St Matthew’s Church 125th Birthday Appeal
The church in 1890
Sunday 21st June was the climax of our appeal to raise £75,000 for four areas of church life:
· Outreach to older people in our local community – we plan to set up a series of activities involving them in deciding what to do
· Children’s and young people’s ministry - we want to expand and develop this
· Our mission partner at St Matthieu Hospital in Eastern Congo – we will fund the building of an operating theatre for maternity cases
· Our buildings – we will improve our community facilities and open up the church frontage
We started in November with a Christmas Craft Evening and sold our works of art at our Christmas Fair at which our local community were encouraged to run their own stalls.
January was the month for our delicious Burns Supper and Ceilidh which proved very popular.
We had two illustrated talks, in February by Dr Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia who gave fascinating insights into C S Lewis’s famous children’s books and, in March by Dame Helen Ghosh, Director General of the National Trust.
Our vicar Steve’s sermon on giving was a truly inspirational lead into our Gift Day service held in March. This was very well supported and got us to £64,000. To aid this we had a ‘Promises Tree’ where members of the congregation promised services to each other, e.g. chess lessons, for a handsome fee!
In May, some members of our congregation held an open house including games, croquet and a barbecue lunch for 60 people for a Fun Day in Abingdon.
The day concluded with a film night, complete with popcorn, screening Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight in Paris’ at St Matthew’s.
We also hosted cafes in church for Artweeks and the Election.
On the Saturday evening of our weekend finale, we held a ‘come and sing’ performance of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert, a stunning work, and were ably supported by many local choir members, The Little Oxford Big Band and our conductor, Peter Foster.
On the Sunday we held a service of celebration - thank God that the total raised is in excess of £75000.
After this at 12:00, local historian, Liz Woolley introduced her evocative and moving exhibition “66 Men of Grandpont” which studies the lives of those local men lost during World War I.
Then followed a Street Party in Marlborough Road with a superb bring and share lunch and games. The ‘Take the Biscuit’ competition was a tasty success and we made coin displays in the chancel with all the loose change we had been collecting for months in our decorated coin jars.
A performance by the band Confluence with our friends at St Luke’s led to a finish on a high note.
We plan to hold an enquirers course in the autumn and handed out invitations to this at our street party. We hope to host further concerts, film nights and other community events building on the relationships we have forged through the Appeal.
Finally, Steve Hellyer, our Vicar cut the beautiful cake which was decorated with a replica of our stained glass window, depicting St Matthew.
He reminded us that the Founder’s hope was that St Matthew’s would be a channel of blessing to many people. That remains our hope today and for the next 125 years!