, provides our news round-up for December 2020:

AGM

The 2020 AGM of the Friends of St Mary’s took place by Zoom on Sundy 29th November at 4.30pm. We had hoped to be able to hold the meeting in the church, but Lockdown 2 frustrated our efforts. A report of the meeting will be circulated to all Friends as soon as possible.

End-of-Year Message from the Chairman

Ian Macfadyen, Chairman of the Friends of St Mary’s, writes:

By the time the December Parish News is delivered, we hope that much of the work to the vestry will have been completed. With the new bell-ringing chamber accessed via the old tower staircase, elegant oak vestry storage cupboards, much improved lighting and a beautiful glass screen soon to be installed in the Nave. All parts of the project envisaged and funded by much help from FOSM fundraising along with numerous grants and donations.

Our construction company, Carrek Ltd, whose excellent stonemasons have worked in all types of wind and weather upon the scaffolding, has been raking out decayed mortar, replacing worn away stone drip mouldings and applying fresh lime mortar to opened joints and cracks between the stones. The work is truly impressive, and it will be a wonderful day when the cladding and scaffold come down and we see the tower in all its glory early in the new year.

At the same time the new bells, which without Mr John Appleby’s immense generosity we could never have funded, should have arrived in this country from Milan by the end of December and will be prepared for tuning and hanging by Matthew Higby Ltd, our bells engineering company.

None of this great work would have been possible without the energetic support of the Friends over the last eight years, and many others in the parish and beyond, so I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to all of you.

May I also extend Christmas greetings in the hope that we can all be with family and loved ones.

Ian Macfadyen

December Services

At the time of writing, we have no knowledge of changes to services for December, which are listed below, but there may well be alterations as government restrictions change, so please keep an eye on the Badminton Benefice website for up-to-date information, especially for our Christmas services.

Inevitably some of our best-loved Christmas activities will be cancelled or limited this year, but there will be no lack of goodwill from all on the PCC towards parishioners, regular worshippers and visitors. Let us hope that the new year will bring a return to regular worship.

St Mary’s will be open for visitors on Christmas Eve between 4 and 5pm. There will be simple Christmas decorations and families will be especially welcome. Let us hope to be able to return to regular Christmas worship in 2021.