Members of St. Helen's Knit and Natter group, with the help of people from the town, have been busy during the last 12 months knitting and crocheting flowers for displays inside and outside the Church as part of Northwich in Bloom 2022. The children from Witton Church Walk School have made felt flowers to add to the displays.The origional intention was to hang the flowers down the church tower. Unfortunately it has been a particularly windy summer and this has caused a few technical problems and the flowers had to be taken down. The flowers are now diplayed above the entrance to the church and inside the church. The picture shows some of the children from Witton Church Walk School with a display of their flowers which is now hanging in the church porch. St. Helen's is proud to be part of ‘Northwich in Bloom’, part of ‘North West In Bloom’, which encourages local communities to improve their surroundings through horticultural excellence, community involvement and environmental friendliness. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make the displays possible.
St Helen’s contribution to ‘Northwich in Bloom’ consists of thousands of knitted, crocheted and felt flowers cable-clipped to netting hanging down the tower and spelling out ‘Northwich in Bloom 2022’ along the South Aisle wall. So many flowers to cut out, knit and crochet (5000 in all) and attach to netting (a really back-breaking job). And then the careful, time-consuming task of securing the netting against the side of the tower. Thank you, everyone who helped make it all happen: the knitters, the crocheteers, children from Witton Church Walk School, the cable clippers, and the people up the tower, on the ground , on ladders and on the roof, making everything secure! Unfortunately the display of knitted flowers has been damaged by the wind and rain we had at the beginning of July. Remedial repair works have proved unsuccessful and further significant damage to both displays has meant that both have had to be removed. The PCC has agreed to a team being formed to work out a way to display the flowers in a safe and sustainable way. Please watch this space for further news and developments.
On Saturday 21st May a Day of Celebrations was held in St. Helen's Church. Rt Revd Mark Tanner, Bishop of Chester, blessed the new internal glass doors and then walked a short section of the St. Helen's Heritage Trail. The Bishop was accompanied by the Mayor of Northwich, Graham Emmett, people who had helped to put the trail together, members of the congregation and local community.During the day the church was open for refreshments. There were children's activities, musical performances by local schools, a sales table and people added knitted flowers to the netting which will be part of the flowers from the tower display for Northwich in Bloom. Thank you to everyone who gave a donation at this event. The total raised on the day for the Motor Neurone Disease Association was £526.
CHRISTIAN AID NEWS Barbara Moth, our Christian Aid Rep. has the following good news to report: the envelope collection during Christian Aid week was £225.50; between them Angela Atkinson and Barbara raised £1,165 through their 300,000 steps challenge in May; between January and April donations at Lent Lunches and Saturday morning Open Church raised £813.52 and a further £354.49 was donated for Christian Aid’s Ukraine Appeal. Barbara would like to thank everyone for their generosity.
