Page 18 - Herald December 2024

18 THE NEW COUNTESTHORPE HERALD
OCTOBER 2024
GARDEN PARTY
Last year St. Andrew’s church staged a Garden Party in the grounds next to the church. It proved such a success that it was decided to repeat the event this year on the afternoon of Sunday August 18th. There was a wide range of stalls across the grounds and in the church also. Some were arranged by members of the congregation such as Tombola, Books, some crafts and of course the essential Cream Tea. Other stall holders paid for a site and sold their own wares.
The area became a hive of activity as many people from the village came along. It also provided an opportunity for people to catch up with friends whom they might not have seen for some time. As the sun shone too there were times when we were quite happy to sit and look on.
It was a good social occasion but equally important the event was staged to raise funds to go towards urgent repairs to the church building. In this respect the afternoon was also a success as £1,303
was raised. Edward Thomas
ECO CHURCH CONVERSATIONS
Recently I attended an event organised by Leicester Diocese, ‘Eco Church Conversations’. This was a useful and encouraging morning of discovering resources and information to help us on our journey to becoming a more eco-friendly church. Firstly though, we started with a short worship session, focused on God’s Creation, which included repentance for the way the earth has been treated, and for the fact that it is poor communities who have done least to cause climate change who are suffering the worst effects from it. We were reminded of God’s call to be good stewards of His beautiful creation. About 40 people attended, from 5 different church denominations. The main speaker was from A Rocha, a charity which administers the ‘Eco Church award scheme’. Their mission is stated as ‘equipping the church to care for the environment and promote climate justice’. She described how the scheme has grown since its set-up in 2016, with over 7,500 churches now registered and more than 3,000 awards given (bronze/silver/gold). The churches registered range from small chapels to large city churches. St Andrew’s is currently discussing the possibility of registering and working towards the bronze award. We hope that we are already doing many of the things we need to do for this, but it would be a useful exercise to check whether there is anything we could be doing better.
Alison Dale
St Andrew’s
HARVEST FESTIVAL
Sunday 6 October Holy Communion at 9am Gifts for the Foodbank welcome
Harvest at
St Mary’s, Willoughby Waterleys Saturday 5 October, 6.30pm
Harvest at
St Barthomew’s, Foston Sunday 13 October, 9.15am
St Andrew’s
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE CHURCHES
CHRISTMAS FAYRE
Saturday 23 November
at 10am
in the Church and the Bridge
SERVICE OF LIGHT
SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER
at 3.00pm
in St Andrew’s Church
A service to remember loved ones now departed
If you can contribute HEARTS, made of any material, or pictures, also leaves and sunflowers, please contact Gail Mackley 0116 277 8982
St Andrew’s Office: Tel: 0116 277 8643
E-Mail: standrewsoffice@hotmail.co.uk Website: www.standrewscountesthorpe.co.uk
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References available upon request