Church Heating
Who wants a warm Church?

It goes without saying .. we want a warm, welcoming, comfortable Church! So we need to improve the heating at St. Michael’s.

Over the last year, we have been discussing ideas for improving the Church. We’ve agreed to proceed with a new heating system, as a first step towards improving the building. Now we need to raise the money for a new, more efficient heating system – to keep us all warm.

The new system will consist of two gas-fired boilers and sixteen radiators – and we have got an expert with lots of experience of installing heating in churches – in fact, we have taken up references from other churches, and we have had excellent feedback.

It’s going to cost about £65,000. We have a long-standing legacy to draw on and already some generous donations have been received – but we will need to raise £40,000 over the next 12 months. We have a fundraising group (always looking for new members with ideas and energy!) and we are planning some fundraising events in the coming months.

The Friends of St. Michael’s (registered charity no. 1047831) has kindly offered to manage the Fund and reclaim Gift Aid.

The best way of building up the Fund is by a monthly donation. With Gift Aid adding a further 20p for every £1 given. Every little bit helps! But to hit the heating target - £40,00 – as soon as possible, we would like to invite you to consider joining the St. Michael’s 100 Group. 100 people donating £25 per month for the next 12 months (with Gift Aid @ 20%) = £36,000.

WILL YOU BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ST MICHAEL’S 100 GROUP?

St. Michael’s is a well loved Church, greatly valued by the community of Aspley Heath and Woburn Sands. We are the Church’s custodians – called to serve God and bear witness to his love. We are responsible for making the Church a place of warmth, welcome, comfort and peace – open to all, and a centre for worship and inspiration!

Please use the Standing Order form to donate a regular monthly sum – any amount, as we will very much appreciate whatever you can offer. Please return the forms to the Treasurer of The Friends, Stephen Hibberd, in Church or to his address. If you don’t already have a form, please ask Chris, Nick, Keith, Geoff or Stephen.

We would of course be happy to receive a lump sum donation if you don’t want to join the 100 Club. Remember that using Gift Aid means that for every pound you give, the Friends of St. Michael’s will receive an extra 20 pence from the Inland Revenue, helping your donation go further.

First Sunday of The Month
From 5 February onwards, our Family Service at 9.45am on first the Sunday of each month will not be a Eucharist. There will be an 8.00 am Holy Communion and this will replace the normal 8.00 am service on the second Sunday of each month.

Confirmation and Communion
We will be starting Confirmation Classes shortly and, if you would like to explore your faith and consider being confirmed, please speak to Chris.

We would also like to explore with parents and children the idea of admitting children who belong to the Church to Communion, with confirmation to follow when they are older. Please let us know what you think. We’ll need to do some preparation with the children so they can understand what they are doing

Bike’ n Hike
Letters of thanks are on the notice board which also include provisional totals for the 2011 Bike’ n Hike. Over £100,000 was raised across Beds and Herts with the Ampthill area again achieving the highest total in Bedfordshire. St. Michael’s was the second highest church figure in Beds at £1434 including Gift Aid and £576 will be included in the 2011 fundraising total in our church accounts. This year’s event will be on Saturday 8 September so please note this in your diaries. Thank you. Stephen Hibberd

Caring
Please keep your eyes and ears open. If you know of anyone, a neighbour or a friend, who would welcome a visit from a member of the Church Family, please contact any member of the staff or Ruby on 01908 587194. Thank you.

St Michael’s Church Book
It has recently come to my notice that several members of St Michael's are not aware that there is a book telling the history of the church and parish. You will find some today at the back of the church. The cost is £5 per copy and all proceeds today will be given to Christian Aid. Many thanks. Evelyn Wright

Church Flowers
As you all know Priscilla has been responsible for Church flowers for many years but at present is unable to do so. I have tried to keep this going for the past few months but simply don’t have the time to do it on my own, and would love to have some volunteers to help. It is not necessary to have a pedestal at the Altar - a simple vase of fresh flowers can be just as nice. Please have a word with me if you can offer some help - it will be greatly appreciated. Anne

Buildings & Facilities Update

Health & Safety Policy Document
We’re obliged by law to complete a document which explains our Health & Safety Policy and the arrangements which are in place at St. Michael’s. While a few arrangements still remain outstanding, most have been made and a copy of the document has been put in the ‘Vision Groups’ folder at theback of the Church

Health & Safety Risk Assessments
These have now been done for ‘Fire Safety’; ‘General Health & Safety’; ‘Environmental Health’ and ‘Disability Discrimination Act 1995’. Many actions have already been taken and will be ongoing. Copies of these Risk Assessments have also been put in the ‘Vision Groups’ folder at the back o the Church.
The Risk Assessment for ‘Control of Substances Hazardous the Health’ (COSHH) will be done in the near futur

Working Alone/Working With Potentially Dangerous Equipment/UsingLadders
Anyone who works in circumstances such as those above (even though it may only be occasionally), or has any other Health & Safety concerns, should ask the Church Wardens for advice.

Action Needed from Building & Facilities
It’s not always possible for the Church Wardens and the Building and Facilities Group to be aware of everything that needs attention. This includes general matters as well as Health & Safety. It would be helpful, therefore, if you could draw this to our attention by writing anything you believe needs doing in the black ‘Building & Facilities Report Book’, which ison the table at the back of the Church. We’ll also give you feedback ontheaction taken. Keith Price & John Buchan
Church Ward

For Your Prayers
We shall be including in Pew News each week the names of all whom have been added to our Prayer Board at the back of church so that we can all include them in our private prayers. Their names will be listed for four weeks from when they are first added to the Prayer Board. Angela Malleso

Urgent Appeal from the Food Bank
During the holiday season, donations to the Food Bank tend to fall away. This year, the need for parcels from the Food Bank has increased dramatically: over 4000 have been given out already. At more than 20 items per parcel, this is a huge task for the Food Bank and stocks are now very low. An urgent appeal is being made, for any item of dry grocery, so that during the next few weeks the need can be met. The Food Bank normally receives a boost at Harvest Festival time, from the end of September, but there is an urgent gap until then. Please help if you can.

St Michael’s Churchyard

Churchyards up and down the country have long been not only havens of tranquillity, but precious areas of survival for wildflowers, and habitats for wildlife, especially for birds, butterflies and insects. For those setting off for walks on the heath and in the woods you may like to stop off and visit St Michael’s Churchyard, where we are setting aside specific areas to encourage our native flora and fauna. In conjunction with the St Albans Diocese Living Churchyard Scheme and Bedfordshire Wildlife Trust, so far over 60 species of trees, flowers and grasses have been identified. Ifanyone spots any interesting birds in the churchyard please let myself or Janet Greenwell know. Later in the year nesting boxes will be erected to further encourage the wild bird life.

So do take time too enjoy the peace of our churchyard on your next ramble and see what we are doing to preserve the remnants of our local natural heathland, grasses and flowers. 

First Sunday in the Month Refreshments

If you would be willing to make coffee and tea and provide some cakes or biscuits after one of our Special Services, please add your name to the rota on the table at the back of the Church.

INTERNATIONAL LINKS WITH ST MICHAEL'S

A very constructive discussion was held in church, following the Sunday morning service. The purpose was to consider how we at St Michael's might reach out and engage with other churches and organisations, both Christian and Non-Christian, around the world and to what end. This is a brief summary of the discussion and the points raised.

• How far we are prepared to reach – this raised the consciousness of our St Michael's community, our local community our national links and then the international links.  The likely need of many of our congregation to feel that we were assisting those in need in our local community was recognised, but it was felt that awareness of what is done there through the food bank etc., might suffice.

• Communication, awareness and call to action – these three aspects were felt to be critical, to creating buy-in to international engagement and in any activity that we do as a church – we need to make it easy for those who don’t know everyone or how the church operates, to get involved

• The importance of engaging our younger members more, in making them feel that they could help, was spoken about, so that they can take a responsible role in developing aspects of the church life

• Tithe – There was an enthusiastic discussion around the collection and the annual Tithe. It was agreed that there were many aspects of this that could be successfully changed such as:
• Explain to the congregation about the Tithe – a requirement to give 10% of our annual income via the collection to other causes
• Maybe the collection income could be enhanced if the plate/purse were to be passed around each week – this is something with which the younger members of the church could be engaged.
• Explain where last year's Tithe went
• Suggest that the Tithe is not distributed all in one go at the end of the year, but that some might be held back to be used in support of local and international causes or emergencies
• Ask for suggestions of how others might like to see the Tithe used – this might enable us to identify other good causes in which our congregation is actively involved, so that we might make others aware of. It was suggested that a small tear-off slip could be used in Pew News

• Perhaps the 3rd Sunday of the month could become International Sunday, where one or more people speak about their connections. This could be supported with a Q&A format, to assist people in learning how the organisation we reach out to is evolving with the help of St Michael’s. It was hoped that in the longer term, we could see exchanges of people being facilitated.

• It was suggested that photos of the whole congregation, with names, could be displayed on the walls

Louise Van der hoven

On-Call Cleaners
You may already be aware that Angelique Dias has kindly agreed to be our Church Cleaner. She will usually be working for about two hours a week and occasionally there may be particular times when she’s not able to cover all of the work or, for example, when she’s on holiday.
To cover such circumstances, we’ve decided to maintain a small register of ‘on-call’ volunteers, who are prepared to help out very occasionally, sometimes at short notice but not under any obligation to say ‘yes’ to helping out. An ‘on-call’ register will prevent us asking people unnecessarily.
Equally, if there’s a particular part of the Church you’d like to clean on a more regular basis, Angelique and the Church Wardens will be most grateful.

Do contact either Keith Price or John Buchannan if you can help.

Saturday Open Church
The PCC would like the Church to be open from 10 am to 12 noon on Saturday mornings throughout the summer, and we are looking for volunteers to welcome visitors and serve tea/coffee and biscuits. This year we hope to have ‘live’ music during the mornings. I have drawn up a rota which is on the table at the back of Church. Do please offer to help if you can. Thank you. Anne

Bible Study Group
As part of my ministry I am hoping to start a Bible Study Group (weekly or fortnightly), at our home in Weathercock Lane from 5 July. The proposal is for an evening group at 7 pm. All those interested or who would like any more information please contact Angela Price who has offered to co-ordinate until my return from holiday. Ruby

Vision Sunday - 22 May 2011
Last Sunday was our “Vision Sunday” and, after a shortened service, 30 people stayed behind in Church to discuss the life and witness of St Michael’s – a kind of progress report. We worked in groups and identified how we’re doing and what we need to do, under God, to realise our vision, which is:

• To be people of prayer and action, loving and trusting God and serving others…

• To be a place where all can belong, are welcomed and accepted and feel suported and inspired…

• To be peacemakers, with all others of good will, in the struggle for a just and peaceful world.

1. We’re getting quite good at welcoming people and the sense of belonging is growing – but there are specific needs, such as a transport rota for older people unable to get to Church.
2. We look forward to the Church being open during the day and are re-establishing the Saturday morning rota when the Church is open and manned – with refreshments and other features.
3. Our communications are improving – but we should advertise ourselves better (the sign at the bottom of Church Road will be brightened up) and publicise what’s going on more widely – things like the Good Friday open air service, Remembrance Sunday and the Christmas Tree Festival have been significant features.
4. We should develop a strategy of focusing on a small number of key times/events during the year and making them “key transformation points”.
5. All age worship is a growing feature of our life together – but needs working on and a worship group needs setting up. The choir is excellent – but is there any way in which children and young people can join – or have their own junior choir?
6. Lots of caring, support and visiting go on informally – which is great. But we need to become a bit more “systematic” to make sure people aren’t being missed and isolated people (especially elderly people) in the community can be supported.
7. We need a Story Board/Directory at the back of Church – with names, contact details and photos of people with specific responsibilities. The Churchwardens said they would follow this up.
8. We have not yet found an effective way of staying in touch with people old and new, especially by e mail. Jan Edwards kindly agreed to draft a letter asking people to provide contact details and give their signed consent to allow us to store them. What about developing a “buddy” system?
9. John Hemson is arranging for a visit to Cranfield Church (open to all interested) to see their alterations and St Mary’s Catholic Church in Aspley Hill has done a beautiful job in glassing in its side chapel – worth a look (church open during the day).
10. Peacemaking in practice – is what we should be about. Part of this is the strengthening of ecumenical and community relations. The Lent Groups (nb one with a Muslim Imam, humanist and Christian) were excellent.
11. Our international work is developing and Louise van der Hoven is keen to take things forward – we have growing links with South Africa, Sri Lanka, Malawi etc.
12. We thought it would be good to have some Bible Studies and do some work together on Theology (understanding how God is at work in the world – and how we can work with him!)– to deepen our roots in the faith and nurture Christian values and practice.

The Food Bank
Please remember the Food Bank! For the first time last Sunday, there were so few items donated that the regular Monday trip to deliver our offerings was clearly uneconomic. The Food Bank is running very low on a number of items, notably tins of Rice Pudding, Long Life Fruit Juice and Tinned Fruit - though any grocery items are welcome. Demand is increasing rather than slackening: this year it is up 86% on the same period last year. The Milton Keynes Food Bank is nationally recognised as a well run operation. Our support for it is both needed and appreciated.
There are many calls on our charity at the present time: this one is close to home and relies on our support.

Please help to keep up this important work. This can be done in several ways:
• By gifts of dry groceries (tins or packets, including long life milk or fruit juice containers) at the back of the church, collected each week.
• By volunteering to help with the Food Bank, either distributing aid or making up parcels, or any number of ways to suit your talents and availability
• By a small monthly contribution by standing order, to help the running costs of the Food Bank – particularly useful for anyone who finds hauling dry grocery packages up to church a problem.
• By offering to help when there is a collection at the Co-op in Woburn Sands.

If help or information is needed, please have a word with me. There is also a comprehensive web site, and more information on the General Interest page