Welland Fosse Group of Churches

Since our last update work has been concentrated on the new flagged floor and completing the lighting circuits.

We hope to be able to have another Open Day quite soon, once the floor is finished.

The new light fittings have been ordered. These will help transform the church by creating the right lighting effect and atmosphere.

Work is just behind schedule but we still expect to have the church back in mid-May.

Budget-wise we are still about £20,000 short of where we need to be; or put another way in a £390,000 project we are 95% there!

Servery and Cupboads

Behind the scenes the builders have been designing and fabricating the new oak cupboards and fittings for the Servery and new Meeting Room – similar to this :

 

 

Floor

All the complicated edges have been finished first.

 

 

 

 The new meeting room floor is down and work has commenced in the Nave

 

   

Funding 

The total project estimate including building works, chairs, new organ, fittings and fees is £390,000.

Through the generosity of villagers and families associated with parish,we have raised over £80,000

which has allowed us to draw in £132,000 in grants and a £50,000 Diocesan loan.

The PCC has used up its own reserves and available funds, some £110,000, to almost bridge the gap.

As things stand the funding gap will not allow us to install the glass screen for the Meeting Room and

items such as chair storage, repairs to the bell tower steps and new tables.

If you can help with our final push we’d be delighted to hear from you.

Steve Preston  sarahstevepreston@btinternet.com  on behalf of the Re-ordering Project team :

Martin Beattie (Chair)

Very Rev’d Christopher Armstrong

Kay Bagshaw

Judith Pigott

Peter Voller

David Lovering

                             DAY 25 THE WAY OF LOVE

Some words of Godfrey Rust from his poem “Welcome to the Real World”

    “Love isn’t what you fall in.

   It’s what pulls you out

   Of what you fall in

   Love isn’t a good feeling

   Love is doing good

   When you’re feeling bad.

   I don’t know too much about love

   but I know a man who does

   up there on the cross

   loving us to death.”

Jesus suffered a cruel death on a tree shaped to fit the human body. He suffered humiliation, pain and horror for our sakes. How do we repay him?

DAY 24 THE WAY OF LOVE

It is often hard to find the right way to go but God’s love will show us the way. He will guide us to show love to others.

St Paul wrote about love in his letter to the Corinthians. It is a reading often used at weddings and funerals, where love is so important.

“Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and patience never fail.”

Would living with these thoughts make the world a better place?  Would living in this way make us better?

DAY 23 THE WAY OF PRAYER AND LOVE

Mother Teresa had much to say about prayer and love. Here are a few sayings which perhaps we would do well to think about during this season of Lent.

“God has created us to love and be loved and this is the beginning of prayer—to know that He loves me and that I have been created for greater things.”

“Not all of us can do great things but we can do small things with great love.”

“Love cannot remain by itself– it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action and that action is service.”

What do we do in love for others?

DAY 22 THE WAY OF PRAYER

Albrecht Durer’s painting of Praying Hands is beautiful but there is another way to pray and that is with open hands.

Henri Nouwen has written a book called “With Open Hands” and he writes much about prayer. One of the prayers is:

“Dear God, I do not know where you are leading me. I do not even know what my next day, my next week or my next year will look like. As I try to keep my hands open, I trust that you will put your hand in mine and bring me home. Thank you, God, for your love. Thank you. Amen.”

Do we fully trust that God will lead us?

DAY 21 THE WAY OF PRAYER

What can we do when faced with two or three possible courses of action and with no certainty as to which to take? The old Quakers (who knew a great deal about walking by the inner light) decided usually by the test of ‘peace’.

Go into the quiet again with God. Wait before him in utter stillness. Hold out the dilemma before the Father. Just wait!

Now—in imagination– see yourself travelling each of those possible roads in turn. Each in turn. Unhurriedly.

There may be pain in all of them but on one it is probable that the ‘peace’ will rest. As you see yourself travelling that road, whatever the cost, you will find peace in your heart. That is your path. A voice behind you says: This is the way. Walk in it. But don’t try to hurry God—he may keep you waiting.

Dr W.E. Sangster

DAY 20 THE WAY OF PRAYER

During Lent I have decided to crochet a prayer shawl. The pattern for it is called “Mighty Waves” and comes from a quotation in Psalm 93 v 4 “The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea”.  Each stitch will be a prayer  and hopefully the pattern of prayer will build as the pattern of the shawl builds up. If I spend half an hour a day doing it, it should grow but half an hour is a long time to find each day. Am I too busy to find time to pray? How much time does God need from us? I’ll let you know how it goes

Day 19 26th March

DAY 19 THE WAY OF PRAYER

One way to try to make the right decision is to pray. Prayer is not easy but to find a relationship with God our Father it is essential that we speak to him and most importantly listen to him. Prayer is private and does not need to be heard by anyone but God.

Jesus told us to go into a quiet room and close the door and pray privately. There are objects which can help in prayer; one is a prayer shawl used by some Christians coming from the Jewish tradition and some people use rosaries. There are many things which get in the way of prayer even if we are being quiet. One of the most frequent problems of prayer is wandering thoughts, where we find ourselves thinking of everything that is on our minds. Perhaps to solve this it means bringing all those worries to God in prayer.