Quiz Night and more ...

This Saturday there is a Quiz Night raising funds for work at St Catherine's Wickford.

The details are: 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.

Our fundraising campaign is 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.”

See press coverage of the campaign in the Echo (https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/23223658.st-catherines-church-wickford-launches-fundraising-campaign/).

Future fundraising events include:

• Pancake Party, St Catherine’s Hall, Tuesday 21st February. Drop in between 2pm and 4pm or stay all afternoon and help raise funds for St Catherine’s tower restoration. £4 to include 2 pancakes and unlimited tea or coffee. Gluten free available on request. Sign-up sheet at the back of the church. Names before 15th February please.
• 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. Elsa (from Frozen) will be making an appearance at the cream tea and children will be able to meet her and have a photograph taken.

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.

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Susan Tedeschi - Lord, Protect My Child.

Family Quiz Night

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Moody Blues - Question.

Sixties and Seventies Night

We held an enjoyable Sixties and Seventies Night at St John's Seven Kings yesterday with a disco, quiz, raffle and buffet. There was lots of Beatles and Abba in evidence!

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The Beatles - Yesterday.

The work of a Resident's Association

Last night was the AGM of the Seven Kings and Newbury Park Resident's Association (SKNPRA). This is what I said in my opening remarks as Chair:

2012 has been a year of further development and growth for SKNPRA. What I want to do is set the scene by outlining the broad areas of SKNPRA’s work.

The first thing to mention is our ongoing liaison with the Council and other agencies over specific issues in particular parts of the area. This work results either from our own observation of issues in the locality or through notification by other SKNPRA members or members of the local community. This work is not publicised but regularly achieves small but consistent improvements to the area simply by bringing issues to the attention of the authorities.

Second, we have worked hard to increase our membership because that means that more issues can be noted and addressed and more people can be drawn into higher profile campaigns and other work undertaken by SKNPRA. With this in mind, we have also re-introduced social and fundraising events to the SKNPRA programme, beginning with our recent Quiz Night, as these increase our profile, generate funds which can be used to publicise the Association, and bring our members together.

Third, are our higher profile campaigns which this year has primarily been the campaign to reopen the toilets in Seven Kings Park. Campaigns like this need to use different approaches at different times in order to achieve their overall aims. We began the campaign with significant publicity but, in more recent months, it has been more effective to have been campaigning on this issue behind the scenes.

Fourth, we facilitate other groups and initiatives. So, over the past year, have organised meetings which have led on to the establishment of new Neighbourhood Watch groups and also the Seven Kings Park Users group.

Fifth, we contribute to various committees such as the Area 5 Committee, where we have had a co-opted member, and also the Ward Panel for Seven Kings.

Finally, we have also been liaising and networking with other groups, such as the Goodmayes Resident’s Association, and are linked in with plans to possibly create a network of Resident’s Associations in Redbridge.

All these different but significant strands of our work combine to mean that SKNPRA remains a viable and effective Resident’s Association for Seven Kings and Newbury Park.   

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Tracy Chapman - If Not Now.

Redbridge Book and Media Festival: Thank you Nick

I've had an enjoyable evening at the last of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival events tonight. Our team came second in the quiz (losing out on top spot by one point), we said goodbye to the wonderful Nick Dobson the Festival's main organiser over its 10 year life (who is losing this role as a result of deep cuts in Redbridge's Library services), and we heard from Barbara Nadal, who had previously visited St John's for an International Crime Writer's Panel in an earlier Festival.
Newham-born Nadal spoke about Ashes to Ashes, a novel based around efforts to protect St Paul's Cathedral during the Blitz. As part of her research, she was shown around some of the less familiar part of the Cathedral. "Like Francis," she has said, "I explored the upper galleries (Whispering Gallery, Stone Gallery) and also like him I felt my legs go to jelly as I climbed up hundreds and hundreds of stairs in what felt like every tightening spirals."

St Paul's is where Nadal's hero Francis Hancock is sheltering from the onslaught. But the First World War veteran doesn't just have bombs to contend with on this night. A young girl, who was also sheltering in the cathedral, mysteriously goes missing. Then some of those charged with protecting the building are brutally murdered. Francis must face both his own demons and fears in his struggle to catch those responsible and bring them to justice.

Nick Dobson will be much missed in the borough having built the Redbridge Book & Media Festival over 10 years into one able to attract significant authors through a varied selection of genuinely interesting events. Thanks Nick for all you've contributed to the borough. We wish you well as you begin organising such events on a freelance basis.

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Show of Hands - Are We Alright?



 

Quiz Night x 2

Last night we had a enjoyable Quiz Night at St John's Seven Kings with several Olympic-related rounds as part of a set of questions which rang the changes on the traditional quiz categories.

This is being followed, again at St Johns, by the first Quiz Night in a number of years organised as a fundraiser for the Seven Kings & Newbury Park Resident's Association.

Team sizes are: 5 minimum, 10 maximum, although people in one's and two's are welcome and we can make up a team for you!

Food Choice: Fish & chips, Chicken & Chips and Vegetarian option.

Prizes for Winning and Losing Teams

Raffle Prizes - we are seeking donations for our raffle prize table. If you have an unwanted gift or a Christmas present you do not want, please let us know. All donations welcome!

Advance Tickets only price: £9-00 includes food and quiz, please bring your own drinks. Advance only tickets can be ordered by contacting Mark Kennedy, SKNPRA Membership Secretary & Press Officer on 020-8598-8435.

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Gungor - The Way Things Go.

International Quiz Night

We had a packed Hall at St John's Seven Kings last Saturday for our shared International Quiz Night with St Paul's Goodmayes. With excellent quiz masters and a great turnout, this event was a real success. Over the past two years our two churches have begun sharing the organisation of three joint events per year: a joint social event, a Palm Sunday procession between the two churches, and an annual Praise in the Park event at the bandstand in Seven Kings Park. 

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The Waterboys - Spirit.

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Christ the King

On Sunday we had an All-Age service with a very positive feel and slightly chaotic organisation on the theme of Christ the King. We had lots of people contributing from video interviews of views on the royal family and the idea of Christ as King to our young people leading a dramatised bible reading and the intercessions. There was a quiz on British Kings and Queens illustrating the way in which power can be used for good or ill and I said the following in trying to draw the different strands together:

The role of a King or Queen is to rule over the people that live in the kingdom. This gives them great power which they can use for good or ill. As we saw in the quiz, some Kings and Queens use their power to serve themselves, while others use their power to serve their subjects? Which of these is the more Christ-like?

Interestingly, those monarchs in this country who have used their power to serve others have been inspired to do that by the example of Jesus. Jesus said, “I, your Lord and Teacher, have just washed your feet. You, then, should wash one another’s feet.”

What he was saying was that he had come into the world to give us an example of people with power using their power for the benefit of others. As God, he has ultimate power - power of creation, power over life and death – but he chooses to give up his power and position as God’s Son in heaven to become like us, his subjects, and then gives up his own life to make us, his subjects, equal with him, as brothers and sisters in God’s family. None of the Kings or Queens we have thought about today ever went as far as that!

That is why Jesus should be our ultimate authority. It is why we constantly talk about putting him first in our life and imitating his way of life. When we do, we are living under the rule of Christ – something that we choose to do, rather than something which we are compelled to do. When we live under the rule of Christ, then we are part of the kingdom of God, which is the collection of people who are seeking to follow Jesus in the world and throughout history. When we live in the way that Jesus lived, by putting others first and serving those around us, then we bring a taste or sign of the kingdom of God into the world.
 
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Vickie Winans - Long As I Got King Jesus.