Events At the beginning of November we held our first Come and Sing in the church with Tim Johnson, the Precentor and Director Of Music at Eton College, kindly giving his time to conduct an informal performance of Faure’s Requiem Op 48 and Cantique de Jean Racine. It was a wonderful event with 91 singers, an audience of 40 and the church full to bursting. The singing was sublime, a number of people from the audience said they had never expected to hear music of that quality in our church. We have been snowed under with requests for another Come and Sing next year. This was the first event towards Stage ll and we raised £2,030. We have a programme of events for next year so please support us. Talk on The Holy Grail - 9th May 2026 Auction of Promises - 25th April 2026 Sonare Choir - 20th June 2026 Blooms and Tunes - 22nd/23rd August 2026 And the possibility of another Come and Sing and a Musical Recital. Please continue to check for future dates.
The pie chart shows how this amount was raised and is testament to all the hard work by the Fund Raising Committee who have worked tirelessly over the last two years together with our treasurer Paul Linsey and Anne as the restoration project has resulted in a lot of extra work for them. It also shows the generosity of private individuals. Huge thanks to you all for your contributions towards this sum which we could not have raised without you. We have also been supported in our efforts by Nick Fielden our Vicar and both Sue and Sally our Church Wardens. Stage l is making certain that the church is watertight, new roofs, gutters, downpipes, the replacement of some stone work and a large amount of repointing. Cement mortar was used sometime in the past and as a result the stonework has been deteriorating. We hope to repoint the high parts of the church now so any further work on repointing at a later date can be tackled without scaffolding. We shall turn our attention to Stage ll shortly. Why, you may ask, is this necessary? The church will continue to be used primarily for religious celebrations and prayer but its future is best assured by it serving our community as a venue as well. To do this it needs facilities, a toilet, a basic kitchen, updated lighting and heating and underground drainage. This is what Stage ll is all about. For the church to be used for concerts etc it must have facilities otherwise other churches will be used instead of ours. It is essential that the church generates an income to help cover ongoing maintenance costs. Please, please continue to help us with raising money for Stage ll, the Government has just made this even harder by removing The Listed Places of Worship Scheme which allowed churches to reclaim the VAT on restoration works. It has added an extra £20,000 to our bill for Stage l and will add approximately £60,000 to Stage ll. Lobbying on this issue is continuing and there is a hope that they will do a u turn. We will keep you updated. We have two more events this year Blooms and Tunes on 23rd and 24th August, and Come and Sing (a choir made up on the day of people who can read music and an audience) on 1st November and many more in the pipeline for 2026. We look forward to welcoming you to these events and bringing this wonderful church back into the centre of village life.
