An article by Revd Will Gibbs for the Redbourn Common Round

‘No longer servants but friends’

These are the words that Jesus says to his followers in John 15 as he teaches them about what it means to live in relationship with each other and with God.

A friend is someone who is there in good times and bad no matter what. At St Mary’s we have many good friends – people who are incredibly supportive of what we are and what we do (even if we don’t see them in church quite as I often as I would like!)

But amongst these friends we also have The Friends – a charity dedicated to looking after the fabric of our village’s oldest building – our amazing Grade 1 listed Parish Church, ensuring that it is cared for and maintained from one generation to the next. Since The Friends of St Mary’s was founded in 1976 they have raised almost £600,000 to help us do this. I want to place on record our sincere thanks to all who’ve been involved over the years and helped raise this amazing total – we are enormously grateful.

But we need to make some new Friends! Our hardworking committee would love your support and here are five easy ways you can help:

1. Join this fun committee and help to run a few key fundraising events during the year. The committee only meets four or five time a year (in a pub – if that helps to convince you!) and so it isn’t a huge commitment but we’d love a few more people to come along and share their ideas and energy.
2. Come along to an event and help us raise even more money. Our next event will be a quiz night at The Holly Bush on Saturday 8th Feb at 7.30 pm. Tickets from Revd Will or from the pub – teams of 6 and £10 a head including some food. It should be a lot of fun so get a team together and come along – places are limited.
3. Come along to our next AGM and hear about the work that has been carried out and the events that have been run. The AGM is on Sunday 26 April at 11.00 am in the Transept Hall attached to St Mary’s and we will reward everyone who comes along to this short meeting (45 minutes) with a glass of wine afterwards!
4. Please remember The Friends of St Mary’s when you come to make or revise your will. As a registered charity (No. 271677) you can be assured that any money you give will always go exactly where you intended – to look after the fabric of the church and giving in this way can also be very tax efficient as well as supporting a great cause.
5. Why not run an event and donate the proceeds to The Friends? If you can’t get involved on a regular basis, a one-off event or collaboration would still be amazing. Do get in touch so that we can promote and support it.

We’re all blessed with many friends. Would you become a new Friend to us?

Yours

Will

will@stmarysredbourn.org