Remembrance Sunday Fundraising 2024
Remembrance fundraising at St Andrew’s
Our Remembrance Sunday Services on 10th November were, once again, wonderfully attended.
The collection at St Andrew’s Church on Remembrance Sunday was £226.11 and there as also £43.58 in the poppy collecting tin that was in the church beforehand. The total for the village was £5402.22, which was really good.
The money raised by The Poppy Appeal helps those who have served to cope with trauma and live the full and rewarding lives they deserve.
Thank you everyone for your generosity.
Find out more about the significance of the poppy for Remembrance by visiting The Royal British Legion’s website here: https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/remembrance/about-remembrance/the-poppy.
Cups on a String: a TLG/Riding Lights Performance
On Wednesday 16th October, we were delighted to host the Transforming Lives for Good (TLG) / Riding Lights Theatre Company production, ‘Cups on a String’, created to mark 25 years of TLG bringing hope and a future to struggling children across the UK.
Here at The 3 Churches Benefice we are passionate about the charity TLG and the important work they do. We are actively involved with Make Lunch (running Make Lunch Club on Mondays and Fridays during the school holidays) and Early Intervention (with a number of Early Intervention Coaches in our Benefice, who mentor children once a week in school). With this in mind, we wanted to support the national tour of ‘Cups on a String’ and host a performance.
‘Cups on a String’ is a warm-hearted and moving new play, developed from remarkable true stories. Challenging, surprising and beautifully hopeful, ‘Cups on a String’ takes you into the heart of the friendship between Heather and Joe, and the profound impact it has on them both.
St Andrew’s Church was a hive of activity on Wednesday afternoon as the stage was set. The doors opened at 7.30pm and we had an audience of 65 strong. The performance was really good and it was a great evening.
Thank you to those who hosted the performers and for everyone who helped on the evening with tasks like ushering, refreshments and car park duty.
Benefice Harvest Festival 2024
Sunday 22nd September was the date of this year’s Benefice Harvest Festival. We had a lovely service at the Old Parish Church of St James, with a brilliant turn out of people. Once again, the church was beautifully decorated with seasonal displays, for which special thanks go to:
- The Friends of St James’s Church
- Stanstead Abbotts Scouts – Forest Beaver Colony and Oak Squirrel Drey
- Stort Valley Organics, Stanstead Abbotts
- Joe and Mo from the High Street Allotments
- The Easneye Estate
- Hill House
- Kate Green (overall mastermind)
After the service, there was a very special lunch in the Haybarn at Stanstead Bury Farm, Stanstead Abbotts, organised by Antonia Trower and supported by helpers from the Friends of St James’s. Locally produced food and drink was provided in the barn, and there was a real community feel. Thanks go to the local food and drink producers:
- Temple Farm, Roydon
- Stanstead Bury Farm
- Stort Valley Organics, Stanstead Abbotts
- New River Brewery, Hoddesdon
- Brick Lock, Roydon
- Four Acre Estate, Little Hadham
- Hazel End, Bishop’s Stortford
Thank you to everyone for all the hard work that was put into making this such fantastic event.
A Year of Make Lunch Club
This Easter, we’re celebrating an important first anniversary. It’s a year since we first started ‘Make Lunch’, a club for families who need extra help in the school holidays, whether in terms of finances and food, or space to be together and find support. The 3 Churches Benefice partnered with a national charity ‘Transforming Lives for Good’ or ‘TLG’, whose aim is to help churches to work in their communities to combat poverty and improve the lives of children and young people. We started in the Easter holidays last year, running lunch and activity sessions twice a week for anyone who wanted to come. To date we have run 21 sessions, usually Mondays and Fridays, through all the school holidays, and we have made over 300 meals for children and their parents/careers, welcoming over 74 different children and 38 adults.
Every session is different in terms of who comes and what kind of day it is, but we always have an activity and a theme, a two-course hot meal, time to sit together and eat, and to get to know each other and build relationships. We have 16 volunteers signed up and try to have at least 6 or 7 on each session, working in the kitchen, cooking and washing up, or out front coordinating activities or chatting to folk.
It’s been hard work but we know it’s worthwhile from the stories we can share of parents who moved to the area recently and now feel part of the community, of children who were anxious and struggling at school but now feel they belong and have a sense of their identity and value. We shared some of our stories of the last year with our Transforming Lives for Good (TLG) Lead, Alex Hall, who has supported us on the journey and led our yearly review. She is so pleased with our work that she has awarded us Gold Club status!
We look forward positively to the next year at Make Lunch and thank all our supporters, volunteers and families for sharing the adventure!
Join us at Make Lunch Club over the Easter Holidays for fun, friendship and some yummy food. See the poster HERE for all the details.
We look forward to welcoming you!
Email us at makelunch@3churches.net
Baby Loss Awareness Week, 9–15th October 2023
The loss of a baby or pregnancy is heart-breaking, and this is happening to families across the UK everyday. During Baby Loss Awareness Week, from 9–15th October, The 3 Churches Benefice wanted to create a special display to remember all the babies lost, whether recently or long ago.
As such, we made a Ribbon Display outside St Andrew’s Church, Stanstead Abbotts and invited those affected to add a ribbon to our special Memory Tree. The church was open on Sunday 15th October, from 12 to 4pm for quiet reflection.
We also organized a Ribbon Run to raise funds for Sands, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity who organizes Baby Loss Awareness Week. The team set off at 1pm on Sunday 15th October and walked/ran the 5km circuit from St Andrew’s Church. The current total raised so far is £282 + £49.62 GiftAid. Thank you to everyone who took part or sponsored the team. The page is still open if you would like to donate: Sands – Stanstead Abbotts 5k Ribbon Walk. All money raised from the Ribbon Run will go to Sands, so they can continue to support families and reduce baby deaths, by investing in research and championing better maternity care.
For anyone who needs the support of Sands you can find more information on their website www.sands.org.uk .
The Big Quiz Night for Tearfund
On Saturday 7th October, we had an epic night of poverty-beating fun as we took part in The Big Quiz Night for Tearfund. This is an event that is run nationally, with churches all over the UK taking part.
This year at The Wilshere Hall we had a great turnout with around 23 attendees. It was a fun night, coming together as a community to enjoy a good quiz, but also to raise much-needed funds for a fantastic charity.
At the last count, The 3 Churches Benefice raised over £120. Overall, 5320 quizzes were run, 144 churches got involved and the current running total is £31,451 (on 11/10/2023)! To check out the latest numbers, go to The Big Quiz Night Totaliser HERE.
Thank you to everyone who came along to support this event!