Wickford & Runwell Team Ministry: Events and initiatives

Unveiled, the regular arts and performance evening at St Andrew's Church (11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN), returns tonight (Friday 13 January) at 7.00 pm with 'From Rettendon Turnpike to Halls Corner: A Journey in Time', a talk by Geoff Whiter of Wickford Community Archive. Unveiled includes exhibitions, open mic nights, performances, talks and more!

• Unveiled – a wide range of artist and performers from Essex and wider, including Open Mic nights (come and have a go!).
• Unveiled – view our hidden painting by acclaimed artist David Folley, plus a range of other exhibitions.

Our Spring Programme for 2023 is as follows:

• 13 January – 'From Rettendon Turnpike to Halls Corner: A Journey in Time'. A talk by Geoff Whiter of Wickford Community Archive.
• 27 January – 'The Blind Jesus (No-one belongs here more than you)': Exhibition viewing evening. See this exhibition of Last Supper images and works about belonging or feeling welcomed. Hear from artist Alan Stewart, project lead Celia Webster (co-founder of WAVE), and Revd John Beauchamp, Disability Ministry Enabler for the Diocese of London.
• 10 February – An evening with composer Silvio Bartoli. Numerous performances of his pieces have been done during the last years in London, by The Hermes Project, The Explore Ensemble, different solo pieces, and the RCM Philarmonia. In addition to his career as a composer, he teaches composition, harmony, piano, theory and solfege.
• 17 February – 'God Gave Rock and Roll to You': a talk by Jonathan Evens about the religious influences in Rock, Pop, and Soul music.
• 3 March – Open Mic Night with John Rogers. Everybody is welcome to come along and play, sing or just spectate. Hope to see you there for a great evening of live music!
• 17 March – St Martin’s Voices, one of the UK’s most versatile professional vocal ensembles, performing concerts on the international stage as well as giving regular BBC broadcasts and special services at London’s iconic St Martin-in-the-Fields. The ensemble performs regularly alongside the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and London Mozart Players and is featured in the Church of England’s online worship resources that have attracted over 4 million downloads.

These events do not require tickets (just turn up on the night). There will be a retiring collection to cover artist and church costs.

We are also running a fundraising campaign for urgent work that is required to the Tower of St. Catherine’s Church Wickford as a result of ground movement caused by the long dry summer. This resulted in subsidence of the foundations in the North West corner of the church which caused a number of large cracks to appear in the walls and some stonework to fall. As a result, urgent safety and weather protection work costing £23,000 is required followed by the investigations needed to design a long-term solution to the problem.

A fundraising campaign to raise an initial £23,000 has been launched, but this is only the beginning of a much longer project to effectively underpin the church in order to prevent the regular recurrence of the issue. This first stage of the project will involve: removing or temporarily fixing loose stonework; undertaking temporary roof repairs and loose filling of walls for weather protection; removal of loose internal plasterwork; temporary covering of affected windows; and the reinstatement of the lightning conductor.

"Our churches are seeking to be at the heart of the community in Wickford but also need the support of the wider community in the town, particularly as we address the problems of subsidence at St Catherine's Church and the expense of maintaining this much-loved community building given the effects of significant climate change."

“Our recent consultation exercise in the Parish revealed that the churches in Wickford and Runwell are seen as contributing to the sense of community and are valued both for the support they bring to others and as centres for peace and prayer which provide a sense of Christian presence. Many local people have been baptised or married at St Catherine’s or have family members commemorated in the churchyard. For all these reasons, we believe many locally will want to support this campaign to ensure that this much-loved community building is repaired and secured for the future.”

Our fundraising campaign begins with a series of fundraising events involving Ladybirds Song Group, Rumatica Ukulele Group and a Quiz Night:

• Ladybirds Song Group: Saturday 21 January, 7.30 pm, St Andrew’s Church (11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN). The Ladybirds Song Group sing all over South Essex performing popular songs from the 1950s to the present. No tickets required. A retiring collection will be taken.
• Quiz Night: Saturday 4 February, 7.00 pm, 1st Runwell Scout Hall (Runwell Gardens SS11 7DW). £5.00 p/head. Tables of up to eight. Bring your own snacks & drinks (Tea and Coffee available). To book a table email StCatherinesQuiz@hotmail.com. Street parking in Church End Lane.
• Rumatica Ukulele Group: Saturday 11 March, 3.00 pm, St Catherine’s Church (120 Southend Road, Wickford SS11 8EB). A local band playing and singing a wide range of popular songs including rock, pop, country, swing, rock and roll. Enjoy a cream tea afterwards in the church hall.

Those wishing to contribute to this campaign, can send cheques made out to Wickford and Runwell Parochial Church Council to The Rectory, 120 Southend Road, Wickford SS11 8EB or phone 07803 562329 / email jonathan.evens@btinternet.com for the bank details to use for a bank transfer.

We are also continuing with our Contemplative Commuters and Saturday Solace initiatives:

• Contemplative Commuters is a Facebook group for any commuter wanting quiet reflective time and content on their journeys to and from work. Those joining receive a short weekly reflection, prayer and link to a useful resource at the beginning of the week. These can be used as group members wish, at any point throughout the week. Also available are 30-minute online services of Morning Prayer recorded on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays at churches in Wickford & Runwell. Group members can share requests for prayer, whether personal or for family, friends, colleagues, also for home, work or world situations. Prayers are offered in the online services of Morning Prayer.
• Saturday Solace provides regular 10-minute reflection and Christian mindfulness sessions between 10.00 am and 12 noon on Saturdays at St Andrew’s Wickford to any in need of rest and renewal. Drop in whenever you can or combine your visit with food & drink at our popular Coffee Morning in the St Andrew’s Centre.

Like many local churches, the three churches in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry each contain interesting collections of art works from a range of periods and in a range of styles. As these artworks demonstrate, churches have for many years been significant patrons of the visual arts and contain important and interesting works of art. A case study on the Parish for Gods' Collections explores the artwork in our three churches and ways to share such works more widely.

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Silvio Bartoli - After.