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Father, we praise you for all your gifts to us, and for the fun and fellowship we share together.
Help us to value one another and to work for the good of all.
May we give of our best, and so bring joy to others. Accept our efforts and give us your blessing.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen
Normal Service Times
Mass at St. Giles' Church on weekdays
Wednesday 9.30 am
Friday 12.15 pm Morning Prayers at St. Giles' Church
Tuesday to Saturday 8.30 am
Sunday Morning Services
Mass at 8.00 am
Parish Mass at 10.15 am
The Catchpenny
Fitzwilliam
The Big Top
South Baileygate
Yorkshire Dance &
Theatrical Supplies
Insurance Broker
Pontefract
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St. GILES’ WHIST DRIVES IN APRIL at 7.00pm
THURSDAYS – 3 & 24 APRIL
Come along and join us for a fun and friendly game of whist. Card playing experience not essential. Entry fee just £3, including a glass of wine/soft drinks and cakes, plus optional £1 Raffle. Proceeds for St. Giles’ Community Appeal - £1200 raised so far.
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ORGAN MUSIC at St. GILES’
EVERY FRIDAY LUNCHTIME from 1.00pm
30 to 40 minutes of music on the recently refurbished 1895 J J Binns organ, with Paul Dewhurst, St. Giles’ Director of Music or a guest organist.
Admission free Refreshments served from 12.45pm
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PASSION PLAYS :
TYROL 2008: OBERAMMERGAU 2010
Warwick and Janet Sumpter are organising week-long group holidays incorporating the above 2008 and 2010 Passion Plays. If you are interested in joining either of their groups, please contact Janet on 649535. janet.sumpter@badsworth.com
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OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD
Shoe boxes filled with gifts of love!
The generosity of supporters of the Operation Christmas Child project throughout the UK in 2007 made it possible for the organisers, Samaritan’s Purse, to distribute over 1.3million gift-filled shoe boxes to deprived children in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Africa. Many of these children live in poverty, have been orphaned or abandoned, or are sick with HIV-AIDS or other illnesses. The shoe box gifts bring great joy to the children receiving them and are a powerful reminder that they are not forgotten at Christmas time as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Over 8000 schools and 5000 churches took part in the project and following are some reactions from children who received a box.
Giggles of delight!
Gala, aged two and a half, a resident of the Borisov Babies home, near Minsk, Belarusia, dived into her shoe box and spread the gifts around her, giggling with delight. She was taken into care at four months old and has never seen her mother since. Samaritan’s Purse local representative, Nicolai Balbutski, explains, ‘It’s important that we visit every Christmas, because without your shoe boxes the children would have nothing.’
Truckloads of joy!
Teenager Slobodan, who lives in the Veternik Home in Serbia, has a thing about trucks. He likes to weave pictures and has just finished one of a large truck. Imagine his reaction when he opened his box to discover a large blue truck. He was beside himself with joy – his first ever truck of his own!
A wonderful gift in more ways than one!
Silvana is four and it is not easy to give her a shoe box, as she live on a fly-tip underneath a road bridge in Belgrade, where hundreds of of desperately poor Roma families struggle to survive in little shacks built among the city’s waste. She gazed in wonder at her box, bewildered by the sight of strangers arriving to give her something nice . her parents also welcomed the present as the empty box was immediately used to block up a rat hole in the side of their shack.
Excitement unlimited!
Five-year old Ivan is blind and lives at the Milan Petrovic School in Serbia, which cares for 900 children with mental or physical disabilities.
Ivan murmured with excitement when his shoe box was unpacked and each item placed in his hand for him to feel, he even used his nose to enjoy the scent of these amazing gifts from far away!
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NINA JONES, R.I.P.
‘A remarkable lady - soldier, teacher, historian’
Nina Jones, a regular member of the St. Giles’ congregation, until a long and debilitating illness prevented her from attending church, has died recently aged 88.
Described by her son, Peter, as ‘A remarkable woman’, Nina left a lasting impression on everyone who knew her and on Pontefract itself.
During the Second World War she served in the women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), as a non-commissioned officer in Palestine, and her wartime memories were featured in a BBC radio programme on ‘Women at War’. She later worked as a teacher at the St. Giles’ Infant and Junior School.
On retiring, she became a ‘one woman research centre’ on Pontefract’s local history. She worked very closely with Richard van Riel, curator of the Pontefract Museum, who recalls her work in researching the backgrounds of many local characters; greatly benefiting the museum.
One of these was a John Lund, an 18thC Pontefract wig maker and satirist whose house was next to the ginnel that connects Beastfair to Shoemarket. As a result of Nina’s efforts in finding out so much about him, Richard persuaded Wakefield MDC in 1997 to name the ginnel ‘Ducks and Pease Row’, after Lund’s most well known writing. So every time you walk through the ginnel, look at the sign and think of Nina and the legacy she has left to her town in so many ways!
GOOD NEWS FROM THE CHANCELLOR!
If you have noticed the PCC Treasurer walking around with a smile on his face recently, it is because he found something in what was a quite gloomy Budget to bring a smile to us all.
For those who attended the Annual Parochial Church Council meeting in March, you will recall that the Treasurer explained how the reduction in the basic Income Tax rate from 22% to 20%, coming into effect in April 2008, would have an adverse effect on the amount of Gift Aid tax relief we would be able to claim. The change would mean that instead of being able to claim 28p for every £1 Gift Aided, we would in future only be able to claim 25% - in other words a 10%-plus reduction in Gift Aid refunds. The Church of England published a leaflet, available at the meeting, stating that it would lose around £8million annually in Gift Aid.
Now for the Good News
However, through pressure from the larger UK charities, such as Oxfam, Christian Aid, The Children’s Society, etc., the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has had a change of heart and has provisionally maintained the current rate, based on Income Tax at 22%, for a further 3 years. This means that we can claim 28p for every £1 Gift Aided up to and including the 2010/11 tax year. The Chancellor claimed that UK-based charities would receive £300million extra (he means not lose, but that’s ‘politics-speak’ for you!) between 2008 and 2011.
Phil Bloomer, Oxfam’s Director of Campaigns, commented:
‘We are very pleased that we do not have to budget for this significant loss for three years, by which time we hope the Government will have introduced a better and simpler scheme to allow charities to benefit from Gift Aid. But this protection will last only three years!’
This change in policy will not affect our Gift Aid refunds in 2008, as we have already claimed our refund for the period April to December 2007 and we have received £10479.08, allocated as follows:
St. Giles PCC - £7406.81
St. Mary’s Church - £264.88
St. Giles’ Community Fund - £2807.39
Once the current tax has ended, we will be putting in our claim for the period January to March 2008. Following this, the next claim will be in January 2009 when the new, now postponed, change would have come into effect and our 2009 budgets will reflect this.
We take this opportunity to thank Jack Roberts for his dedication and efficiency in undertaking the complicated task of reclaiming these funds.
An excellent example of ‘mission’ carried out by many members of our church family. A final plea; if you are not Gift Aiding your giving, why not start now – the Treasurer will be pleased to explain it to you.
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