Welcome to our first Fundraising News!

We know you want to know what is happening to the renewal project for our church and we will try to update you from time to time when we have breaking news.

At this time we are in conversation with the Diocese of East Anglia concerning the engaging a team of experts to control and manage the progress of the project. These will be an architect, a quantity surveyor and a structural engineer. We hope these will be agreed by early 2022.

Between them the experts will work on the scope of the project – what needs to be done before we begin major works – what these works need to be – who will be contracted to carry out the works – what the expected cost will be. Presently we await the carrying out of two more surveys regarding the water presence on the site and the drainage capability and effectiveness. These are costly surveys but are absolutely essential before we can start to underpin the structure of the church.

There have been a lot of potential cost figures mentioned over the past three months but the likely figure for completion is given as £1.3million. This feels like a massive amount of money for us to raise but we are not starting from zero. We have a deposit account, which we are calling the fundraising account, in which there is already £25000. This looks like a drop in the ocean but have courage and join us in as many upcoming events as you can! We have a generous offer to match fund up to £125000 if we can raise this amount by the end of March 2022 so this is a challenge that we really need to get behind!

On 19th December around 60 people sat down to delicious roast turkey and all the trimmings, followed by Christmas pudding and custard. Adults paid £10 each for tickets and children’s tickets were £6 each. Although final figures are not yet known it seems we have raised around £1000 at this event. During the lunch the draws were made for a Christmas Hamper (for which tickets had been sold at £3 each and this raised £600) and for a cuddly and cute teddy bear (for which tickets had been sold at £1 each and this raised £1372.00

In the week of the 13th December the diocese launched a JustGiving page on our behalf so if you have friends or relatives who have left the parish who might like to support our efforts please direct them to

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Standing-Toget...

where they can read about the project and donate on-line.

If friends and family do not have access to the internet they can donate through bank transfer/standing order/direct debit to our fundraising account at HSBC

sort code 40-36-15

account number 72401436

If you own or work in a local business please encourage your management team to take advantage of a tax break offered by HMRC for companies who give to charities. If it is your family business please speak with your accountant or visit

https://www.gov.uk/tax-limited-company-gives-to-charity

Our fundraising team will be offering a great variety of opportunities for you to get involved during the coming year and beyond. These will include a Buy a Brick to save the church, international food events, cheese and wine evenings, quiz evenings, children’s activities including a talent show and various other summer/outdoor events including barbecues and other garden events.

We invite all communities to join in these events since we all rely equally on the presence of our church in our parish life. We are one family in Christ and all have a mission to support one another and our wider community in the city.

Other things that we shall have to consider in the coming months include what will happen to the provision of Masses and other sacramental liturgies once the work begins. These matters are being considered at present and will be published nearer to the time but will influence our activities going forward.

This is a long-term project – nothing will happen quickly! We need to pray for God’s help and the generosity of strangers!

Please encourage anyone who may be able to help us in however small a way to contact the fundraising team via Charles Benjamin (charles_benjamin@hotmail.com)

More news will be published as we progress.