Planning for the Millennium - PCC Report
Many of us find ourselves tempted to ask what all the fuss is about.
But only a moment’s thought reminds us that it is about that
all-important event, the birth of Christ. It is all the extraneous noise
that is irrelevant and not the event itself, thus we end up back with the
question ‘how should we mark this great anniversary in the Christian
calendar?’ This question has appeared regularly on the PCC agenda
throughout this year, and after much deliberation we have identified three
ways that we feel it is appropriate for St Peter’s to mark this time.
- We have agreed to provide financial support to the professional
advertising campaign that is running in the City centre to attract
newcomers to Christianity - you many have noticed that this has
started to appear on buses and elsewhere.
- It has been agreed that we will open the Church during the week
between Christmas and New Year. This is normally a time of rest for
everyone involved in the midweek teams, most especially the clergy.
However the PCC felt that as others focussed on what more they could
do to mark this special time, one thing that we at St Peter’s are
especially good at is providing a place of peace and loving support.
We believe that this will be particularly welcome at this time, which
could be a time of spiritual unrest or loneliness for so many. We need
volunteers to be in church during this week, please let Keith Charter
or Frank Riley know if you can help even for a couple of hours.
- We undertook to support the Southwell Diocese ‘Millennium 2000
Fund’ by additional fundraising rather than from the PCC budget.
This initiative was launched by Bishop Patrick and we were encouraged
to pledge our support prior to his retirement in order to ensure that
he witnessed the success of the fund whilst still in office. This we
did. A target amount was set for each Parish based on our ability to
give. Our target is £2,600. We now need to consider how we could
raise this money. We will seek donations from members of St Peter’s
during December and have agreed to donate the retiring collection on
Christmas Eve to this excellent cause but we need more ideas on ways
in which we could meet our target.
The causes that the fund will support are:
- A new Bible translation for the Toba Indians of Northern Argentina
- A money advice specialist in Mansfield
- Sacrista Prebend, a house in Southwell for retreats and conferences
- Scholarship for overseas student to study at St John’s College,
Nottingham
- Time Travelling, educational and evangelistic initiative in the
Minster for schools
I know that we will each have our own views of how ‘worthy’ each of
these causes are, which means that as a church we can feel fully committed
to all of them. I also feel sure that we will want to offer support to
both Bishop Patrick and Bishop George by our commitment to this project,
so please do look favourably on requests for help.
So we will seek to mark this momentous time in these three ways. Three
ways that will give every member of our church a chance to be part of what
we are doing and give St Peter’s a chance to be part of what Christians
are doing in our own church, in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, in the
diocese and in the World.
Alison Maddocks
Find out how our ancestors coped
with rather different problems...
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