Our Lent Appeal this year is to rebuild two classrooms at the primary school in Cueibet, Southern Sudan, with which our Benefice is linked.Debby Underhill and her team of helpers provided an excellent soup and bread lunch at the Radnor Hall on Saturday 15 March. Sherwood Elcock has recently returned from a trip to Cueibet. He gave an illustrated talk on the current state of the primary school (which teaches ages 5-15 years). We saw before and after pictures of the weather-damaged classrooms, which earlier appeals have helped rebuild. This year, we hope to raise £10,900 to replace the remaining two classrooms and provide basic furniture and locks for the doors and windows.The tickets and proceeds from the raffle raised £475, which is an excellent start to the Appeal.
After months of hard work and battling bureaucracy, the Barker Room is dry again, refurbished and ready for you to use.It is the perfect place to hold your meetings, children's parties and family gatherings. Please contact Stephanie Elcock, Churchwarden for Nunton or Mary Boydcamps, Churchwarden for Odstock, to book your slot.
Hello everyone, a Happy New Year to you all. What a busy time we had in December. We held a lovely Carol Service at St Andrews, Nunton. There is something quite magical about candlelight, so with a huge congregation, and a large choir, all holding candles, we raised the roof with great singing. Thank you to all the folk who come together each year to create a choir at Christmas, and to Adrian for co-ordinating it all.We had an amazing Christmas Day service in St Mary’s, Odstock. In a small church which comfortably holds 65 people, we had 74. We celebrated together and kept warm. Huge thanks to everyone who decorated both churches - they were so pretty and filled with love. Despite the weather, small groups of Carol Singers sang their way round Odstock, Nunton & Bodenham, collecting money for the Tear Drop Fund. This is a charity which operates in 50 different countries, helping disadvantaged children. Thank you everyone, especially the refreshment stops along the way, with mulled wine and mince pies or coffee to warm us up.
Creativitea is an opportunity for villagers to get together for tea, cake, chat and crafting. We meet monthly on the third Thursday between 2pm and 4pm. Usually our venue is the Barker Room, but whilst this is being repaired, we are meeting in the Community Room at The Orchard, and we are very grateful to the residents who have welcomed us there.Creativitea is proud to support Charlton's Christmas Tree Festival, with our own Creativitree! This will be Charlton's first Festival, from 6-10 December. Join us on 21 November 2-4pm at The Orchard to make decorations for our tree, kindly arranged by Stephanie Elcock. The more the merrier!