Issue 3 of the Fundraising News! Already we are into February and buzzing along with our fundraising efforts. So far, we have raised more than £30,000 and each week your generosity swells that figure! It’s impressive!

But we cannot sit back and think we are making huge steps towards our goal. We are still a long way from our total. It was decided at the last fundraising meeting that we cannot even begin to think of contractors coming on site until we have at least 95% of the total amount needed for the project. There are good reasons for this – not least of which is that if we have expensive surveys done (and paid for) now and they throw up works that need to be carried out, we cannot afford for those works to start. Then, when we can afford for the work to start, the survey information will be out of date and the surveys will need to be carried out again and paid for again! Not a sensible use of our hard-won cash.

Since our last Newsletter, Deacon James Hurst visited the parish to have a look at the project. He is the Vicar for Finance in the Diocese and needed to get an idea of the scope of the project. He is going to present our case to the Trustees of the Diocese at their meeting in March and then come back to talk to our fundraisers about that meeting. We are awaiting his thoughts and those of the Trustees to affirm our need to work towards raising in excess of £1.3million.

We continue to make plans for events to encourage as many of you as possible to join in with our hard-working fundraising team. Your support is much appreciated but we need to encourage more people to join us. This has to be a full parish effort!

Did you know that if we can raise £125,000 before the end of this tax year (5th April 2022) there is a donor who will match that funding! So we would get a donation of £125,000 to add to our funds! Wouldn’t that be amazing? But we have to make a real effort to maximise this possibility. Will you help us? Will you bring someone along to an event to help us to get there?

On the last weekend in January we launched the “Buy a brick!” campaign. In the first weekend we took over £1000 from our really generous parish. So far buying bricks has raised more than £2000 and we are still selling bricks! What a simple way to get involved – and we can keep this going because you could buy a brick (or bricks) every month and boost our funds in this simple way. You can pay by cash or card. You can pay for a “brick” on a chart at the back of the church. We need to cover the chart with bricks, so we can keep buying until all the spaces are covered! Buy a brick and put your name or your family’s names (or the name of a loved one whom you have lost) on it. The minimum donation for a brick is £5 (but you can give more if you wish) and you can pay by card.

Here are some of the events that are coming up:

On March 26th Bishop Alan will come to our parish to say Mass at 11.00am and open and bless an International Cooking event at 12.15pm. All of our diverse communities are coming together to cook their own national dishes and serve them up on that day. We have invited our MP Paul Bristow also to come along to encourage us all and he has accepted the invitation. Tickets went on sale for this event over the weekend of 19th/20th February. Get your tickets booked for an exciting international foody event! Available at all weekend Masses and during the week through the Parish Office.

There will be a “Cheese and Wine” event on April 22nd.

On May 29th there will be an event hosted for us by the Santa Cruzan Filipino Community from St Luke’s Church in Orton – this will be a national food event.

On July 8th there will be a “posh” dinner and dance at the Holiday Inn at Thorpe Wood featuring live music.

On June 19th we are all invited to the Annual Garden Party at the home of Deacon John and Pat Bedford. Home made bread, cakes, biscuits and sweet treats will cost you around £12 for adults and £6 for children. Hold back on the lunch to leave room for an awesome afternoon tea in the garden!

And also on the list for summer, there will be a cake baking event on July 3rd.

So there are lots of options to choose from during the coming months. Please help us in any way that you can. Remember that this is your church – your spiritual home – and it has to be maintained and made safe for us all to use in the future.

In the meantime, we have sent out 340 letters to local businesses asking for any help they can give us. If a company gives to a charity, they may deduct their donation from their taxable profits and thereby pay less tax. We encourage you, if you have a business yourself, to consider a donation before the end of the current tax year (5th April 2022), or if you work for a local business maybe you could suggest this to your manager?

We have sent out emails to a number of prominent wealthy people to ask for donations. These actions have produced a donation of £5000 towards our funds – if you don’t ask you don’t get!

The Fundraising Group is now 36 people working together and separately to raise funds to work on the church and restore it to a safer environment for us all. If you have a suggestion for raising money or would like to join in by helping after your regular weekend Mass, please feel free to join us or contact Charles Benjamin (his details are below).

God bless and thanks for your help thus far.

If you missed our second newsletter there is a copy can be downloaded here More news as we progress.

Please encourage anyone who may be able to help us in however small a way to contact the fundraising team via Charles Benjamin 

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

Donate directly to the Church account below 

Bank HSBC 

Account Name is St Peter and All Souls RC Church 

 sort code 40.36.15 Account no 72401436

Donate to our JustGiving page by clicking on the button below.