March 2018
Saint Wilfrid’s News
It was good to welcome the Panto Players to the Church and to share the space with them for a week in February. The flexibility of the space and the adaptability that enable it one night to be a theatre and the next day to be a worship space reminds us of the original vision of Garbett of a multi-purpose building that combined worship with a variety of activities and community engagement. This is something we are also reminded of when we see all that SWISHERS flc are doing and the various Uniformed and Dance Groups that meet alongside the NCT who use the building for meetings.
Another reminder of this flexibility and of the engagement with the community was the 20 Streets Project and there have been two bits of good news in the last few days. Last year an Oxford College contacted Father Bob about some archives they held relating to Oswald Hunt – a curate here in the 1st World War. Keith Roberts, who led the 20 Streets Project, has now been to Oxford to look at this archive and has found a large amount of papers and interesting details relating to the Parish at that time. There is a lot of further research work to be done, but he hopes to be able to share with us later on some of his findings and help us understand a little more of Oswald Hunt and his ministry at Saint Wilfrid’s and in the wider Parish. At the same time as Keith reported on his finds, we also heard that we now have permission to move the World War One street lists and the Grave marker etc into the Lounge so they can be more clearly displayed along with explanatory material arising from ’20 Streets’ – this will all be funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Less good news has been the difficulty in securing organists or musicians for Sunday mornings. There is a ‘shortage’ of musicians in the city to play on a Sunday and despite the best efforts of Claire in the Office (for which we are very thankful) we have already had a few Sundays where we have not had an organist or pianist. (Sometimes this has also been through ill health of those who were booked to be with us). Thanks to Father Darcy, Ian and those who have worked with them, an alternative system of music has been developed. The DCC agreed when it met that we should now invest in some equipment and resources to make this possible on a regular basis (although we will continue to seek to find live musicians as much as we can). This will also include an overhaul of the current sound system. We hope this work can move ahead swiftly.
In the meantime, life goes on as ‘normal’ with another very successful and enjoyable Coffee Morning for the British Heart Foundation and the Charity Lunches (3 in Lent) which will be supporting the Bishop’s Lent Appeal. Thank you, as always, to all who are involved in those.
Lastly we look forward to seeing you all at the Spring Fayre on March 17th ……