Good News from St Mabyn!

We are pleased to share the good news that we were able to send £540 to the Shelter Box charity last month from monies collected from the sale of cream teas in the summer, the regular afternoon tea parties and the recent auction of harvest goods in church.

We of course thank everyone sincerely who helped to put on these events and also those of you who supported them and donated to this year's cause.

Shelter Box is an international disaster relief charity established in 2000 in Helston,  that provides emergency shelter and other aid items to families around the world who have lost their homes to disaster or conflict. For more information about this charity - see their website at shelter box.org

JF

Chair’s report for Friends of St Mabyn Church AGM

• Another year of effort by a very small committee. Fina Stannard has

been a most welcome addition, and I am grateful for all her work and

support. Likewise, Carole Grigg and David Bishop. Thank you for all

efforts made this year. I also thank non-committee members,

principally Rob and Liz Turner for their hard work, Jan Fisher for

helping with publicity and Greta Fookes for supporting us when she

can.

• It has been an interesting year with fundraising events, the context for

which has been the installation of modern facilities within the church

to address the need for refreshment and comfort. We were very

happy to be able to donate £6,000 to facilitate the completion of the

work in very short time. However, we need to replenish our funds for

future projects and so we worked hard to progress towards that aim.

• Elaine Reynolds of Bruallen Flowers returned for a pre - Christmas

flower demonstration, which was instructive, enjoyable and

entertaining. Tom’s contribution of mulled Haywood cider

enlivened the evening and we all went home full of Christmas spirit

and confidence in our own creative efforts – if only until the next

morning.

• Johnny Cowling’s gospel evening at the church on 28 April drew a

large enough audience to make our considerable efforts

worthwhile. 93 tickets were sold, and generous donations were

given for refreshments (Haywood cider and Aunt Avice pasties). I

am grateful to all who sell us their goods or services discounted to

help our charity, such as the above mentioned as well as Palace

Printers and Bricknells for printing and photocopying. A great deal

of work for months beforehand went into making this event a

success. It was a wonderful evening, supported by an audience

largely from outside the village. The warmth of Johnny’s

performance raised the feel-good factor for us all and I am grateful

to him for giving us an evening to remember. Mera Royle, an

outstandingly talented harpist and winner of the BBC Young Folk

Musician of 2018 award, gave a performance during the interval

which impressed us all and gained her new followers. What a lucky

coincidence that her cousins brought her for Sunday lunch at

Westfield and decided to stay for the evening.

• Exultate, in concert on 11 May, gave a thrilling performance of

choral music, which filled the church with glorious sound. It seemed

that this is what the great barrel vault was built for: to amplify

sublime voices. Rob and Liz were instrumental in organising the

concert; Fina and I worked very hard to promote it and sell tickets

and whilst we were sorry that the church was not absolutely full for

such an uplifting concert, we were relieved to have sold over 70

tickets and to have made just enough to cover costs. We would

happily host the choir’s return in future but would give over the

promotion and ticket sales to their own organisation.

• The FoSMC stall at the fête held in the church did respectable

business in strawberries, cakes, tea towels, etc.

• I was pleased to receive a substantial donation in January and

would be delighted to receive one-off donations from anyone who

feels they would like to support the ongoing maintenance of the

fabric of the church, without necessarily joining as a member. If you

are able to confirm that you are a tax-payer, we can benefit even

more in the form of gift-aid.

Harvest Festival

St Mabyn church will be celebrating their Harvest Festival on Sunday 6th October. Please note the latter time of the service at 11.00am. You are invited to stay for lunch following the service for which a small donation is welcome. Our famous auction of harvest produce concludes the event - always popular to pick up some lovely fruit, vegetables, cakes and goodies! Do come and join us - everyone is welcome! For further information, please phone Carol Grigg on 01208 841276

Church Fete

Thank you to everyone who attended this years church fete and despite it being undercover this year, there was a great atmosphere and the church was buzzing! Everyone seemed to enjoy the afternoon especially the entertainment from St Minver Brass band and the wonderful Maypole dancing and singing from the children of St Mabyn school. Grateful thanks as always to everyone who helped in anyway to make the event so successful.

Church fete Update!

Church fete - June 15th - Update!

Due to exceptional circumstances and the prospect of inclement weather -  the decision as many of you will already know is to bring our fete this year under cover.

Stalls and entertainment will be split between the 2 sites of the village hall and church. 

A meeting was planned for tomorrow re final planning and this has now been deferred to FRIDAY 14TH at 4pm prior to the set up at 6pm which will still need to take place as there are still tables and chairs etc to be shifted and put in place.

St Minver band will be in church at 2pm - 2.30 and 3.15 - 3.45pm approx. Maypole dancing (weather permitting) will be in the lower playground at 2.30pm and choir in church at 3pm.  

Despite all the hurdles this year in making this event happen, we are doing our best to bring the fete off for the village, so everyone's continued support is paramount and most welcome. 

Thy Kingdom Come, Evening Prayer.

Friday 31^stMay: St Mabyn

Saturday 1^stJune: St Breward

Sunday 2^ndJune: Blisland

Monday 3^rdJune: Michaelstow

Tuesday 4^thJune: St Tudy

Friday 7^thJune: Helland

Saturday 8^thJune: Temple

All services start at 5.30pm.

St Mabyn Scarecrow Competition

St Mabyn Scarecrow Competition – Just for fun! We are holding a scarecrow competition in the lead up to the church fete this year. You may choose your theme but scarecrows must be over 36 inches tall. Just display your scarecrow in your front garden from Sunday 9^thJune to Saturday 15^th.Judging will take place on Wednesday 12^thJune.

Free entry to take part. Please register your entry at the village community shop.

There is a prize for the winner, which will be announced at the fete at 4pm!

St Mabyn Church fete – Saturday June 15th at 2pm on the Green.

We have booked the sun and the band so all we need is you to turn up and enjoy yourself.

St Minver Band are back to open the fete for us so we look forward to seeing them and enjoying their sound along with a cream tea! This year we have all our usual stalls and Grand Raffle.

The scouts will be there with their great games and bouncy castle.

There will also be Maypole dancing from the children of St Mabyn school, the school choir and children's races to entertain us!

We thank all those in anticipation who give their time and resources freely to make this day a success and you know who you are. Look out for information regarding donations for the fete – coming soon! As always we are looking for strong help on the Friday evening before at 6pm to help set up and at 5pm on the Saturday to help clear away – we have some new marquees this year!

If you can help us – please contact Jan Fisher 01208 852182.

Spring Serenade

Diary dates

Diary Dates for St Mabyn church 

Two events are being kindly organised by the Friends of St Mabyn.  We are still fundraising to pay for our kitchen / toilet building project. 

Johnny Cowling at the church 6.30 pm on 28th  April, 2019 with a Rock Gospel concert. Tickets £10.00, (include light refreshments )available from Esther Dudley. Tel: 841534

 Choral Concert  - Saturday 11th  May, 2019 –  7.00 pm in church.

Exultate Singers are an accomplished chamber choir of 45 singers based in Bristol. They have performed in more than 150 concerts, broadcasts on BBC Radios 2, 3, 4, the World Service and Classic FM and have appeared on BBC’s Songs of Praise and The One Show. See their website exulate.org.uk for more information on this outstanding choir – a date not to be missed!

Tickets £10 from Fina Stannard (01208-840176 or fina.stannard@gmail.com) or online from www.exultatesingers.org.

St. Mabyn Church kitchen and toilet project

After many months of planning and fundraising, we can now confirm that our new kitchen and toilet are installed and ready for use!

To bring our beautiful church in to the 21^stcentury, the plans of having this sort of luxury seemed insurmountable. Our churchwarden Rob Turner, however, took a different view and has worked tirelessly to see the project through.

Plans were drawn up by architect – Ian R. Jamieson (services given gratis) and eventually approved. Thanks to some great fundraising, building commenced in early January 2019. Bright Ideas of St Tudy (Dave Holborow, ably assisted by Si, Charlie, and Mash) have made an incredible job for us. They were clean, tidy and considerate workers. A great team, faultless workmanship and always punctual too! We thank you.

The whole project would have been much harder to come by however, without the very generous donation of £6,000 by the Friends of St Mabyn led by Esther Dudley, through their own fundraising efforts. We also secured a grant of £1,125 from the All Churches trust for which we were also very grateful.

Two further grant applications are still pending, and it is hoped that these and further Friends fundraising planned for the first half of 2019 (concerts in church by Johnny Cowling and Bristol’s acclaimed Exultate Singers) will cover a further significant proportion of the balance, financed in the short term from PCC funds.

The project will mean that as a church we can offer better catering facilities for church services and events. Mores to the point, visitors can use the 'throne room' and stay comfortable – very valuable for the children and elderly who use the church.

Do drop by to see the new kitchen or come along to our Pancake party on Tuesday 5^thMarch at 7pm, to see it in full action. No charge ~ Jan Fisher

St Mabyn Christmas Donation

On a beautiful sunny day after our heavy snowfall in February, Jenny Coltart and myself set off for an afternoon visiting Little Harbour, Children's Hospice South West at Porthpean, St Austell.

We were unsure of what to expect as I clutched a very full donation box – money raised from donations in lieu of Christmas cards last year, and from our Christmas Crib service at St Mabyn.

We were greeted by Ann and Mary, 2 volunteers from the hospice who showed us around the beautiful grounds and Little Harbour building.

Wow! We were overwhelmed with the facilities there for families and children with life limiting illness. Beautiful kitchen, family lounge and dining room, hydrotherapy pool, soft play area, games and craft rooms. A beautiful multi-sensory room and sensory garden. Love and regard poured into every aspect including the beautiful chapel area and memorial room.

The attention to detail that the design team had considered was incredible. From the staff – the care and thoughtfulness was simply staggering to the point that when a child returns for respite, their room is just as they left it – even though it had likely been used many times in between. Their favourite bedding is on, favourite toys at the ready and so on.

The hospice is truly an inspirational place, filled with love (laughter and noise when the children are there) and where families can be themselves, recuperating and supporting each other during tough times.

We were very pleased with our donation - £122.74p – so thank you to EVERYONE who contributed to this worthy cause last Christmas!

For more information about Little Harbour and how to donate, take a look on chsw.org.uk – Jan Fisher

Johnny Cowling LIVE!