Spring update on the new Church and Community Centre
Well, it’s (almost) Spring and the new Baptist Church and Community Centre on the Offenham Road is starting to take shape. Work commenced at the end of 2022, the ground was cleared, piling work took quite a few days and the steels are now in place, so the overall shape of the building is starting to be evident.
We will post further pictures as work progresses and hope to welcome many new faces to our church later in the year.
The ground was cleared, little to see at this stage…
In January, the piling work was done for the foundations.
In February, the steels were lifted and set into place.
By early March, the shape and size of the building becomes evident. This is the view from the Offenham Road/Codling Road roundabout.
A closer view from what will be the car park side of the building. March 2023.
20th April 2023 and the blocks forming the innner walls are being set in place.
14th May 2023. The brickwork has started though the scaffolding obviously is still in place at this point. The grass is getting longer as the weather is improving…!
Music Makers: update February/March 2022
To all Music Maker families.
Good news – our lovely Wednesday Music Makers team will be reopening the doors in March!
Thank you for bearing with us during these difficult months, but as from next week – 2nd March – Music Makers will once again be meeting on both Wednesdays and Fridays to provide a fun place for you and your little ones. Of course we will continue to proceed with caution to protect both families and our volunteers, so we do ask you to only attend when both you and your child are well.
We plan to open Wednesdays and Fridays until 1 April when we’ll break for Easter.
We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Music Makers – re-opening the doors!
As you are probably aware the Team has been working hard preparing to restart Music Makers safely and practically after the long break. I am therefore delighted to tell you that the doors will be open again both Wednesday and Friday of the first week of November! The Wednesday group will meet 10.00–11.30 a.m. from 3rd November and the Friday group will meet 10.00–11.30 a.m. from 5th November.
We are, of course, all aware that Covid rates remain high throughout the country and for this reason we will be limiting numbers on both days and carefully monitoring the situation. You will notice some practical changes in how we run our sessions, but we pray you feel warmly welcomed back (or for the first time) and that you and your little ones enjoy playing, singing, and listening to stories together with us.
To ensure access for our current contact families, can we encourage you to only attend with one adult per family? And although we love that you want to share the group with other friends, please can you refrain from doing so as we re-establish the group. Can we also ask that where possible you don’t bring buggies as the storage space for them is much reduced? There is plenty of parking nearby at the former Aldi site.
It probably goes without saying, but for the safety of all please don’t join us if you or your child are displaying any symptoms or are at all ‘under the weather’. We will be encouraging all team members to complete a lateral flow test before attending each week and would ask you to do, too. Masks will be discretionary, but we must be aware that everyone feels differently about the virus and be respectful of others’ needs.
It would help us to know which day you plan to join us, so please can you send a message on the WhatsApp group with both carer and child’s name plus ‘Wednesday’ or ‘Friday’.
Please continue to monitor the WhatsApp group and the Music Makers page on the church website for future updates.
We hope this letter will reassure those of you more concerned by the virus, but we are so looking forward to seeing you with your children back in the building once again.
Kind regards,
Put & Ruthie, on behalf of the Music Makers team.
Click on the thumbnail (left) to download a copy of the letter in PDF format.
Back from Sabbatical…
The Minister of Evesham Baptist Church, Edward Pillar, has been on sabbatical leave for three months, from June–August 2021. This is normal practice for Baptist ministers to take sabbatical leave every seven years and the last time Edward took his was in 2014. We asked him to write a few lines about what he has been doing during these three months and he writes as follows:
Today, 1st September 2021, I return from my Sabbatical break. The Sabbatical has its basis in the idea of the Sabbath rest, taking one day in seven to rest from work and seek to nourish the soul. And so that’s what I’ve tried to do.
My Sabbatical has involved a little bit of a whole number of things. I have tried to rest. I’ve deflected emails, passed on calls, forwarded messages. I’ve walked, drunk coffee, read books, reflected, played the guitar, listened to music, and walked some more. I enjoyed writing and delivering two papers at the European Association of Biblical Studies Conference – by Zoom, of course! Ordinarily I would have spend a week in Germany at the conference, but virtual reality was necessary under the circumstances.
Sarah and I spent a week in North Cumbria, which was a relaxing break away. We’ve attended two weddings, and I attended a funeral. We’ve had to deal with elderly mothers being in hospital for a few days each. And we adopted a dog! A beautiful Saluki cross named Grace.
Edward will be back at the church, leading our service and preaching again from Sunday 5th September.
A Music Makers elephant!
For eight weeks in the summer of 2021, the city of Worcester played host to a series of sixty-seven elephants as part of Worcester’s Big Parade. Each sculpture is sponsored by a business and individually designed by an artist – either well-known or just starting out, from the Worcestershire area or further afield. They marched into the city on Tuesday, 13th July – and are due to leave again from 5pm on Sunday, 5th September 2021. After this, all the elephants, big and small, will be auctioned to raise funds for St. Richards Hospice.
While walking around Worcester and enjoying so many of the elephants and the wonderful painting and decoration, we found one entitled “We are the Music Makers”. As this is a well-known song that all the children love to sing at Music Makers at Evesham Baptist Church, we thought it was only appropriate to take a picture of the elephant itself and the descriptive plaque that went with it and to show it here.
Music Makers should be back up and running in October 2021, so here is the elephant to encourage you! The decoration is just wonderful, so much care and detail and such a bright, sparkly finish; it’s a cheerful, happy animal!
The detail in the elephant is amazing and the thought and skill that has gone into the design and cutting out the individual shapes is just wonderful.
The artist’s name is Sophie Handy and she has more artwork on display on her web site at sophiehandy.com.