St Nicholas Church Thames Ditton Surrey Parish News and Events

Parish News and Events

St Nicholas Church, Thames Ditton

Please see our on-line calendar - click here to access it: Google Calendar , it includes services and events - you can scroll through weeks or months, and double click an item to see details.

Please could Parishioners get any material for weekly News Sheets to the Parish office by 9.30 a.m. on Friday mornings. We generally do an update for this web page on Friday evening….or maybe Saturday morning if webmaster gets home from work too late!

Restoration Appeal:

Please scroll further down (it’s not that far!!) to see information and news about our restoration appeal!

New and urgent items:

Church Close Garden

The September garden working party will be on Saturday 11th. After the August break there will be plenty of help needed. Please come if you have any time to spare between 9am and 12noon. Tools are supplied and there is a break for tea/coffee. Mary Turner

BBQ

We are having a BBQ on September 12 at the Church Hall. All welcome. No need to pre-book, but please let Alex Dunne (0208 398 1571) know in advance if you can—it helps to plan numbers. Church Hall at 12.00, tickets at the door: £7.50 , children £4. Bring your own bottle. Proceeds will go to Church Funds. Please note that there will be no Matins on that day.

QuizAid

A QuizAid evening will take place on Saturday September 18 at 7 p.m. in the Church Hall, to include a sausage and mash supper. QuizAid was great fun last year so book the date in your dairies now! Clare Silk

The Russians are coming

A concert of Russian choral music both liturgical and folk will be held at St. Nicholas Church on Thursday, 23rd September at 7.30 pm. The St. Petersburg Blagovest Ensemble will be making a second visit to Thames Ditton after their much acclaimed first concert here in 2008. The evening will be both uplifting and delightful. Entry £12 at the door. Enquiries to 020 8398 2080 or jshaworth@ntlworld.com

Harvest Supper

Harvest Supper will take place this year at the United Reformed Church on Saturday September 25 at 7.00pm. Tickets are £6 from the Parish Office. Children go free.

Back to Church Sunday

September 26 is Back to Church Sunday, and we hope that as many of our congregation as possible will take the opportunity to invite a friend, colleague or family member, who are not regular church attendees, to accompany them to the 10 a.m. service. This will be a Family Communion service, and not a Family service as advertised. An invitation card for you to detach and give to your guest is enclosed with the service sheet, together with a card for you to give them or keep for yourself. Help us to fill the church on that morning as we pray that the Holy Spirit may enter the hearts and minds of all those present.

Harvest Weekend—Flower Festival October 1, 2 and 3—a Harvest of Psalms

We will be holding an enhanced Harvest Festival this year: a Music and Flower Festival, starting on Friday 1 October and continuing through the weekend of Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 October. Tickets will be £2 on the door, children are free.

Visitors on Friday and Saturday will be able to enjoy a wide variety of flower arrangements, on the theme of ‘A Harvest of Psalms’, not only from St Nicholas’ regulars but also from other local churches and friends. On Saturday a programme of music will be performed by members of the Kingston Philharmonia and others, when refreshments will be available.

Tango evening on Saturday October 2 at 7.30pm in the Church Hall

On the Saturday evening visitors will also be able to take a Tango lesson from Claire Daw and her partner in the Church Hall, which is situated near the Church. This will be followed by a light supper and more dancing when everyone will be able to practise their new-found skills! Tickets for the Tango Evening and Supper will cost £15.00 available from the Parish Office or from Maggie Pattenden on 0208 398 7659. Numbers are limited because of space, so early booking is recommended.

Harvest Festival service

On Sunday October 3 there will also be a Harvest Festival service in St Nicholas’ Church at 10:00am, a popular service for the whole family. At the Evensong service at 6:30 p.m. the London Gallery Quire will provide music. This band of singers and instrumentalists, based in the City of London, perform West Gallery Music of the eighteenth century, often very lively and joyful. This will be the finale to the Festival. A retiring collection will be taken after Evensong at 6:30p.m..

Proceeds from these events will go towards the £200,000 urgently needed for restoration work in and around the Church. All are very welcome. This will be a major fund raising event for the Restoration Fund and needs the support of the whole Parish. Please could you find some time to help with the stewarding, serving tea and coffee to visitors, or selling produce on the stall? Please take posters, or help deliver posters, the list is endless. You can sign up at the back of the church or talk to Maggie Pattenden.

Choir

Choir rehearsals will resume on Thursday September 9 at 7.30 p.m. in Church. Members of the choir should note that the morning service on September 5 will be held in the URC at 10.45 a.m.: hence a practice will not take place on Thursday September 2.

Last week’s or prior news repeated:

Surrey FairTrade

The Fairtrade Surrey Campaign, which aims for Fairtrade status for the county of Surrey in time for the Olympics, is planning a launch on Saturday September 11 at Surrey University Green at the University of Guildford. Click here to read more.

Church Close Garden

There is no official Garden Working party in August. The next one will be in September. Mary Turner

Flower Festival Produce Stall

Would anyone who is planning to make jams and pickles this summer/autumn, please think ahead, and have things ready for our harvest festival fund raising week end on October 1, 2 and 3. Thank you.

We have been alerted about a young man who is ingratiating himself at Church and other events, prior to breaking into the premises. St. Mary’s Church in Long Ditton was hit at the week end - so he may be most active on this side of the diocese. The subject is white, well built, around 24, wearing a grey tracksuit, Fred Perry black Plimsolls and a greeny/grey very thick coat with a fur edged collar/hood. He has a hard luck story and may claim the name Desmond Melvin. If he comes your way, please call the police. The police report number is P10221553 and Surrey police are on 0845125 2222

Surrey Churches Ride

The Surrey Churches Ride and Stride day - formerly known as The Bike Ride will take place on Saturday 11^th September. If you wish to take part, sponsorship forms will be available soon. Please make a note in your diaries. St. Nicholas Church is always happy to participate in this event. On the day we will need a few willing people to help meet and greet visitors and to supply some orange squash for the thirsty walkers/riders. Money raised will be split between a church of the cyclist’s choice and the Surrey Churches Preservation Trust. Please see notices at the back of the church.

Events:

Church Close Garden

BBQ

QuizAid

St. Petersburg Blagovest Ensemble

Back to Church Sunday

Harvest Supper

Harvest Supper will take place this year at the United Reformed Church on Saturday 25^th September at 7.00pm. Tickets are £6 from the Parish Office. Children go free.

Harvest Weekend—Flower Festival October 1, 2 and 3—a Harvest of Psalms

Tango evening on Saturday October 2 at 7.30pm in the Church Hall

Harvest Festival service

Restoration Appeal

St. Nicholas’ Church, the hub of village life in Thames Ditton for more than 850 years, needs your support. We must update essential services to the building, particularly heating and lighting, as a matter of urgency. In addition we wish to undertake further renovation of the churchyard itself, to fully reflect and enhance its ancient heritage and tranquil environment. Dating from Norman times, the Grade I listed church building is steeped in history. Over the centuries generations of families have worshipped, been baptised, married or held funerals here. Many are buried in the churchyard.

Today, St. Nicholas’ Church remains a much needed integral part of our community, and this hugely ambitious and vital modernisation programme will allow it to continue to serve many future generations of local residents and parishioners.

I hope that as a local resident you will wish to, and be able to, make a personal contribution.

John Silk

Major Improvements Include:

1 Lighting and Wiring

The cabling which supplies the lighting and power needs of the church has now been replaced as part of this programme, providing state of the art lighting specially designed to blend with the historic interior of the church.

2 Heating System

New high specification energy efficient system will replace the existing boiler and heating installation. Not only is it dated, inefficient and costly to run, it is nearing the end of its natural life.

3 The Churchyard

The beautiful churchyard is without doubt one of the most delightful and important features of the village but needs constant attention. Over the years volunteers have put in much hard and valued work but despite their considerable efforts there are some tasks for which we require professional help. As part of our programme we will undertake sympathetic landscaping to re-open views across the churchyard, make major improvements to the paths and approaches and upgrade the external lighting - all of which will give easier and safer access for everyone.

4 Open to All

We want to improve access to this beautiful building so that it is open to all, whatever their particular needs.

Funding

To undertake this work we need to raise a little more than £200,000. Clearly this is beyond our present means and regular donations. Apart from approaching local residents we intend to broaden our appeal to the community to include friends and well-wishers of all faiths and none, all who appreciate and value the historic significance and special ethos of St. Nicholas’. We shall be applying for help from grant making organisations, but we shall need to raise substantial funds locally, and be able to demonstrate strong local support for the project.

Thames Ditton would be very much poorer without its Parish Church, the surrounding graveyards and the many other facilities including the beautiful, peaceful and much–used Garden of Remembrance.

Your generous support will help to ensure the future of our historic church.

Please click here to download the pdf brochure—which includes a Gift Aid Form

Reminders

Gift Aid/Church Giving at St Nicholas

If you are a visitor or church member who does not belong to our freewill offering scheme and are a taxpayer, it would help us enormously if you could you put your gift to our church in one of the white envelopes found on the pews. Please make sure your full name and address and signature are included as we cannot claim the tax back from the Exchequer without this information Thank you.

If you would like to be on a mailing list for News from St Nicholas, just sign up! To sign up, email news@stnicholaschurch.org.uk – and in the email, just type “yes please, opt-in” in the subject header. No prose necessary in the body of the email.

If you are on the electoral roll we would also like to have your email address. This would not only save much valuable time in the office but also make a big saving on postage. Please let the parish office have your details by email.

We will add you to our mailing list for Parish News and may use it for other Parish affairs. However we will NOT sell or distribute parishioners’ email addresses to outside parties.

If you want to opt out, all you need to do is to email me again at the news@stnicholaschurch.org.uk email address with the header Opt Out and we will of course promptly take you off.

Howlers?

You, dear reader, appear to have scrolled down to the far reaches of this page—so you may be an observant type. If you have noticed any mistakes, errors, omissions—or even howlers, I would consider it a kindness if you were to let me (Martin Perrin -see tab “Contact us, map”), know - there is a bottle of wine in it for the first person to do so in a month.

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