APCM

Despite Coronavirus restrictions limiting physical services, it has been a busy year at St Mary’s Woodchester. As soon as was possible church daytime opening restarted, and we are grateful to the faithful band who unlock and lock the church every day.
The resumption of Sunday worship with necessary social distancing has led to some pews having to be taken out of use. However suitably spaced out stacking chairs spread elsewhere have meant that up to 50 worshippers have been safely accommodated. And several hard-working members of the congregation have carried out extra cleaning of the church before Sunday services.
Thanks to the hard work of Andrew Pemberton, who has been project managing, the second stage of the “A Building for All” reordering is now underway. Chappell and Dix won the tender (over 4 other builders) and work is proceeding fast. The removal of the 1902 screen has revealed the full glory of the Architect’s original design for the chancel, and we are looking forward to installation of a new AV system which will be less obtrusive than the old one.
Because he has been working on the reordering project, David Newton our architect has been delayed in his production of our Quinquennial Report. However we understand that this is nearing completion.
During lockdown, the boiler sprang a leak (straight into its overflow), which took some while to identify and consequently led to a very large water bill. However when it was pointed out to the water company that they had failed to notify us of a huge jump in meter reading, they refunded the excess charges as a credit balance on the account.

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