Belchamp Walter News - Nov 2022

Belchamp Walter News Harvest service and celebration for the ordination of Revd Kate Sale 2nd October 2022.

We combined our Harvest Service with a celebration for the ordination of our Curate Kate Sale. Rev'd Kate presided over her first Communion in this very joyful service. All in our ministry team helped lead the service and Mally Graham, one of our ALPs, gave a thought-provoking sermon. Thank you to Jane for reading a poem and to Martin and Ann for the bible readings.
We adjourned to the Village Hall for our Harvest Lunch. A tasty spread was provided by Babs, Polly, Helen, Lou and Mon and Kate provided us with wine and soft drinks. A convivial lunch with lots of cheer, laughter and friendship. Thank you to the cooks, bakers and all who supported us.
4 large bags of grocery items were taken to the Sudbury Storehouse from the generous people of Belchamp Walter. Thank you to all who contributed. Thank you, also to Chris and Helen for taking time to deliver dona tions on behalf of the village.

FILM CLUB
The Belchamp Walter Film Club started up again on Friday 7th October showing Downton Abbey – A New Era. It was lovely to see our village on the big screen. Thanks also to those who provided such a tasty supper. If you are interested in coming along to film club night, please let Pete Scott know and you will be put on the mailing list for upcoming events scottle@hotmail.com

ABBOT CONSORT OF SINGERS
On Saturday 8th October the church was filled with the beautiful sound of the Abbot Consort of Singers. The singing was superb and demonstrated the wonderful acoustics of the church. Wine and nibbles were served at the interval and a wonderful evening was had by all. Our thanks go to the organizers, all those who attended and, especially, the Abbot Consort of Singers who generously donated their time for this fund-raising event.

DIARY DATES

• Friday 4th November - 7:00pm - The Great Belchamp Walter Quiz Night at the Village Hall Two course meal, £15 a head – pre booking essential scottle@hotmail.com
• Sunday 6th November - 11:30am - Holy Communion and Act of Remembrance Refreshments available after the service
• Saturday 26th November - 11:00am-2:00pm - Advent Craft Fair at the Church St Mary's Cafe will serve sweets and savoury delights and warming drinks. Christmas wreaths can be ordered in advance Monika 01787378347 Proceeds for the repair and refurbishment of the church.
• Sunday 4th December - 11:15am - Holy Communion Service - Refreshments available after the service
• Saturday 10th December - 6:00pm-11:00pm - Belchamp Walter Christmas Party at the Village Hall Santa is expected around 6:30 – licensed bar and BBQ Please reserve your spaces in advance scottle@hotmail.com
• Thursday 15th December - 6:30pm-8:30pm - Friends of Belchamp Walter Church invite you to an informal get together. The church will be lit by candles, enjoy some mulled wine and nibbles and interesting chat with neighbours and friends
• Saturday 24th December - 6:30pm - Christmas Lessons and Carols An event for the whole family. Festive refreshments and Christmas cheer

Notes on this issue

Once again the text in the printed copy was too small to read. In fact to read it I scanned the page and created a pdf, OCR'ed it and made this page.

Last months scan which featured the Abbot Consort of Voices Belchamp Walter was found by searching. Google at least.

I know for a fact that there is a printed copy of "What's On in Belchamp Walter" for the upcoming period leading up to Christmas but there is no (seems) desire to promote these events except by the printing of small posters and puting them in the Church and Village Hall. Occasionally the posters and/or events are posted to Facebook, but those like me do not see them. Or those that do see them only when they get an notification on their phones and then forget about the event as newer posts shift the post on the event down the page.

At the time of writing this the printed copy of the Parish magazine had not been delivered to the majority of the village. I know this as my partner and I deliver them! The reason for this was the magazines were not dropped off for us to deliver until the 4th November, the day of the Quiz that was advertised above.

Over the last few weeks (before uploading this page) I have been working on the web page for the Craft Fair. I am not sure where this is going, if anywhere, because of the lack of co-ordination of those involved with the Church and the events being presented there and in the Village Hall.

In retrospect this project is a prime example that most local residents do not make Internet searches. There seems to be a reliance on the use of Social Media. In a recent meeting on the relative success of the Film Night and the Quiz the main "take-away" (or one of) was that it was not advertised on Facebook early enough.

The Christmas Party

The author is not expecting this to happen due to the lack of support from those were involved in previous years and the fiasco that happened last year and generally in COVID lock-down.

November 17th - the party is still "on the cards". What with the cost of heating and the general "malaise" of those that are the beneficiaries of the Village Hall events I am not so sure.

Christmas Wreaths

This is another example of the lack of communication between the parties involved. I count myself as culpable in this as I have been on a bit of a "high-horse" in respect to the use of Social Media and the lack of interest in having a working website. It has been stated many times that there is a desire for such websites, for the Parish Council, the Village Hall and even the Church. However, I feel that there is no real interest apart from lip-service to the desire.

There is a poster that advertises the Craft (Advent) Fair with a QR code that when scanned will take you to the Craft Fair webpage. I don't think that this will work as there needs to be a clickable link on the Facebook page.

What does this have to do with wreaths? There seems to be no formal communication that the wreaths are available for re-order/purchase. Although this is stated in the parish magazine and there are (obviously) those that are aware of this fact by word of mouth, there needs (in my opinion) to be a formal advertised presentation of this. Seeing that the construction and sales of these wreaths are the biggest money maker for the craft fair the poster should have made this clear.