Be prepared to be audited!
Here at St George’s we have begun discussing how our parish church might be updated internally to make the church building more appropriate for today. This process is a bit complicated, but quite manageable and the result will hopefully be a building fit for the next 100 years (St George’s was last reordered in the 1860s so no, nothing of the interior is what we might call original). In case you are thinking it isn’t necessary, the wooden floors are becoming dangerously rotten which in itself means wholesale changes, but it is a good opportunity to rethink the other facilities. This would include rehanging the bells which are not usable because of wear in the headstocks.
So, enter ‘The Community Audit’ – this is the means by which we find out what you, the people of Littleport, would like to see in your parish church. What sort of facilities do you feel would make the church user friendly and versatile; the sort of place where we can enjoy all manner of community activities as well as a good place for formal and informal worship. All you have to do is answer some questions when we see you, and we’ll record your comments onto a laptop. There will be an electronic version where you can reply online, and a paper version. So please give some thought to what you would like to see. Meeting rooms? Open space in the main church? What else can you think of?
And speaking of events, a date for your diary is Saturday December 3rd when we will be holding St George’s Christmas Market from 10am until 2pm. After the very successful Craft and Art Fair in September, some stall holders will be returning as well as church activities being represented, and weather permitting, the outdoor crockery smash will take place with the team ‘seasonally dressed’.
All this talk of community activities for Christmas may sound like we’ve forgotten why the church was built back in the 1500s and later extended in the 1860s; but we haven’t. The church is here because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who came to this world 2000 years ago. He wasn’t born in a fancy palace, but nor was he born somewhere remote away from human society. Christ was born in the middle of the human community, in an inn – where else do you find such a melting pot of humanity and its goings on? For some people the Messiah has yet to come; for others a holy God would never come to a world such as this. But the Christian Gospel proclaims that Christ has done exactly that and that he did so right in our midst. I realise that personal circumstances for some mean that Christmas is a difficult time, but please don’t forget the message of Christ amongst us, whoever we are. And we look forward to welcoming you at St George’s with, or without, its faulty floor!