Westbury Parish Hall has been serving the community of Westbury since 1873. The congregation of All Saints’ Church want to see the Parish Hall play a bigger role in community life in Westbury. It already plays an important role in nurturing young people in Westbury. It hosts Brownies, Guides, St John’s Ambulance Cadets and the weekly Friday Fun Youth Club. However its current poor condition means that it is not used as much as it should be. There is a scheme with planning permission to modernise the Hall and make it into a modern multi-purpose community space, but the congregation of All Saints’ Church don’t have the capacity to see the vision to its conclusion. Without the help of the community of Westbury, we risk losing this valuable community asset. The steering committee working on the transformation of the Parish Hall need your help. The Parish Hall could do so much more to support activity within our community with fresh leadership and a new vision. The steering committee working on this project are currently developing a new Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) to enable management of Westbury Parish Hall by the community, taking over from All Saints’ Church (Westbury Parochial Church Council). The new CIO will take over the day to day management of the Hall and spearhead its transformation into a thriving community space that the people of Westbury deserve. This form of constitution involves a membership from whom the trustees of the new charity are drawn. Members can be individuals and both incorporated and non-incorporated organisations. As a community space managed for the community, by the community, more funding opportunities are available to support the development and ongoing management of the Hall from sources such as government funds and the National Lottery Community Fund which would not be available to the Church. The steering committee working on the project are inviting organisations and individuals who might like to take part in this project and seeking new members to join the CIO at this exciting time. There is no membership fee – we are simply seeking your support to ensure the continued use of the Parish Hall as an important community space. Members will be invited to attend the Annual General Meeting and take an active role in the future direction of the Parish Hall, which is currently provisionally calling the ‘White Horse Community Hub’. Members will elect trustees from the membership at the AGM. By taking its trustees from community groups it is hoped that the Hall meets the needs of a wider range of people. Those who are interested in becoming members are invited to attend a meeting on Saturday 15 March at 10:30am in the Parish Hall. This will give potential members an opportunity to find out more about our plans and how they can get involved. If you would like to know more about the proposals for the Hall or how you or your organisation can help, please contact Beth Thomas by email beth@whtministry.org.uk.
I would like to thank everyone who supported our Team Focus day on 18 January. It was very encouraging to see so many people from our churches come along and engage with the different activities around the tables, enjoy lunch together and think about our vision for our Team as we go forward. We collected a lot of ideas and material which will be very helpful for putting together the profile for the new Team Vicar role. Please pray for the profile group from our two parishes as we meet, discuss and work together. We shall let you know how we get on. Our first meeting is taking place on 18 February, so please pray for us then. Please also continue to use our vacancy prayer in your personal prayers as well as in our church services.Thank you very much.Rebecca
A small dedicated, but aging team of volunteers give their time and energy to provide three Experiences for the local primary Schools. The three Experiences take place one in each term and for different year groups. In the Autumn term (November) Year 5 children come to Experience Holy Communion. In the Spring term (March) Year 3 children Experience Easter and in the Summer term (May- avoiding SATS week) Year 4 comes to Experience Pentecost. The Experiences take place in two churches to which the children walk. Westbury Leigh School and Dilton Marsh come to Holy Trinity Church in Dilton Marsh. Westbury Junior School and Bitham Brook attend the Experience at All Saints Church. As yet, Bitham Brook School has not come to Experience Holy Communion, but the other three Church schools have. Each class spends an hour rotating through six interactive stations concentrating on different aspects of the same theme. The volunteer leaders introduce themselves explain about the station theme and help the children with an activity or craft. Not every station has a craft or activity, to the relief of some! We try to provide two leaders per station so each can share in the delivery of the short talk. At present, an Experience last three days. We set up the stations on Tuesday morning with the first class from Westbury Leigh walking to Holy Trinity Church for a session in the afternoon. On Wednesday two classes attend from Westbury Leigh in the morning with the class from Dilton Marsh School coming for an hour in the afternoon. The volunteers pack up the stations and transfer the equipment to All Saints church. On Thursday we welcome two classes from Westbury Junior School in the morning and two classes from Bitham Brook for the afternoon session. The church is cleared and everyone goes home for a well-earned rest! Some of the volunteers are finding three days rather exhausting, hence our recruitment drive for new volunteers to join the Team. If all four schools attend the Experience a station leader can have delivered a short talk 35 times. If people can only offer one day or one session for the Experience we try to accommodate all requests, hence again we need more volunteers to spread the load. There is always a preparation meeting beforehand. There the material is provided for each station to help with talk and craft and the decision about who will lead each station is made. Basic Safeguarding Training needs to take place in accordance with WACT policy. Observers are welcome at the preparation meeting and at one session where school children are present. Preparation Meeting is booked for Tuesday 4 March at 3.30pm at Holy Trinity Church, Dilton Marsh. If you need further information or would like to know more, please talk to those Experience Volunteers here this evening or contact Rev Helen Durant-Stevensen on 824743 or email hdurantstevensen@btinternet.com Helen Durant-Stevensen (Retired Priest WHTM)
I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all who supported our Christmas Tree Festival this year: especially to the organising committee headed up by David Bullock, and to all those who served on stalls, on the door, serving refreshments, helping to set up trees and take them down etc. So much goes on behind the scenes to make this event a success and it was a great success this year. It was wonderful to see so many people (several hundred) come through our doors, despite the cold weather and the cancellation of the Christmas light switch-on in the town centre. We presented a prize to the the Friends of Victoria Gardens, the winner of the tree competition. We raised approximately £2,500 for church funds this year, which is a fantastic result! Thank you all for your support.Revd Rebecca
Christian BasicsWe have had many visitors to our churches during December and the Christmas period. If anyone would like to explore matters of faith and what Christians believe, please be in touch with me. There is some interest in doing a short course online in the New Year. So if you have questions about Christianity and would like to explore your faith, or you have any questions, please be in touch with me very soon. This could lead to baptism and/or Confirmation at a later date for any who are interested. We look forward to hearing from you.Revd Rebecca Harris, Rector
News and prayer requests from our brothers and sisters of the Maridi Diocese in South Sudan