Celebrating our stories – Thank you to the many people who have shared stories and pictures, insights and reflections. Quite a few of these have already been published on our website in the form of blogs and others are in process - read those stories here. If you subscribe, you will automatically be notified of any new posts. As always we welcome your stories of St John’s church and parish.
Money In - Thank you to all who have made donations or participated in our fundraising activities. In particular, thank you to Wendy Venkatiah and team (Yolanda, Diane, Avril, Maggie, Martin, Karen, Kathy) for organising a wonderful High Tea on the 6th April, where we raised just over R11,000. Please support our upcoming fundraising activities and keep an eye out for others, as we announce them:
· Boerewors roll and chips take away on the 31st May
· Heritage Dinner on the 27th July. This will be a special event for a sit-down dinner, music. Do come and join us, and invite others to buy tickets. Booking and payment at least two weeks before the event will be essential.
As of the end of April R37,080 had come in for our Heritage funds, either from special donations or fundraising activities. We are so thankful for all those who have contributed time, effort, talents and contributions of eats or gifts.
Money Out - Our building committee has been very busy – thank you to James Cooper & team (Laura, Royston, Selwyn, Brian V, Brad and Jeremy) for systematically going through all our buildings to assess what needs to be done, and working on the process of getting expert advice for short, medium and long-term plans for repairs. It is not a ‘quick and easy’ job and we appreciate all you are doing behind the scenes to help us make wise decisions about priorities as resources become available. Gutters have been cleaned and waterproofed and flashing has been proficiently redone to the cost of R41,000. This was felt to be a priority before the winter rains come, but other roof repairs will need to wait until funds come in.
A specialist has assessed all the stained glass windows and documented the short, medium, and long-term work that need to be done.
Some of it is good news: “the NE Nave Window: Meyer of Munich window – 1886 - Memorial window for Thomas W. Smith. You guys are very fortunate to have this in your church. The window is in good condition and 100% original. I can't see any signs of it being worked on.”
Other assessments are not so favourable: “Windows 5 & 8 are close to the end of their lifespan and will need restoration soon.”
Another project soon to be done is painting lines for our car park, according to the layout planned by the building committee. Thanks to Springfield Convent, who has agreed to help us with this. Our next task will be to try to secure the church grounds by the erection of a fence along the road.
Thanksgiving service - We are planning a parish thanksgiving service close to our anniversary date – watch this space.
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