For the timetable of services and regular events please see the Church Diary.
For the latest Kenya Project News please see the Kenya Pages
The whole Church Magazine is now available online.
Index
Church Matters - Church Meetings, Bible Study Sessions, Vacancies etc
What's on this month - Special Services, Social and Fundraising events
Film Shows and Concerts - Musical and Visual Arts at the URCiC
Book Now! Forthcoming events - Meetings, Events, Outings and Visits
Other news and articles - 'What was on'
Photo Gallery - pictures from notable past events
Church Matters
LOCAL
MISSION
AND MINISTRY REVIEW – LMMR 2010
· Know better where they are going
· Know better what each is contributing to the journey
· Know better what resources they need to get there
· Know better what they need to ask of Synod in order that Synod can ensure resources are identified and provided.
At
the end of the process, we shall have a revised Pastorate Profile and a
Minister’s Role description. These will be considered and endorsed at a Church
Meeting.
We shall then submit these documents with
a covering commentary to Synod.
PRESTBURY
UNITED REFORMED CHURCH,
DEEP
STREET
4pm – 5pm (monthly)
Second Sunday in the month
Get
closer to God through creating your own worship
Storytelling that helps you learn more about the Bible
plus
Bring-and-share
tea
Jump for Joy
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St Andrew's - Third Sunday in the Month from 9.30 to 10 An Informal short service for all the family
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NEW! |
Prestbury URC - Fourth Tuesday in the month from 10.00-10.30 a.m
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60 Plus Ministry
August 18 and 25 the 60 Plus Ministry will be providing two afternoons of
fellowship at St. Christopher’s. These will run from 2-4pm and fun and
fellowship will be the order of the day. Refreshments will be served and
these afternoons are free of charge.
Themes for the afternoons are Pirates on the 18th August and Teddy Bears on the 25th August. Sounds Fun!!
Christmas
Shoebox Appeal
Operation Christmas Child last year distributed 1.18 million gift-filled shoeboxes to Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa and about 35 of those came from our URCiC efforts.

We
intend to help Samaritan’s Purse (the charity that organise it all) again this
year, so please don’t throw out any of those old shoeboxes – wrap them in
Christmas paper and start filling them now! The distribution process starts in
early November, so we need to have boxes ready by then.
It is not too early to start collecting suitable gifts – toys (tennis
balls are good), educational supplies, toothbrush and other hygiene items,
gloves, scarfs, etc. All gifts should be new and please note that hand knitted
stuffed toys need a CE mark.
This is a great way of helping needy children at Christmas time and I
hope we will be able to match last year’s support once again.
Bob
Alger
Situations
Vacant - URGENT! at St Andrew's
We
need your help
A reminder of the vacancies that exist and need to be filled a soon as possible. Please re-read Tony Jeans’s notes on page 20 of last month’s In Touch and please give some serious thought how you might help. Some of our members have worked hard for a number of years for St Andrew’s and they now need to take some time off. If you would like more information about any of the offices that are vacant please talk to Revd Maz Allen, Tony Jeans or any of the Elders.
St
Andrew's Redevelopment: the next phase
The Elders have agreed that we will formally launch the next phase of our
redevelopment appeal once the committee has been formed and had a chance to
consider how it wishes to function. However we have been able to agree on a
chairman for the appeal: Ian Thomson has agreed to lead it once he returns to
Cheltenham in July. We expect to unveil the full
committee by the time the September issue goes to press.
The
first work required is replacing the hall heating system with something that
will remain useable after the rest of the work is completed. It is envisaged
that it will be radiators at floor level and, as I write this, we are awaiting
quotes and specifications so that we can appoint a contractor and get the work
done this summer. It is possible that some of the wood blocks will have to be
lifted round the edge to make the layout work.
The next phase is to get a formal specification drawn up for replacing
the floor and lighting, then redecorating the hall. The architect has been asked
to give us a price and timetable for that. With that we can then go out to
tender and have a contractor ready in place for next summer.
However, because of possible changes in the VAT rules for listed churches
like ours, we may need to have contracts signed and materials on site by the end
of March 2011. I hope we can also include work on the skylights within this
programme because of the problems with access. As I have explained to several
hirers, and found ways of relocating them for the work period, the work window
is primarily from mid June to the end of September. The flooring contractor
needs virtually all of that time because of the extent of the work and the time
required for the floor to settle once installed. The hall would be sealed off
and there would be no access to the stores during that period. Particular
attention will be paid to avoiding dust getting into the kitchen.
There is more work required after the interior is finished, but apart
from installing secondary glazing on the main hall windows the work is external.
The current phase of external work is almost complete, but it was held up at the
end by the wrong guttering being supplied to the
contractor. We do have a fully replaced flat roof over the stores so
hopefully there will be no more leaks there.
David
Black
In Touch
. If you no longer wish to
receive a copy of the magazine, please could you contact the Church Office on
575086 and cancel your copy.
The In Touch page now has complete back copies of the magazine going back to September 2008 as well as edited highlights on this page. If you wish, I can let you know (via email) when the new edition is added to the website, and if you are happy to read it on the web then you might want to consider not having a paper copy of In Touch at all. Church Council has also asked me to find out if anyone would like to receive a copy of the weekly notices via email. If you wish to go down any of these routes then please contact Fiona Hall
Women’s Refuges
Lyn Ricketts (St Andrews) would like any type of women's cosmetics, shampoos, skin cream, soaps, perfume etc (does not matter is they have been open). Also if anyone has some children's games they do not want. These will be given to women's refuges. She would like to thank everyone for their generous support
Stamps for ‘Hearing Dogs for Deaf People’
A
big thank you to all those who collect used postage stamps for this
wonderful cause. I spend many happy hours
sorting and trimming them, but
would be very grateful if people could cut out the stamps neatly and leave a
reasonable margin whenever possible.
Joan Thomson
What's On
A Guide to the social and fundraising events in the URCIC and the Cheltenham Area
Prestbury Monthly Coffee Morning
Do join us for our usual coffee morning on Saturday August 7 from 10.30 till noon. Teas, Coffees, Cakes, Raffle and Fellowship
Charity
Quilting Workshop at Warden Hill URC
On Friday 13th August, there will be a Charity Quilting
Workshop in aid of Kenya Projects UK in the Warden Hill URC building from 11-5.
You will be shown how to make a quilt, a bag or a cupcake cushion. The cost is
£30 waged/£20 unwaged to include coffee, cakes and biscuits. You will need a
packed lunch and materials. There will be a raffle.
Places are limited to 20, if you are interested, please contact Carole Pennington steveandcarole@blueyonder.co.uk)
Puddings at the Manse!!
Maz invites you to drop in any time between 2-5pm and 7-9pm on Friday 20 August for
tea/coffee and a sample of as many puddings as you like!! £5 entrance, pay on
the door. All proceeds to Kenya Projects UK.
Knit and Chat
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| Knitted Teddy | Rainbow Babies | |
| www.allaboutyou.com/craft/knitting-pattern-teddy/v1 | www.jeangreenhowe.com/patterns.html |
We meet on the 3rd Thursday of the month in the Garden Room at St Andrew's. Current patterns (above) are available on the Internet. It is hoped to add an evening session.
Next meeting
1pm
Thursday 19th August
Lizzie George
'Footsloggers'!
. The walk for August will
be led by Brenda Little. See church notice boards for detailed information.
Cooking
up a storm !
Prestbury
has re-launched its Harvest of the Talents and for this this year, Julie
Jefferies would like to produce a recipe book of our favourites. So if you have
any special recipes for family meals, low fat, low sugar, just desert, cakes and
bakes, special meals for One or vegetarian then please send me your recipes to prestbury@urcic.org.uk
In
the Autumn when the book is produced we will have a Recipe Tasting evening
Julie Jefferies.
Film
Shows, Concerts, Talks and other Events
Music
in Gloucester
Three
Choirs Festival 2010
7
- 15 August
Booking
Office Tel: No. 0845 652 1823
Website:
3choirs.org.uk
This year is the 283rd meeting of the Three Choirs Festival of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester Cathedrals to be held this year at Gloucester Cathedral. It is the oldest music festival of its kind certainly in the United Kingdom, and possibly of the whole world.
Organ Recitals
Gloucester Cathedral:
Free Bank Holiday Monday organ recital
30 August at 12:30 pm
given by Jonathon Vaughn, Wells Cathedral
Cheltenham Opera Society
COS use St Andrew's as one for their regular venues. For more details of the varied programme please see their website -
www.cos.urcic.org.uk
Book NOW! - Forthcoming Events
Reading
Group
The
Reading Group will be meeting on Wednesday 1 September at 7.30 pm at Prestbury
URC. There is time to start reading ‘The Island’ by Victoria Hislop which is
the novel we will be discussing on that date. New members are always welcome.
Please contact Mary Cummings on 01242 243216 if you would like to know more
about the group.
Mary Cummings
Pensioners' Forum - at St Andrew's
Tuesday Forum
- Garden Room at St Andrew's
. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, 14 September 2010.
Calling all budding Rock Musicians
Come along to the
gig
Bring your
parent's and grandparent's
'Clives Rock School' Gig
at
St. Andrew’s Church
on
6.30pm Saturday
11th September
afternoon tea
served from 5pm
Tickets £5
ALL Proceeds to Kenya Projects UK
Free taster sessions may be booked
for
Rock School every Saturday
Other News and Articles
Seaside Rock Holiday Club 2010
Warden Hill URC was host to the 2010 Holiday Club. Activities included cooking and drama.
Drama
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Simon Peter (in green) shares his experiences of being a friend of Jesus |
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Making Rock Cakes
| Enjoying the final results! |
Show and Tell
The
Tuesday Forum trip to Hampton Court Gardens near Leominster.
Oh – my, how things have changed, a comfortable coach ride to Hampton Court Gardens near Leominster was had by all, not like it must have been in the year 1919 when/where the local carrier travelled at 12 mph to visit places. Arriving safe and sound, we all ventured around an expansive and well laid out garden with well structured ponds, flowers and shrubs of many varieties.
At around 4pm we were treated to a cream tea in the Orangery, that is for those that didn’t get too lost in the maze! Some of us, the maze lot, ventured into the maze area. With 20–minutes or so to spare before tea it took sometime for us to find a way out. In the middle of the maze was a rather old looking tower with a rather high lookout position for observing the way out! There was also an ominous flight of steps down in the tower which I shall mention later.
Getting to the tower was relatively easy with Bill Cowie’s party shouting ‘It is no use going that way, you won’t get anywhere’, however with another group of maze speculators trying to fathom the way out and after a short trial period with them and not hearing any more voices from the URC group, I thought it best to descend the flight of stairs in the tower. At the bottom of the long flight of stairs there must have been a tunnel and in pitch darkness I moved forward some 20-yards before seeing a glimmer of light. Following this light, I eventually came out into a lovely secret garden area with pond and waterfall. A short walk around a pathway and up some well placed steps the view was clear for a lengthy walk to the Orangery, and bingo at last I made it for tea. A 999 call was now no longer needed!
Back on the coach a big round of applause was given to the coach driver
who managed to get us back home in half the time. I think, we all agreed that it
was a good day out and very pleasant to be in each others company.
John Standring
PHOTO GALLERY
2008 Harvest of Flowers at Prestbury
STANDyg went to the Gower for a summer camp - read all about their trip day-by-day.
Prestbury Easter Celebrations including the St Mary's Prayer Maze at Easter 2008
Induction of the Revd Jon Morgan - 24th June 2007
Induction of the Revd Maz Allen - 28th January 2007
Health and Wellbeing Event at St Andrew's
Prestbury URC celebrates 140 years as a centre for non-conformist worship in the village
Prestbury URC dines out to celebrate three of our members
Glyn's Retirement Celebrations - 18th and 19th March 2006
New Members at Warden Hill - 5 February 2006
Signing of the Declaration of Intent at Warden Hill - 22 January 2006
