News

Billericay Town Council Elections - 3rd May 2012

Did you know that elections for our town council are due to take place on 3rd May 2012? Would you consider putting yourself forward for election? The current chair of the town council – John Buchanan – estimates that on average he dedicates 3 hours per week to his duties. John worships at St. John’s Outwood Common and he is passionate about serving his local community. Attached below is some more information but if you would like to chat informally to John his phone number is available from the church office

Supporting Churches Together in Billericay, local clergy gather at one of the bus shelters in Billericay High Street displaying this years nationwide and thought provoking poster proclaiming that no matter how you dress it up Christmas begins with Christ

New Wine Men’s Day - 12th November 2011

600 men from the South of England gathered at Soul Survivor Church in Watford for a Men’s conference organised by the New Wine Church network, in partnership with CVM (Christian Vision for Men). Nine men from Christ Church attended for a great day of worship, teaching and encouragement, and several Billericay faces were caught on camera. Can you spot them and name them?

Billericay Christmas Market 2011 - Churches Together Carol Singing

A selection of carols at St Mary Magdalen during the 2011 Christmas market is now available. Thank you to everyone who contributed by attending, singing, serving tea and coffee, and welcoming visitors. This year the High Street was clear of snow, and packed with people. We hope you will enjoy some video highlights, and also hope you will be able to join us here at Christ Church for our Christmas services (see our website front page and events page for more information)

Samaritans Purse Shoebox Campaign

For about five years I have been cajoling colleagues in my team at work – a law firm in the City of London – to make up shoeboxes each year for the Samaritans Purse Campaign.  I would bring the shoeboxes home on the train and deliver them to Christ Church.  The first couple of years I had just a few shoeboxes but the numbers grew steadily.  However, last year I was off sick just as the deadline for delivering the boxes approached, so a kind a colleague arranged for my firm’s van to deliver the boxes to a Christian bookshop in Holborn.  There were 28 boxes.

Then in June this year a lawyer in my team told me that he was now on the firm’s Charities Committee and he thought the shoebox campaign was such a good idea that he had proposed that the company adopt it as a charity.  The proposal was accepted and the information about the shoeboxes went firm wide in early October.   This was really exciting as we have 8 offices in the UK – Belfast, Dublin, Manchester, Sheffield, London, Taunton, Maidstone and Chelmsford and everyone was invited to take part.  Then there was a hiccup.  Someone had objected to the firm being involved in a Christian charity.  I enlisted some prayer support and within a few days all objections were overcome and the project went “live”.

Once it was launched I couldn’t believe the support I received.  One of the lawyers trawled the local shoe shops and collected almost 30 shoe boxes.  She arranged for a group from the Charities Committee to spend a lunch hour covering the boxes in Christmas paper and then sell them for £3 each – this would cover the cost of paper and the transport costs - all the money would be sent to the Samaritans.  The plan was to sell them at the monthly staff drinks evening.  Unfortunately I couldn’t go to the drinks evening, but was delighted to learn the next day that not only were all the boxes sold, but there were orders for more!  I also realised some senior people on my team wanted to do a shoebox but were too busy, so I offered to buy items to fill a box for £10!  I got 6 boxes from my team that way.

The boxes gradually trickled in and were piling up on a spare desk close to mine.  About 10 days before the deadline a Counsel’s Chambers we work closely with asked if they could join in as well.  I didn’t expect them to have time to prepare many boxes, but three people from the Chambers arrived on the deadline day with 32 shoe boxes!

Our London office made up 103 boxes and the regional offices between them donated a further 115.  So together with the Chambers’ boxes we had 250 shoe boxes in all for needy children around the world - amazing! 

A photograph opportunity with my firm’s senior partner and those involved in the project showed us just how well it had all gone.  It was a joy to see the colourful boxes spread across our reception desk and floor.  A photograph and article have now appeared on my firm’s intranet for the whole company to see!

So many people said they had fun filling their boxes and said what a worthwhile project this is.  It’s just amazing to think it started just because I took a few leaflets from Christ Church into my office 5 years ago, and it has “just growed like Topsy!”  God is simply amazing!

No Tricks, Only Treats

This year we thought we would do something a little different for ‘All Hallows Eve’. Instead of a Lights Party we would invite families and friends along to join in crafts, games, tea, more games and a DVD. An evening of treats and fun – no tricks. So from 4.30pm on October 31st children of all ages came along with their mums and together made cards, star decorations, clay tealight holders, decorated mirrors, iced cakes. There was lots of fun with glue, glitter, stars, stickers, butter icing, cake decorations and they all counted in the crafts to get treats at the end of the evening. Some dads joined us for tea straight from work, and then there were more games.  The evening finished with a vegitales DVD, a time to relax together before getting lots of treats to take home

Breakfast Together at Christ Church
October and November 2011

Every third Sunday Christ Church hosts a breakfast at 8.45 in the church hall.  We usually have a cooked breakfast of egg, sausage, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon and fired bread.   Some people have all of that!!! There is also a very wide range of cereals, croissants, pains-au-chocolat, toast and marmalade (or chocolate spread or strawberry jam or marmite!), cranberry juice, orange juice, tea and fresh coffee.  Wherever possible, items are fairly traded, and there is a selection of organic food.

On Harvest Sunday 16th October about 30 people came for breakfast and families who arrived for a baptism at the 10 o’clock service joined us for coffee before the service.  An amount of £30 was given towards the work of Christ Church

The grace for October was:

Dear Lord, on this Harvest Sunday,
we thank You that we have plenty to eat.
Help us to remember that in Your world
there is enough food for everyone.
Please show us what You want us to do
for those who do not have enough to eat

Our next breakfast together is on November 20th 2011

If you would like to come, please sign up on the breakfast sheet in the foyer. It helps us to plan how many tables etc. to put up and prepare

Harvest Scarecrow Festival
15th and 16th October 2011

STOP PRESS! The winner of this weekend’s Harvest Scarecrow building competition was Bob the Scooter, built by the Henderson Family. In all, 28 big scarecrows were built, plus 12 the size of a hand. We had great fun building, and then nearly 70 people gathered on Saturday night for a meal followed by a an energetic barn dance.
Yeee hah!