Greetings from Canon Mark

Thankyou for your generosity!

During the week the St Barnabas Fendalton Trust received a significant donation for the Hall Project. This means that, if we include interest, we have now exceeded our target of $200,000 in donations from parishioners. You’ll recall that this latest appeal began on Sunday June 13 - just 4 months ago! So a very big thank you to the 87 people who have given. We are still significantly short of the overall target of course but are hopeful that our applications to philanthropic trusts will be at least partially successful. So if you haven’t yet made a donation, it’s not too late!

The Joy of Pastoral Care!

It was sad that due to Alert Level restrictions the Nonagenarians Afternoon Tea, which was so successful last year, had to be cancelled. However instead of a large meeting, we thought we would go small and personal! Jo, Jenny and I have been visiting the over 40 parishioners who are over 90 in the last few days. It’s been such a joy reconnecting with our most valued older church members. Conversations have invariably been positive and uplifting. Jo prepared greeting cards, In Touch magazines, tea bags and chocolates as gifts from the parish and to encourage our over 90s to have a break, make a cup of tea and enjoy chocolate and a read!

Website Upgrade

Following on from my research on digital media and websites during my recent study leave, I have engaged marketing company Beck and Caul to upgrade the look and feel of our website. Communications Team member Andrew Wright has agreed to help significantly too. The parish has received a donation to cover some of this cost. We want the website to become a hub where church members and newcomers alike visit to find information, sign up for events, access spiritual resources and explore faith in God and get connected to our parish. We have found that during lockdowns it is more important than ever that we develop our digital presence.