Kingsland News
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August 2016 Dear Parishioners, Thank you to those who showed me kindness last month as family matters took a priority in my life for a while. What a wonderful month July has been – Open Gardens at the beginning for the Hospice and Church saw the glories of what is possible with tender care and artistic skill in eleven gardens in Kingsland and I am most grateful to those who prepared and opened their gardens to inspire us in our own! Thanks too to the organisers: Jean wearing both church and hospice hat, the ladies of the church for providing lunches and teas and the hospice team for providing publicity. £1400 was raised that weekend to be split between both charities. Thank you to all who came. My son Jonathan sends his thanks to all who supported the Impromptu concert in Kingsland Church that same weekend in aid of the Gurkha Welfare Trust and Oxfam. It was lovely to see him (I don’t see him so much now!!) and his friends enjoy music making and the sounds of instruments we wouldn’t normally hear play solos – that tuba certainly filled the church and those low notes must have challenged those with hearing aids. The oboe was my favourite! £730 was raised from the concert and will go to their fundraising for a 100km walk on 23rd July across the South Downs.
We made a start in thinking about the wonderful building that we all know, love and treasure, in a Vision Day open to everyone but only as yet touching the surface of exploring what needs to happen over the next few years to our building. There is conservation and development work to be done and in time you will all be drawn into thinking about this. There are questionnaires in the church that you can pick up and write your ideas on and a box to return them to. Try and make time over August to do this so that we move forward together as a community and church for the good of all. Pop up Opera is stunning. We are privileged to have them come to Kingsland and if you haven’t been yet then when they come next year do make the effort. Thanks to Jim and Dee for hosting the evening with SMAAAK and £900 was profit for the funds towards the fabric work of the church. Along with a wedding, a funeral, the school end of year service, and the weekly worship of the church it has been a busy month. In August it is holiday time for the schools and families and things look a little different! We are planning a series of Summer Services that go on Safari around the parishes – something old