Race Night
Thanks to all who supported the race night held in the village hall on 21st Feb and helped to make this such a successful evening.  The total sum raised was £680.  
A date for your diaries  - as the race night was so successful another one has been arranged for Feb 21st 2004.  

Just a reminder of forthcoming events

50th Anniversary of the church   10th May   Guest Speaker, John Timpson OBE

Barn Dance/Ceilidh at Harvest Time.  Norfolk Wherries 27th September.    
A rustic atmosphere is planned, with food and beer and cider.

On the weekend of 13th – 14th December  a Christmas Tree Festival and Concert/Entertainment. Eight to ten trees will be provided by sponsors and groups/clubs in the village will be asked to decorate one of them for the Festival.  On the Saturday evening there will be entertainment in the church, and a Festival Service at 4pm on the Sunday afternoon.
For all these Events - Tickets: (01362) 688499, 688268, 688240, 688512, 688067.

The Friends of Bawdeswell Church 100 Club still has some tickets to sell.  They work out only £2 a month and the Quarterly prizes start at £100 plus many more.  It’s all in a good cause.
Contact (01362) 688499  or 688512,  evenings.

Other Church Events
Following a family wedding on Easter Saturday the church will be open to view the flowers on the afternoon of Easter Sunday and all day Easter Monday.  Do please fell free to come in and enjoy the display.
Annual Church Cycle Ride
This event will take place on 13th September.  Further details will be published nearer the time.  This is a fun way to raise money for your local church and see a little of many other churches in our area.
Quiz Night in Bishop’s House Garden  Tuesday 10th June 7-9pm  Bookings via Mrs Foottit, The Old Vicarage, Priory Rd, Castle Acre, PE32 2AA
 
 
 

In the March issue I promised to deal with the matter of - "How did we get here?" ie a deficit of £1m (Actually a figure a little less than this) in the Diocesan Accounts 2002. This is the latest in a series of deficits and cannot go on.
In the days of Parson Woodforde of Weston Longville, 200 years ago, he was paid a tenth of the produce of the land. There was no retirement - at least without paying for your replacement! Clergy retirement on pension only came in after the last war. To begin with it didn't cost much - less than £1m in 1959 for example. Now the cost is £160m. A huge sum, but we greatly benefit from the many who still minister part time. Pensions are modest and those of widows and widowers even more modest still.
Another change is that of Council Tax on clergy accommodation. This used to be at 1/3 of the going rate but is now levied in full and applies to all denominations. We pay the full cost of training our clergy - around £15m.p.a.Our own Bishop's training cost the church nothing as he had an LEA discretionary award for the duration of his training. The abolition of this type of grant has had a big cost effect on the church. The Commissioners still provide some support because we are one of the poorer dioceses, but it is very small compared with even a few years ago.
What once seemed an abundance has not disappeared, but is used in different ways and we need to recognise this and understand it at the grass roots. It is all too easy to blame the diocese for waste and they in turn the national church.
What is happening at the centre to address the present challenges is important. Troubles seemed to start when the Church Commissioners were reported to have lost all that money in the early '90s. With much invested in property there was a degree of "paper loss" involved, along with a fall in rental income. As most owning their own property will know, values and rental income have both recovered - and more! Over the past 15 years the Commissioners have regularly out-performed other major investing bodies inc Norwich Union and Abbey National, providing £150m towards the churches overall costs in 2001. But this still leaves a huge gap. In true Christian spirit some of the poorer diocese are being helped by the richer (vis Guildford pays it's way and supports others). Norwich is somewhere in the middle in the rich/poor table.
Cutting our central costs is another major prong of action being taken and the diocese aim to reduce these by £450,000 over the next two years. Also, the Archbishop's Council is looking for new money with the launch of an appeal to fund  Urban Mission, Church Schools and Youth Evangelism.
This has given a brief insight into how the financial problems arose and some of the action that is needed. Next month I will use extracts from the papers entitled - "God, Money and the Church" and  "How much do I love God".                                                  John Harvey