Category Archives: Charity Fundraising

Charity Fundraising, Christmas

St Mary’s Christmas Crib Festival – we need you!

Leave a comment

We are organising a St Mary’s Crib Festival this Christmas, from Friday 8th – Sunday 10th December, and we need your help!

We want this to be a really big event for the village and to raise lots of money for our Charity of the Year, Level Trust Luton – so have some exciting plans for the weekend which are outlined below.

Do you have a crib you could lend us for the exhibition, or could you make a crib to display?  Or are you able to help us out in some way over the weekend?

– Lend us a crib: Does it have a special story for you… an old family crib? Perhaps is it from another country or made from something unusual? Maybe someone made it for you… or you just love it?

– Make a crib: It could be made of wool, fabric, wood, toilet rolls, clay or play-dough, cake, Lego, wire, paper, bread, Minecraft, biscuits, or absolutely anything else you can think of!

click here to register a crib

– Help us out: We would be grateful for offers of help with stewarding, serving refreshments, selling raffle tickets and many more jobs over the festival weekend and in the weeks beforehand.  If you would be interested in getting involved please email stmarys@stmarysredbourn.org

The Crib Festival will include:

Friday 8th December

  • Exhibition open 4pm – 7pm
  • Community Carol Singing from 5pm – 7pm
  • Hot Dogs served and bar open from 5pm – 7pm

Saturday 9th December

  • Exhibition open 10am – 4pm
  • Add your own angel to our community art installation
  • Make a sheep to join our flock
  • Nativity dressing up zone (for children and grown-ups!)
  • Refreshments served all day

Sunday 10th December

  • Exhibition open after our usual Sunday services until 12pm

Please put the dates in your diary, consider lending or making us a crib, and help us to spread the word about this exciting event for the whole community.

Charity Fundraising

An Update on our ‘Pumps for Mpwapwa’ Project

1 Comment

You may remember that our St Mary’s Charity of the Year in 2020-2021 was ‘Pumps for Mpwapwa’, for which we raised £40,000 (that’s over 120 million Tanzanian Shillings!).

At last, we are delighted to announce that the project has taken a major leap forward with the borehole being drilled in the last month, showing an abundant water supply as seen in the video below.

The next stage of the project is now progressing, installing the solar-powered pumps that will provide much-needed irrigation for the subsistence farmers in the village of Msagali.

We will continue to keep you posted with further information as the project progresses.

Thank you so much to everyone who supported this project which will have such an impact on farmers in Msagali.

Charity Fundraising, Events

Two “Chandos” Anthems – Handel:  Sunday 2nd July, 4.00pm 

Leave a comment

Two “Chandos” Anthems by George Frideric Handel 

In the Lord put I my trust HWV247 

My song shall be alway HWV 252 

Sunday 2nd July, 4.00pm at St Mary’s Church, Redbourn

This concert will present two of Handel’s “Chandos” Anthems in the way Handel designed them, with one singer/player per part.  The performers will be musicians from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, conducted by Damian Cranmer who was Director of Music there from 1987 to 2007.  

The concert will last about an hour and a half.  Entrance is free, but there will be a retiring collection in aid of St Mary’s Charity of the Year – Level Trust, Luton.  The audience is invited to refreshments in the Transept Hall afterwards. 

Handel wrote eleven anthems for James Brydges, who was created Duke of Chandos in 1719, and his title has been linked with these anthems for most of their history.  Recently, however, scholars have begun to refer to them as Cannons Anthems because they predate Brydges’ new title by almost two years. 

Handel wrote the anthems in pairs, one penitential and one celebratory, and the concert will include an example of each.  The detail of the arrangement between Brydges and Handel is unclear,  but, while his estate at Cannons in Stanmore was being completed, Brydges refurbished the local church of St Lawrence Whitchurch for his own use, and this is where Handel first directed the anthems.  The Cannons estate lasted for less than 30 years and the church is the only remaining building.

The editions being used are by Damian Cranmer who has added an alto part to the original three-voice texture of In the Lord.