St Mary's Radcliffe on Trent

PLANT SALE: St Mary's is having a plant sale on Saturday 25th September  from 9.30 - 12.30 in the church hall.  This is a fundraising event for the church sound system.  Any donations of plants - indoor and outdoor - will be welcome.  Any offers of help most welcome (including watering some plants a the vicarage).  Please speak to Judy Anderson.

"MESSY CHURCH": A few folk from St Mary's went to a day seminar to find out about "Messy Church".  There will be an evening session to share what we learned about this type of "worship", with an opportunity also to chat through the possibilities of St Mary's running this in the future.  Anyone interested is very welcome to come to the vicarage on Tuesday 17th August at 8.00 p.m.  Refreshments and puddings to be served.

SOUND REINFORCEMENT SYSTEM:  The cost of the new sound system was passed at the last PCC meeting and it is hoped to have the system installed by Christmas.  The system is likely to cost £15,000 (including VAT at the current rate) to include a screen around the mixing desk.  Anyone who wishes to make a donation towards this  (gift-aided if possible) please pass the money to one of the wardens.  If anyone has any fund-raising ideas or wishes to organize a fund-raising event to help defray some of the costs, please also refer to one of the wardens.  Martin Skeffington, Dave Townsend

TRIP TO LIVERPOOL: Following demand exceeding the number of seats I had planned and after a word with Steve Sugden he has booked the 59 seater Executive Coach for us.  This means I have potentially a further 10 seats of which at least 4 have already been allocated.  Please see me if you are interested. Martin

TOWER ROOM: The tower room is being "redesigned" to be a more inviting crèche and to this end all the furniture apart from the toy box and chest and the screen are being removed and disposed of.  The desks have already been sold and are awaiting collection.  If anyone else wants any of the chairs or the coffee table please see one of the wardens.  Any donation for an item will help to defray any costs which the PCC has limited to a maximum of £500 to refurbish the room so that it is more child friendly.  If no one shows any interest before Sunday 18th July the items will be dealt with accordingly. Martin

NEW WINE' NEWARK. July 31st - 7th August at Newark Showground.  A small number of our congregation will be camping here for the week.  This is a Christian conference with a huge variety of seminars and events for all ages from 2 years old plus.  Day tickets cost £25 and can be purchased on the gate.  A day ticket allows you to arrive at 8am and leave at midnight after the evening worship and speaker and even later evening entertainment.  Adrian Plass is performing one night.  check out the website for more info - www.new-wine.org - or speak to Graeme, Judy or Jude.

BIBLE STUDIES:  There will be 2 opportunities to come to a bible study in August:- Monday 9th August at 7.30pm in the Manvers Arms and Tuesday 10th August at 12.30pm in the Hall.  All are very welcome to come to either.  The evening session in particular will be a good event to bring a friend along to.

RIDE AND STRIDE: This event is on Saturday 11 September; please see the poster at the back of the church or contact me if you want to know more about it. In the meantime I need volunteers to be sponsored to ride (on a bicycle, horse, whatever) or stride (walk, run, mixture of both) to local churches. Half the money raised goes to St Mary’s and half to the Historic Churches Trust. I also need volunteers to sit for an hour or so in the church to greet visiting riders and striders and give out refreshments. Please contact me, Lyn Sugden,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

PICNIC IN VICARAGE GARDEN:  Not enough time to have a good chat with folk from church? Want a place to relax with others where your children can run around? Why not come along with your picnic to the Vicarage garden after 12 o'clock today, weather permitting.  Bring rugs. There will be some chairs and a few tables that you can use. Everyone welcome!  

VERGER As some of you may already know, after many years’ dedicated service to St Mary's, both Sheila Bainbridge and Maureen Rawson have decided that they can no longer continue in their positions as Verger and assistant. We are most concerned that this vital position is filled as soon as possible and would be happy to discuss it further with anyone who may be interested.  To provide the necessary flexibility we are looking for a minimum of two people to fill the position and we may need to have a team of three or four.  Please give careful thought to whether you may be able to help -Martin Skeffington, Dave Townsend

SERVICES NEXT SUNDAY: TRINITY 9 – 1st August
8.00  Holy Communion – Celebrant Rev Christine French
10.00  All Age Worship

N.B. This is the last PewsNews before the summer break - there is no PewsNews in August.