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3000 years of war - an evening of poetry and readings 10 November 2007

Following our announcement last month, David Foulds and a team have made arrangements for the evening of poems and readings, to be held in St Paul's Church. It will be followed by a fish and chip supper. Tickets £5 from David or Cynthia Foulds, in Church or Tel 2710462. Please bring your own drinks, tea and coffee provided.

Fair trade gifts for Christmas 3 November

I spotted my first Christmas decorations for 2007 at Sainsburys, Fosse Park this week. Not for sale but hanging above the tills. Reindeer and snowflakes on 18 October felt absurd.

But it is time to think about getting organised with cards and gifts. There's a great opportunity to do so at our Fair Trade Sale and Coffee Morning in the Barnabas Centre on Saturday November 3rd. 10am – 12noon. There will also be a stall at the back of Church after the service on Sunday November 4th. All goods on sale have been fairly traded, guaranteeing a better deal for Third World workers. Please support this worthy cause.

The church budget

I spent yesterday morning with Vivien and Diane, working through a draft budget to present to the DCC next month.

Contrary to what you might think, I've never found this tedious but actually quite an exciting annual task. There's nothing quite like figures on paper to give a snapshot of the life of our community. True, it's a very limited snapshot, as most of the really important things can't be measured in £ and p.

Juggling the £80,000+ total into smaller figures to reflect our hopes (and some of our fears) for the next year is about combining faith and wisdom. That's why we pray together before we get the calculator out.

CTO Prayer meeting

Steve Rowe has organised a prayer meeting at Oadby Baptist Church on 1 November at 7.30pm. The focus for prayers is Churches Together in Oadby and its future direction.

Oadby Churches on Facebook

Christians really ought not be competitive, jealous, proud or obsessed with numbers. So with no hint of any of these, I note that the great Facebook revolution has hit Oadby with mixed results. Only Oadby Baptist Church (32 members) and St Paul's (33 members!) appear to have a Facebook group. What about the rest? Still, both of us fall short of the Grange Farm Appreciation Society (91 members).

I was delighted to compare the membership policies of the two church groups - while we have a "walk through the door and we count you in" approach, our good friends at OBC have an approved membership list. Ecclesiological differences run deep, don't they?

Multicultural Group

I've just come from a meeting of the Oadby and Wigston Multicultural Group, which met at St Paul's for the first time. There was a high turnout of 27 people, including many councillors, who first came into church to see the Desi Masti group rehearsing their dancing. All major faith groups were represented in a gathering which discussed forthcoming festivals and the way in which members of ethnic communities can be encouraged to access medical care, especially mental health provisions.

Who does St Paul's give money to?

Last week the DCC approved the donations made to mission organisations. We give away a tenth of all our income to brilliant agencies for the relief of suffering and to support people working for justice and the gospel around the world. This is, in addition to the funds raised by occasional appeals and the contribution to local mission in Leicestershire through the parish share.

The approved donations given by St Paul's are going to Evangelical Alliance, Care, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Africa Inland Mission, and Jakin Pregnancy Care and Counselling.

From the 'common pot' of parish-wide donations, funds are going to CMS, Bible Society, Crosslinks, Mission Aviation Fellowship, USPG and Christ in the Centre.

Supporting the church in Belize

Malcolm and Ruth Lambert, two ministers from Leicester Diocese, are set to go to Belize next year to assist the Anglican Church in its mission.

Last night Malcolm and Ruth came to St Paul's to speak about their work and to share their hopes, excitement and trepidation about all that awaits them.

As a parish, we're delighted to be able to support their work through USPG and hope to hear from them regularly.

Malcolm will be working at the Anglican Theological Institute to develop a range of courses for lay and ordained ministry. Ruth will be a pastor based at St Ann's Church in the capital Belmopan, and developing schools and hospital chaplaincies.

Keep up with Malcolm and Ruth's adventure through their website.

Key facts about the Church of England

While browsing the HalloweenChoice website I came across some useful facts:

Church attendance and visits

• 1.7 million people take part in a Church of England service each month, a level that has been maintained since the turn of the millennium. Around one million participate each Sunday.
• More than 2.8 million participate in a Church of England service on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve. Forty three per cent of the population attend church at Christmas, rising to 48 per cent in London and, nationally, 22 per cent among those of non-Christian faiths.
• In 2005 forty seven per cent of adults attended a church or place of worship for a memorial service for someone who has died and twenty one per cent were seeking a quiet space. Both these proportions are increases on thirty seven per cent and nineteen per cent respectively in 2003 and twenty nine per cent and twelve per cent respectively in 2001.
• 86 per cent of the population visit a church or place of worship in the course of a year , for reasons ranging from participating in worship to attending social events or simply wanting a quiet space.
• Every year, around 12.5 million people visit Church of England cathedrals, including 300,000 pupils on school visits. Three of England's top five historic 'visitor attractions' are York Minster, Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

Education

• Seven in ten (70%) of the population agree that Church of England schools have a positive role in educating the nation's children.
• One in four primary schools and one in 16 secondary schools in England are Church of England schools. Approaching one million pupils are educated in more than 4,700 Church of England schools.

Ministers

• The Church of England has more than 27,000 licensed ministers - including more than 9,000 paid clergy; more than 3,000 non-stipendiary ministers; more than 10,000 Readers; around 5,000 active retired clergy; and more than 1,100 chaplains in colleges, universities, hospitals, schools, prisons and the armed forces.

Community involvement

• More people do unpaid work for church organisations than any other organisation. Eight per cent of adults undertake voluntary work for church organisations while sixteen per cent belong to religious or church organisations.
• A quarter of regular churchgoers (among both Anglicans and other Christians separately) are involved in voluntary community service outside the church. Churchgoers overall contribute 23.2 million hours voluntary service each month in their local communities outside the church.
• The Church of England provides activities outside church worship in the local community for over half a million (515,000) children and young people (aged under 16 years) and 38,000 young people (aged 16 to 25 years). More than 136,000 volunteers run children / young people activity groups sponsored by the Church of England outside church worship.

Church buildings

• Nearly half the population (46%) think that central taxation, local taxation, the National Lottery or English Heritage should be 'primarily' responsible for providing money to maintain churches and chapels. These churches and cathedrals are largely supported by the efforts and financial support of local communities. Often, they are the focus of community life and service.
• Forty-five per cent of the country's Grade I listed buildings are parish churches maintained by the Church of England. There are at least £378 million of major church repairs outstanding, 87% for listed churches.

Sources: Church Statistics 2003/4 and 2004/5
Opinion Research Business national polls 2005/ 2003/ 2001/ 2000.