Home > Fram News > November 19 News

November 19 News

28 October 2019

Share this article:share on twitter share on facebook

A Letter from our Rector,   Mark:


Confirmation
We are privileged to have five people
exploring Confirmation at the moment.
The young people are all ones we have got to
know in recent years and it is a delight to be
challenged and quizzed by them as they think
about God and faith in an age where so much
thinking about Christianity is confused. How
would you explain it to them? What would you
explore and what would you insist on?
Interesting questions when you consider faith
in a society which philosophers and
sociologists call ‘post Christendom.’
How can we help a country going through
disputes and disagreements about our national
identity, our environment, even our survival by
talking of Jesus who challenged us to love our
neighbour, welcome the outcast, listen to
children. Where faith seems to be about faith
filled hospitality as much as about doctrines
and dogmas. But where do we stand firm?
Please pray for our candidates: Adults: Sabrina
Crooks and Steven Harris: Young people:
Primrose Farrand, Lucía Sánchez-Léost, and
Jessica Whatmough, and Dmitri Theulings
from Wickham Market and Hannah Ponting
from Ipswich, who will also be confirmed on
3rd November at 11am.
St Michael’s Rooms
The PCC reps and the Councillors have been
meeting face to face and working hard at
mutual misunderstandings, concerns and
issues. We have produced a legal agreement
and a Memorandum of Understanding which
will be shared with all Councillors - most have
helped work on them. These will have been to
PCC on 23rd October and will go the Town
Council Meeting on 7th November at 7.30 pm.
There, two motions will be considered as to
whether the Town Council is prepared to
support the £700,000 from East Suffolk
Council and their own £70,000 (both sums
from Community Infrastructure Levy from the
new developments for social and recreational
purposes) to be spent on this project.
If the motions are passed we have a
green light to proceed, if they are not
then the exploration will stop.

Mark


News from All Saints Saxtead
CELEBRATING SAXTEAD - and what next?
Firstly, thanks to everyone who helped make
the weekend such a success. Thanks to those
who had the idea and the perseverance to
keep it going, to those who joined in and
helped before, during and after the event - it
was that sharing which made even the tasks
enjoyable and the whole event such a success.
Secondly, as this is being written the final
financial result is not completely known as
money is still coming and going. However, in
round terms it grossed £4500 and proceeds
were £2700. Perhaps equally important, it
provided lots of memories, good times and
fostered many relationships – a priceless
bonus.
Some more good news - the restoration work
on All Saints Church Saxtead is practically
finished and the total funds needed were
raised even before Celebrating Saxtead began
- this was what we hoped for and achieved.
Hence the money raised by the Friends of All
Saints in earlier years, by Celebrating Saxtead
and any other money or help that comes in,
can all go on the development work, which is
the main hope and is in line with the trend in
many UK Churches.
We are beginning to take the next steps:
 To find out how to get water into the
Church, to have a basic kitchen and
also a toilet within the Church. Note
that being a Grade 1 listed building (a
small and beautiful gem) within a
churchyard now has its issues. The
water will have to be brought in from
the road, up the drive, through the
churchyard and into the Church. All of
these might be of interest to the
archaeologists and so we will need the
proper permissions from planners and
Diocesan Advisory Committee.
 The standards for a toilet and the
finishes to the development must be to
a high standard, plus the toilet must be
accessible to the disabled.
 The new facilities must fit within the
space we have.
 The best way to deal with drainage and
sewerage is being investigated.
 Decoration and lighting could also be
improved.
Given all this we may have to prioritise
what we can do! Some of this work
might be able to be done with
volunteer help but we may need a
contractor with whom volunteers can
work. Then we will need to get details
of what we would like to do inside the
Church and work out the costs - we
may have some ideas by Christmas
for both of these. So let us proceed
with Celebrating Saxtead with all good
speed. The PCC wishes to say a big
thank you to everyone, on what has
been achieved so far – without you
this would not have been possible.


The Rev Canon Mark Sanders:
revmarksanders@tiscali.com
Sue Ward. saxtead_sue@hotmail.com