Our topics included Vision, Worship, Sharing the Gospel and caring for people in the Church and Community. We also discussed the Church Hall building and Church refurbishment.

Christ Church was the venue for the commissioning of Sylvia Brotherhood as MU Deanery Leader for Beeston and West Nottingham. The Area Dean the Revd John Bentham and Maureen Weston, the MU Diocesan President were the guests at our Service.

Sylvia has previously been Branch leader at Christ Church for many years and now hands over to Mrs Celia Pilgrim and Mrs Betty Boocker who were also commissioned at the service. Our congratulations to Sylvia, Celia and Betty and we pray that God will guide and strengthen them for the tasks ahead.

To Betty & John Boocker who celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary in December and shared a cake with us all at the Carol Service.

A note from Betty and John - many thanks to all who sent cards, gifts and good wishes on our very special celebration

To Edna Varley who has been awarded the title Neighbour of the Year by the Nottingham Evening Post. Edna was nominated by one of her neighbours at Keverne Close and after enquiries had been made by the Post Edna was selected from many nominations. Well Done Edna

Joan explained a little about the tradition of Pancake day and Lent and invited everyone to join in with a Lent course.

The pancakes were eaten and games were played. There were pancake races and pancake tossing. There was even a game involving chocolate. For the less energetic, there was a quiz and a wordsearch.

To finish the evening there was dancing.

This was a good social occasion for all the family and many of our neighbours came and joined in.

Good Friday started with our activity day at the Church Hall looking at the real meaning of Easter

The Church was decorated with flowers, cross and tomb

On Easter Sunday we filled in the empty cross with flowers to demonstrate the power of the Resurrection

It had rained for days before, but Saturday 23rd June proved dry and sunny as we set about putting up gazebos, stalls and bouncy castles

The fair was opened by Mr Mark Precious, headmaster of Old Basford Primary School who was accompanied by his wife.

We had a variety of stalls inside and out as well as crafts and games, while people could enjoy a hot dog & peas, sandwiches or waffles.

This was a great opportunity to have fun together as well as raise £880 for Church Funds

The weather smiled on us on 17th June for our special Father’s Day Service.

Afterwards we set up tables and chairs outside for the barbecue while everyone was challenged with a picture quiz around the church.

Our Harvest Service was held a little earlier this year, but none the less Church was full with people clutching their harvest gifts.

After the service coffee was served and the children went off to make the most amazing scarecrow helped by the children's workers, as the day was warm and sunny they also had games on the lawns. Meanwhile the ladies were busy organizing the food for our harvest lunch and about 40 people and 10 children enjoyed a delicious lunch together. Our vicar devised a quiz to test us all and a raffle was held for our selected charity, which this year was Emmanual House and this raised £85.

On the Monday Sylvia and Steven duly collected all the Harvest gifts to deliver to Emmanual House and when we arrived some of the men who stay there came out to unload the car and one chap said that just one those boxes would fill his shelf and keep him fed for a week and another  said it was good to get fresh apples and other stuff. It made you feel quite humble and I want to thank you all for giving so generously and it reminded me of the Bible verse - "When did I see you hungry Lord and feed you?"

Sylvia Brotherhood

Winning Ways at Christ Church . . . .

Christ Church Magazine has won first prize in the Notts News Service annual competition for Nottinghamshire village and Church magazines. Our section was for a magazine with a circulation of up to 350 copies. We produce the magazine ourselves at the vicarage and we have a team of helpers. Here are the team receiving the trophy and certificate.

Champions at Last
Teamwork that’s how we did it!

We collected all the brains we could from members of the congregation and went forth to face the rest of West Nottingham Deanery,

We deployed new tactics this year instead of whispering our answers to the questions, (and letting others hear us) we were very organised and jotted them down so we could confer with each other prior to finally writing the answer down. The Deanery Quiz is an annual event taking place in October and over the years we have held up the other teams by coming last. Last year we crept into a higher place and this year to our delight having managed to win every round of the competition we were the victors at last. The trophy was presented to us and now resides in place of honour at Church. Needless to say we went to town the next day to have it engraved with our name just in case they had made a mistake and took it off us.

To our delight the preacher on the Sunday following our success was non-other than John Bentham, the Area Dean, whose team were last years winners. Joan lost no opportunity in referring to our success on several occasions during the service .

Anne & John

Tower Challenge - Parish Tea  

How do we persuade people to come and listen to a talk on the financial situation of the church and tell them how much money we would like to raise to allow the work at Christchurch to continue for the next few years? This was just one of the many questions posed as we started working towards our Promise Programme. It was also one of the easiest to answer.

We decided to invite everyone to Afternoon tea in the church hall, provide a few activities to keep people occupied, ask a local celebrity to come and speak and then have a group activity to finish. Simple.

People were duly invited and on Sunday 7 th October, they were welcomed into the hall and offered the chance to try some crafts. Some took up the challenges and others used the time to catch up with friends.

The tables were attractively decorated and placed a round the hall and this sight was an invitation in itself for people to come in and eat. The food tables were laden with all sorts of savouries and sweets. No one wanted to be seen as the first person to go back for seconds or even third helpings, but modesty was soon over come and the food mountain dwindled to a mere mole hill

The surplus food was taken to the night shelter so nothing was wasted.

The local celebrity who came to speak to us was Colin Slater, a journalist and football commentator for Radio Nottingham. His talk was entertaining and to the point. He was impressed with the Vicar’s ability with a microphone and offered her a job as a reporter. One ongoing task for each table was a general knowledge quiz and Colin provided several answers for his table.

To finish off the afternoons events, each table was set a challenge to contruct a freestanding tower using only newspaper and sticky tape. This was a good team building event and was carried out enthusiastically by everyone. Each tower was different, and totally unique. Everyone who attended the tea said how much they had enjoyed themselves. It had been an afternoon of fun, food and friendship with an insight into the needs of the church and what it will take to move the work of the parish forwards. Will we be able to move forward as a church? If the enthusiasm and team work shown during the tower challenge is anything to go by, the answer is,

Yes, we will! Jane

Light and Bright Party

We had a large number of children, parents and helpers at our Light & Bright Party which was our alternative to Halloween.

There were different craft tables available for the children and adults to keep them entertained which included cake decorating, glass painting, streamer and face mask making. We also learned about All Hallow's Eve and All Saints day.

We provided hot dogs and drinks for all and played games and sang songs with the children.

All in all the party was enjoyed by everyone and was a huge success.

Gina

Christmas Craft Day

With some trepidation we met a couple of times to pool ideas and resources. We'd never tried anything like this together and were nervous, especially as the emphasis was on the Christmas Tree Festival. We were so surprised by how many people came and astounded by the talents revealed.

Everyone had so much fun, it was noisy and yet it was relaxed. Lots happening but peace around us.

Many thanks to all those people who supported us and we hope that your crafts provide as much pleasure as we got from watching them being created. See you all next year, perhaps.

Marita & Pat


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Thank you for taking part in our Christmas Tree Festival, I hope that you agree with us that it was a huge success.

So many people said that it was a wonderful experience to see all 27 trees lit up - it created a fantastic atmosphere. So many different groups and businesses in the community took part which showed a great community spirit. We also are grateful to the Salvation Army and the Scamps Choir who provided entertainment.

The Happy Tots Group throwing glitter at their tree; Rosslyn Park children decorating their tree and having time to write their hopes and prayers for Christmas to hang it on our tree and the Fire Station getting a call out at our Thursday night social event.

The members of the Church also worked hard not only decorating the church and trees but also providing refreshments and stalls. Together we raised around £1400 for the upkeep of the Church building.

Of course none of this would have been possible without your help and we really appreciate all the effort you put into the event.

We are hoping to organise another Community event next year and I hope that you will feel able to join in with us to continue to foster Community spirit in the neighbourhood

Thanks again for helping to give so much pleasure to so many people.

BUT . . If you missed it you missed a TREAT

Christmas Celebrations

Christmas saw us celebrating in many ways: thanking God for the birth of his Son Jesus, informally singing carols and performing an

Christmas Meal and Service at Keverne Close

It was great to join together to share a meal and hear again the Christmas story in readings, poems, story and carols.

We have just started a regular service at Keverne close to which visitors are invited.