The week ahead—and indeed -further ahead is on our on-line calendar—click here to access:  Google Calendar .

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:

Parish Men’s supper

A select (ahem!) group of men of the Parish met on Wednesday at the Café Rouge for dinner and chat. Twelve were present, and a very enjoyable (webmaster can attest that!) evening was shared together. We put the matters of the parish to rights amidst many topics discussed in a light hearted manner. Most important was the fellowship we enjoyed, and it was agreed we would repeat the event in the future, with the next date fixed for Wednesday 5 May. Watch this space for further details.  Derek Potts

Church spring clean

The annual Church Spring Clean will take place on Saturday 27^th March from 9am to 12 noon. Please come along and help to make the burden lighter for all.

Decorating the Church for Easter

We will be decorating the church for Easter on Saturday 3 April from 9.30am. All offers of help are welcome.

Easter Lilies

Contributions towards the cost of Easter Lilies are now invited. Please contact Maggie Pattenden or the Parish Office and give us the names of those you wish to be remembered in this way.  Thank you

Garden Working Party

The next Garden Working Party will be on Saturday 13 March. Anyone who can spare time between 9am and 12 noon will be most welcome. We have a break for tea/coffee, and gardening tools are supplied. As it coincides with the Church Open Day, we hope people will also visit the garden. Mary Turner

May Day concert

A May Day concert on Saturday 1 May in St. Nicholas Church at 7p will include members of the Ripieno Choir singing songs and madrigals, with contributions from our own readers and musicians. £5 on the door, concessions available. Further details nearer the time.

Last week’s or prior news repeated:

APM

This year’s Annual Parochial Meeting will take place on Monday 26 April at 7pm in the Main Hall.  Would all those of you who are responsible for writing reports on various church activities please submit them to the Parish Office no later than Wednesday March 31. It would help tremendously if you would type these reports yourselves and send them by email to stnicparishoffice@btinternet.com

Lent

Lent began on Ash Wednesday February 17. For Christians this period before lent is a time for special prayer, study and self denial. Once again the Bishop of Guildford has provided materials to help us use this period and invites us to help support the Church’s work at home and overseas. Full details at the back of the church. John Silk

PCC secretary

Can you help? We are looking for a new PCC secretary, primarily to take the minutes at the bi-monthly meeting. We also need help with projects planned for the restoration appeal, both with simple administrative tasks and with publicity. If you could help with any of these, in however small a way, please have a word with me.   John Silk  

Restoration Appeal

A sign has been put up at the entrance to the car park in the shape of a thermometer. This will inform the parish of progress made with the fund raising appeal. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard. We still have some way to go, but this has been a tremendously encouraging start.  John Silk

…..nb: there is more information on the Restoration Appeal set out below, please scroll down—Ed.

Princess Alice Hospice

The hospice relies heavily on local people who volunteer their time in a variety of ways. New opportunities are available for volunteers who would like to work in supporting patients.  Please see the letter on the notice board at the back of the church for more information.  John Silk

Harvest Weekend—Flower Festival

We are planning to hold a Flower Festival this year at the Harvest weekend to celebrate all of the renovations in the church, which we hope will be well on the way to completion by then.  We are asking you all to help provide the flowers for the displays. When planning your garden planting this year, could we ask that you think about Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, Roses, Hydrangeas, foliage, fruit and veg. and anything else you can think of that will be in flower at the beginning of October.  If you need advice please ask. Many thanks. Maggie Pattenden

Events:

Lent Groups

This year there are six different groups meeting in the Dittons at different times of the week. A list is at the back of the church.  Do have a look to see which one you might join and then contact the group leader direct to let them know you're coming.  John Silk

This year there are six different groups meeting in the Dittons at different times of the week. 

Tuesdays 10.30am  from 23^rd Feb.  20 Westville Rd., Thames Ditton  0208 398 4678

Wednesdays 10.15am from 24^th Feb. 162 Ember Lane Esher   0208 398 4282

Thursdays 10.30am (coffee 10.15am) at St Nicholas Church Hall, Summer Rd., Thames Ditton. Jane Formby 0208 398 4077 or Carole Potts 0208 398 3163

Fridays with soup lunch 12.30pm- 2.00pm from 26^th Feb. at The Rectory, 5 Church Meadow, Long Ditton.  Revd. Vicky Burrows 0208 398 1583

Also “Not a Tame Lion” A Lent course by Hilary Brand based on the writings of CS Lewis, Tuesdays at 8.00pm from 23^rd Feb. St. Mary’s Community Hall, Church Rd., Long Ditton. 0208 398 1583

Also “A way through the wilderness” A course written by Paula Godder.

Wednesdays 8.00pm - 9.00pm from 24^th Feb. at Hinchley Wood Vicarage, 98 Manor Rd. North, Hinchley Wood. 0208 786 6391

Women’s World Day of Prayer 2010

The service this year is to be held at St. Christopher’s Church, Hinchley Wood at 10.30am on Friday March 5.  Everyone is very welcome to attend. The theme is “Let everything that has Breath Praise God” which has been prepared by Christian women of Cameroon. Please see the separate sheet at the back of Church for more details.

Fair Trade

There will be a Fair Trade stall on March 7 after church and at the Parish Lunch. Please support this stall. We are registered as a Fair Trade church and need your support to maintain this status.

Parish lunch

The next Parish Lunch will be on Sunday March 7. We will be serving a hot vegetarian buffet. Please make a note in your diaries:12.30 in Church Hall.

Church refurbishment Open Day

On Saturday March 13 we are holding and Open Day as part of the second phase of refurbishing St. Nicholas Church. Enjoy demonstrations of the new lighting. See a display of church history and furnishings, as well as details of our future plans. We are hoping that there will be various musical items during the day. Other contributions will vary from picture framing, flower arranging, hand bell ringing and organ music. It will be a fun packed day between 10 a.m. and 4.00 p.m..    

May Day Concert

Saturday May 1 in St. Nicholas Church at 7pm: A May Day concert which will include members of the Ripieno Choir singing songs and madrigals, with contributions from our own readers and musicians. £5 on the door, concessions available. Further details nearer the time.

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 will be replaced. A new scheme using the very latest technology will provide 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.

Email

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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