St Peter and All Souls RC Church

Newsletter

FUNDRAISING NEWS

FEBRUARY 2024

Issue 12 of the Fundraising News!

That was a shock! The last time I had news to share was in May last year! That shows how slowly things happen,

We did have a meeting with Deacon James Hurst in December 2023 and there was a set of documents that he left with us which showed some new information and gave some indication of the way our project would be carried out. If you did not see those documents, they are attached to the end of this Newsletter.

This Newsletter is to put in writing the things we talked about on Sunday 4th February at our lunchtime meeting in the Parish Hall. Our aim was to put some ideas together for fundraising in 2024 and we are especially interested in involving all of our various national groups in these events. If your group was not represented at the meeting, will you please put your heads together and see which of the suggestions your community would be able to take responsibility for and give us a choice of dates for this to happen.

Tabletop Sale

We had hoped to run this last year but this needs to be an outdoor – garden event - at the church. Also, people seem to have totally misunderstood the way this would work. So here is what needs to happen:

People search through drawers and cupboards, loft, attic, garage and shed. Anything that is usable, not broken or spoilt, but no longer wanted or needed at home, gather the stuff together, make sure it is clean and working (if appropriate), put a suggested price on it and – on the day of the sale, bring it along. If you do not have enough items to fill a table, team up with someone and share a table. PLEASE DO NOT BRING ITEMS TO CHURCH BEFORE THE SALE DATE AND THEN NOT COME ALONG TO SELL THEM – THIS NOT A JUMBLE SALE AND THE PRESBYTERY IS NOT A STORE HOUSE. Whatever is unsold on the day should either be taken home or to a charity shop by you.

We will charge £10 per table and all money taken on the day will go to fundraising. The sale will take place on a Saturday evening and after all Masses on the Sunday of one weekend in the summer – date to be confirmed.

Here is a list of suggestions that were raised at the meeting:

Posh dinner and dance

VIP event

Quiz nights

Bible study evenings (to be trialled for 6weeks on Friday evenings)

Barbecue (after First Communions are finished – parents and children and friends as well as parishioners not involved with the FC families)

Carnival and fiesta (Philippine community have offered to work on this one)

Food Sunday – Indian Restaurant cooking to be brought to church for Sunday Lunch

Murder Mystery Night

Cake Sale – with involvement from community groups baking their own cultural delights and an opportunity for children to take part in making cupcakes

Garden Party at the home of Deacon John and Pat Bedford to include homemade bread, cakes, biscuits, jam, and there will be strawberries and cream.

Christmas Party night at the Fleet

Italian dinner night (Deacon Claudio and his wife Joanna and Deacon John and Pat will do this) Children can come along and help to make pizzas!

All of these events will be advertised when they are taken up by communities who will take responsibility for running them. Posters will be in the churches (All Souls and Our Lady of Lourdes) and will be A3 size so that they cannot be missed. There is still a great sense of urgency in our need to raise funds to begin the repairs needed. Once again, I want to encourage you to support the efforts of the Fundraisers. This feels like a steep and drawn out climb. Without the involvement of the parish there seems little point in all the effort required to make things happen.

Angelo brought us up to date with the information from the Diocese:

The Architect who was working with the Diocese on our project has been stood down and a new architect is being sought. The same applies to the Structural Engineer. So at the moment there is not much to report. We are also looking for a Project Manager for the site – someone local who will be able to keep a watchful eye on the progress of the stages of the work involved. These positions are all now being advertised, and it is hoped that interviews for prospective roles will be carried out on-site so that we know who we are dealing with, and they will then be accountable to us. Information regarding expenditure so far has been received from Deacon James after the December meeting and is attached below.

Most of our Fundraisers are working people, so this is as well as their day-job and family commitments.

We were delighted to hear two of our young parishioners volunteering to look at how to make our website for funding a bit more user friendly and “punchy”! So thank you Ruben and Augustinas – we await with great excitement the fruits of your labours. We need access to easy fundraising options on-line and how to market ourselves on sites that can help us. Anyone who can help with these technical matters please contact Charles (his contact information is below.

Our JustGiving page is open. It is very simple to use. Go to Just Giving and search for St Peter and All Souls – it is under Campaigns. Click to give online.

• You can give using a Bank Card (with or without contactless) at the back of the church at weekends. If you give using the machine fixed to the floor at the back of the church you would need to change the destination of your gift as this one is programmed to pay into the church’s current account rather than the fund raising account.

If your community would like to arrange an event – perhaps something to celebrate the different cultures in our parish – or something that’s fun for families during the school holiday periods – or a particular talent you could share, please get in touch with Charles Benjamin who helps to place these in our calendar of efforts.

Tax breaks – if you are in business you might like to know that if you give to a charity through your business bank account you can take the amount off your taxable “bottom line” thus saving you a little money and helping us at the same time! Speak to your accountant about this or look on the HMRC web site. Perhaps you could tell your boss about this Charity Tax Break.

https://www.gov.uk › donating-to-charity

Your limited company can pay less Corporation Tax when it gives money to a charity or community amateur sports club (CASC).

You can also Gift Aid any contributions you make to fund raising. Simply ask the Parish Office to add the amount to the amount you have Gift Aided for your Offertory Collection and the Diocese reroute the Tax Rebate back to the Parish. 25p per £1 is a nice gift and easy to arrange.

God bless and thanks for your help thus far.

Please encourage anyone who may be able to help us in however small a way to contact the fundraising team via Charles Benjamin (charlesbenjamin04@hotmail.com)

JustGiving – (www.justgiving.com and then search for St Peter and All Souls.

You can also contact me at PB@stpetersallsouls.com

Don’t forget – without prayer and support from all parishioners nothing will happen!

Follow up from December meeting

Here is the summary:

Workstage 1: We paid Caroe Architects £13k, Conisbee Structural Engineers £9k, Ground Engineering (core sample and analysis) £14k, and AMA Quantity Surveyors £1k. In Total £36k including £6k vat

From this we identified the problem, two solutions and potential specialist subcontractors.

Workstage 2: We paid Thomas Ford Architects £12k, Conisbee £4k, and AMA £2k. In Total £18k including £3k vat

From this we have a set of detailed drawings for remedial works and quotations and a cost model for the project.

The total sum invested in these two stages so far is therefore £55k including £9k vat. The ex vat cost is £46k, the account was credited with £33k from the Diocese in December 2022, and is therefore due a further payment of £13k for work done in 2023. Over £7k of vat has been collected by Jonathan and credited to the account, the balance is now being applied for.

Future costs and income will be monitored and controlled by the Project Manager once they are appointed.

May God bless the project

James

God bless and thanks for your help thus far.

Please encourage anyone who may be able to help us in however small a way to contact the fundraising team via Charles Benjamin (charlesbenjamin04@hotmail.com)

JustGiving – (www.justgiving.com and click on the below link

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Standing-Together-Achieving-Miracles?success=true

If you have missed previous newsletters and would like to catch up please visit the website.

If you missed our third newsletter, Click Here More news as we progress.

Please encourage anyone who may be able to help us in however small a way to contact the fundraising team via Charles Benjamin

Please encourage anyone who may be able to help us in however small a way to contact the fundraising team via Charles Benjamin (Info@stpetersandallsouls.com)

Donate directly to the Church account below

Bank HSBC

Account Name is St Peter and All Souls RC Church

sort code 40.36.15 Account no 72401436

Donate to our JustGiving page by clicking on the button below.

Click to Donate

Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia Visit

Due to the Director being on long term sick Dcn James Hurst visited the church to review the current situation and has agreed to be the Project Manager representing the Diocese