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Welcome to Christ Church, Blacklands & St. Andrew, Laton Road, Hastings
General News and Events
The Deadline for the May edition is Noon Wednesday 22nd April.
If you have articles or items of interest for the newsletter ring Debbie Dann on 01424 717004 or email to debbie@dann-home.me.uk
The advertisers pay for most of the cost of the paper copies of the newsletter so we do not charge for it, however we are not able to endorse or guarantee the service they give.
The paper publication is printed by Plastica ----- For all printing needs contact print@plasticapools.net
Parochial Church Council News
A resume of the PCC meeting held on 25th February 2013 can be found here and the meeting of 25th March is here.
We are hoping to recruit more people to help in all aspects of Church life. A list of “Situations Vacant” is under the PCC section here.
Church Heating Update
You will all be well aware by now of the problems that we have with the church heating and are probably wondering why it has not yet been fixed.
The central heating boiler is located in a cellar underneath the vestry. Areas of the church roof and grounds drain into soakaways and not into the local main drainage system. When there is heavy rainfall the soakaways cannot cope with the volume of water and this then seeps under the church into the cellar. Normally a pump in the cellar cuts in automatically and pumps the water out again. Unfortunately with the heavy rain which fell over the New Year period the pump failed and the cellar became flooded to a depth of 3 feet. Obviously this does not bode well for a boiler and the boiler was deemed to be irreparably damaged.
We are in discussion with our insurers, have had the heating system inspected by the diocesan heating advisor and also are awaiting final estimates from local engineers for the necessary work. It is felt that a new boiler should be installed in the back of the vestry where it will not be subjected to any further flood risk, however this also has it’s problems. A new boiler will obviously need a flue and as this will have to go through the church wall it will require a faculty from the diocese (permission to make an alteration to the church). It is likely also that we will have to apply to the local authority for planning permission and as we are a grade 2* listed building it will be considered carefully. During the inspection significant leaks in the original cast iron heating pipes were discovered and these will have to be repaired before a new boiler is connected to them.
You will appreciate that it will not be a quick fix and it will be expensive, but you can be assured that we are doing all we can to expedite the restoration of the heating as soon as possible.
A Confirmation Service
is being held at St John’s Pevensey Road on SUNDAY 16th JUNE at 3:00 p.m., with 3 adults from Blacklands to be Confirmed. If there are any others who would like to think about the possibility of being Confirmed please get in touch with John Fletcher as soon as possible.
Women’s Fellowship
On March 25th the Fellowship enjoyed a fun day with John Schofield from Seaford amazing us with sleight of hand showing us familiar tricks with ropes, cards and balls and we are still none the wiser how it was done! As he went along we learnt about famous Victorians such as the authors, Lewis Caroll and Charles Dickens, and the Prince of Wales (‘Bertie’) who all had a fascination with the topic. The Victorians used to entertain their guests with ‘magic evenings’. Finally, instead of cutting one of us in half he just guillotined one of Helen Gossling’s fingers, luckily not permanently! Vi Waters celebrated Easter & her birthday week by making us delicious decorated biscuits.
We look forward to our Spring Lunch on April 8th at 12.30 p.m. The cost is £5 so please give in your name if you would like to come & missed our ‘Magic Afternoon’.
We will meet again on April 22nd There will be a programme change as Paul Lendon will talk on “Sun and Health”
Meetings start at 2.30 p.m. Visitors are welcome. £1.50 to include tea & raffle.
Helen Gossling Tel:01424 423124
Tea ‘N’ Chat
The meetings in April will be on Monday 15th & 29th starting at 2:00 p.m.
Please try to support this friendly group or at least come and give us a try.
For more information contact 01424 717004.
Parish Group
Well you were warned! The programme stated that the March talk would be “a bit earthy and rude”, after all it was entitled “Surviving in Soho”. I am not sure what you were expecting but Roger McKenna delivered an enthralling account of the cholera epidemics that killed thousands of people in the area of London now called Soho. We heard how the tireless work of one or two individuals overcame local officials and identified the source of the spread of the disease as the Broad Street pump. The pump drew it’s water from a well located only 3 feet away from a leaking cess pit. It was a very interesting and well delivered talk, even if it was a bit earthy.
The next meeting will be on 15th April when the speaker will be Robert Mucci, the well-known Old Town shopkeeper. Robert is renowned for his knowledge of tribal artefacts and he will tell us all about them as well as bringing some of the items for us to look at.
The meeting on 20th May will be our ever popular fish BBQ with Pat and Tush Hamilton. Due to the popularity of this evening you must book by buying a ticket. The tickets will cost the same as last year (£6) and will be on sale at the next meeting on 15th April.
Also in May we will be holding a coffee morning with some stalls, not a spring fair as on the programme. We will have a plant stall, cake/bread stall, craft/toiletries stall, bring and buy (not jumble) and the usual hamper raffle. There will also be a stall run by the church in aid of the Christian Aid charity. As always as well as people to help with stalls we would like donations of goods for the stalls. All profits will go to help local charities.
Foodbank update
Hi Everyone,
Another busy month has passed so it is time for another update. We fed another 248 people in February bringing the total to date to 1440. We distributed 1,909kg of food but unfortunately donations were only 1322.7kg so our stocks went down by a massive 586,5kg! This has left us with extreme shortages of the following: tinned tomatoes, pasta sauces, steam puddings, tinned rice pudding, tinned fruit, biscuits, long life and dried milk, long life juice, sugar and instant mash potatoes.
Please can you ask your congregations to help us to restock the shelves. We frequently see our clients in tears as they experience the generosity of God's people and many of them say 'thank God you are here' before they take their bags of food home. The foodbank team are here to demonstrate the love of Jesus in action and get to see first hand the desperate need that exists in our town, but those who donate food are every bit as important to this project as those who sort and hand the food out.
Thanks again to you all for your generous contributions to the foodbank.
Pete Houlton
foodbank administrator.
Women’s World Day of Prayer
Many thanks to those who supported The Women’s World Day of Prayer services. Good turnout at both venues.
Thank yous:
We have had good reviews from Dorothy Dixon who employed electrician JLN Hughes who advertises in this magazine. Thank you Dorothy.
A huge thank you to you all for caring so much for me when I suddenly had to go into Hospital for a second time this year. Your prayers, visits to me both in Hospital and at home, ’phone calls, flowers, cakes and cards (which I still have displayed in my sitting room) have played such a large part in my slow recovery, both physically and mentally. Thank you.
A Happy and Blessed Easter to you all.
Joan D. XX
Church Together in Hastings and St Leonard’s
and
Loaf Project
Afternoon walks for the whole family, friends and neighbours. Each walk will be a guided route, usually of between 3 and 4 miles, often with shorter options, many based on routes of the ever popular LOAF May Day family
Sunday 7th April 2:30 p.m.
starting at Brede Church (opposite Red Lion, Brede)
Walk Details at: www.loafproject.co.uk
Midweek Worship
Don’t forget the midweek 9:30 am Communion Service with refreshments after. This will only take a short time out of your busy lives so please try to attend.