Stewards Scribblings - September 2022

The  'job  description’  of  a  church  steward  is  varied  and  never ending!!   I recently took a letter out of the church letterbox from Father Ralf Scheele, a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paderborn, Germany.   He is the pastor of Saint Jodokus Parish in the village of Wewelsburg, in the north-western part of Germany, about 80k east of Dortmund.

He went on to say that he is particularly interested in the church history of England, and it had been the topic for his diploma thesis. He was very interested in the architecture of Methodist Churches in England and concluded in asking for any pictures or photos of our church.

I wrote back, telling him a little about Bexhill being on the south coast, between Eastbourne and Hastings. I told him about our regular activities, our Bible Study group and House Group, the Festival of Flowers and the Christchurch Singers concerts.

I enclosed a copy of the church history, a recent copy of The Messenger, the Friends of Winchelsea newsletter with details of Wesley preaching outdoors, under the tree. The recent Spotlight was also included, which coincidentally contains a picture of our stained glass window. I also directed him to our church website.

I concluded in sending our very best wishes to him and his congregation. Maybe,' twinning' churches is the way forward!

Jill

Jill Read, Senior Steward

Money & Property Matters – and Barry’s Babblings - September 2022

The most exciting news is that our new minister has arrived! He is the Rev Crawford Logan who comes to us from the Tendring (Essex) circuit and now resides in the manse in the Woodlands in Little Common. Do hold him and his family and friends at this time in your prayers. We are very positive about the future and look forward to challenging and fulfilling times ahead.

Another piece of good news – we have received three more people into the Christchurch Family, Jenny, Kerry and Carol (Caz) and they were welcomed at a recent service led by Rev Philip Wagstaff. If you, or anyone you know, would like to consider becoming a member please do let us know and I am sure that Crawford would be delighted to have a talk with them.

As many know, September 1st sees the start of the new Methodist year (Well, we are non- conformists!) and it is a good time to review our giving. Many folk are now transferring funds each month direct to the church bank account, and others use the envelope scheme. If you would like to donate in these ways do let me know and I will be pleased to tell you more. The more who use these schemes the less money that we have to count.

The church banks with Barclays (my dear old bank!) who now operate from a ‘Hub’ at the Bexhill Rowing Club bar but they do not dispense or take cash – how the mighty are fallen!! Never mind, we have found another way of crediting cash funds to our account so all is well (for the time being!).

When we had the severe storm in March several of the roof tiles were dislodged. These have now been replaced and the Property Stewards have also completed a few more fairly small jobs. We hope that the wall heaters in the church will shortly be replaced and these will be more efficient. When October arrives we know that our fuel costs (and those of Centenary House) will rocket upwards so we all need to be as economical as possible. We are grateful to Clive who deals with the timers etc for our heating.

Over the past weeks I have found that external doors have been closed but not locked, and lights have been left on (except the Vestibule lights that are on a timer). May I also ask that if anyone has a church key that is no longer required – please could you return it to me. The security keys cost almost £13 each.

There are some special dates coming up – including our Harvest Festival weekend. We do need some help and offers would be appreciated. (Harvest produce, flowers etc for church decoration can be left at the church on the Friday afternoon 16th September). Having done that, you can then Zoom into the Christchurch Quiz at 7pm on the same day!

Two dates for your interest – Tuesday 20th the Circuit Meeting will be meeting in our church, and on 28th the AGM of CTIB (Churches together in Bexhill) will meet at St Mark’s church in Little Common.

Many thanks to all who help to keep the church premises clean and tidy. Out of interest I let in a group for an aerobics class recently and I overheard some lovely compliments from the ladies – a ‘wonderful hall’ and ‘an amazing kitchen’ and ‘they have a lovely Festival of Flowers here and we come’. Well done everyone for all your work.

A very Happy Methodist New Year to you all, and very blessing to you all.

Barry Turnwell
Church Treasurer and a Property Steward.

Winchelsea Methodist Chapel
www.winchelseachapel.org

September 2022

Since the last issue we have celebrated the 237th Chapel anniversary and had a wonderful time. 27 people gathered under the Wesley Tree to sing hymns and then adjourned to the Chapel for the service led by Rev Tricia Williams. Plenty of hearty singing and a good collection for the chapel – and all recorded in the Methodist Recorder – the national newspaper of the Methodist Church. We sometimes enjoy national coverage!

The Open Days are also quite well attended and recently there was a crowd of almost 100 people who came along. We are grateful to David and Terry for kindly stewarding these occasions. The next will be on Saturday 10th September from 10

– 5 to link with the National Heritage Open Days, and the ‘Ride and Stride’ for the Historic Churches Trust.

We celebrate the Harvest Festival on Saturday 8th October at 11am.

Sadly, Steve Roberts has had to resign as our treasurer and we are grateful to him for all his past work. Fortunately, Michael Lambourne has very kindly agreed to take over this role.

Barry Turnwell,

Publicity Officer