Swaffham Newsletter

St Peter & St Paul’s Church
Services in August:
Sunday 2nd August
9.30 Parish Eucharist with organ.
Sunday 9th August
9.30 Parish Eucharist with organ.
Sunday 16th August
9.30 Parish Eucharist with organ
Sunday 23rd August
9.30 Parish Eucharist with organ
Sunday 30th August
9.30 Parish Eucharist with organ
During lockdown, our services were virtual via the
‘Swaffham Parish Church’ Facebook site and this online
presence will continue, and will include the additional
midweek services. After the livestream, the recordings
continue to be available for future viewing. Updates on
services, both in church and virtual, will be advertised
each week under ‘Services’ on the Swaffham Parish
Church website https://www.swaffhamparishchurch.
org/ and notified via Facebook.
As Vicar, I have been taking funerals both at gravesides
and in crematoria, but for many weeks was not
allowed to take any services in the church building.
As we began to emerge from lockdown, the updates
for the churches were coming thick and fast, normally
announced in the media before vicars knew or had any
idea of what they would need to comply with! It is a
very positive sign now that we can reopen the building
for private prayer, regular services, funerals, and - at
last - weddings and baptisms (with precautions,
including restriction of numbers).
There is a requirement for thorough risk assessments,
and arrangement of a one-way system and various
hygiene measures. A one way system should be
relatively easy in a large church – though there is only
one level entrance – but pew spaces will need to be
roped off for social distancing, and a system is being
put in place so that if someone has sat in a particular
seat we will know. There is a well-documented case
in Singapore of Covid-19 spreading to people who sat
in the same seats a few hours later. In common with
other churches for whom the additional cleaning will
be a challenge, opening times will allow for a 72 hour
gap initially to reduce the cleaning involved (as the
virus dies on wood in that time). You may be glad to
know that Norwich Cathedral has been able to reopen
part of their building with limited hours (initially
10 a.m. – 4 p.m., but do check their website before
visiting https://www.cathedral.org.uk/ )
Some of the Swaffham Parish Church events have
needed to be cancelled or postponed in recent
months, but as much as possible of our future
programme will go ahead with any required changes,
and announcements will be made once government/
5
Church of England decisions are known and can be
implemented.
Our treasurer, Norman Revill, has been looking at the
complexity of the financial situation, as the church
depends heavily on its many visitors and events to make
sufficient income to cover both day-to-day running
and also to care for the substantial medieval building,
which is of such great beauty, architectural and
historic interest. Our regular congregation contribute
via regular giving, which amounted to £41,000 in 2019
(including tax relief via gift aid). We are also hugely
grateful for our teams of volunteers – for example,
the weekly coffee and cake on Saturday mornings
generated over £8000 in 2019. Day-to-day running
(which cost c.£83,000 in 2019) includes, amongst a
wide variety of items, utilities, insurance, copyright
licences, music provision, administrative work and
cleaning, not to mention altar supplies. The Diocese
of Norwich, which covers the areas of Norfolk and
Waveney, provides many services centrally, for which
we contribute to the ‘common purse’ – these include
paying for clergy; legal and financial departments
whose assistance includes churchyard regulations,
planning permission, data protection, fundraising and
safeguarding. The Diocese also provides training of all
kinds for clergy, lay leaders and congregations; and
much more.
The fabric of the building is the other major area of
the treasurer’s work, with projects in the pipeline
(including work on the bells, pipe organ and the
east window restoration) which will amount to c.
£250,000 on current estimates and require additional
fundraising. Parochial Church Council (PCC) members
are charity trustees and all are voluntary, taking on
huge responsibilities, not least Norman as treasurer,
planning and controlling the budget and monitoring
cashflow. Church accounts which are filed with
the Charity Commission and can thus be found by
searching through the Commission’s Website.
Coming out of lockdown is both a joy and a challenge,
as we seek to find ways to do things differently, and to
include those who aren’t able to come to the physical
building by looking at whether we can continue and
upgrade our facilities for recording and streaming
services and events. For anyone who would like to
contribute to help us keep the doors (and virtual
doors!) open, there is an online giving site at https://
givealittle.co/campaigns/f25d461b-5270-4d33-b6ba-
52b3f0e164dd
Most importantly, though, do look out for the
publicity as we hopefully increase our opening hours
and services, and do come in to say a prayer or light
a candle, or just to look around. You will be most
welcome.
Revd Janet Allan, with Norman Revill (PCC treasurer)