Subscribe
Stay Connected
Keep up to date with our recent emails.
This Sunday the Rector and Nigel will be in Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden attending Teresia Derlen's consecration as Bishop of Härnösands. The consecration service starts at 10.00am UK time on Sunday, and will be quite a long service. Click this link to watch the service online. The order of service is available in English. Click this link to download the English Order of Service.
We are grateful to the Reverend Anne Heywood who is taking the 8 o'clock service and to the Reverend Alan Mustoe who is taking the 9.30am and 11.15am services.
We enjoyed an amazing concert at St Mary Magdalene's church on Sunday evening. This was an arrangement by Alex Caldon called 'An American in Paris' played by our Professional musicians in the Hampden Ensemble. The audience of over 120 were treated to a selection of composers from both areas, some familiar and some not so well known. The Hampden ensemble musicians including Alexandra Caldon, Charlotte Reid and Sam Houghton were as always outstanding and the audience showed there appreciation at the end with a standing ovation. Refreshments were served in the interval.
Val and the PCC wish to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the evening by providing canapes or helping in other ways. We will let you know in due course how much money was raised for our refurbishment fund. Hopefully this will enable us to provide padded seating for the pews, so that future concerts are even more enjoyable.
We are delighted to have received a generous grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Our redecoration is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to complete the redecoration of the church before Christmas, as well as improve access to the tower.
Our thanks to Glyn Hassall for the huge amount of work that went into this grant application. As well as The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have received grants from Stoke Mandeville & Other Parishes Charity, Bucks Historic Churches Trust, the Leche Trust and The Rank Foundation (Pebbles Grant). Coupled with the generosity of so many individuals in our church community who have donated to our appeal, we have reached this important milestone. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far.
Our work is not over. We have discovered a large void under the sanctuary floor. It means this part of the church is currently out of use, and we are investigating how to remedy it. We are also fundraising for stackable chairs, new seat cushions for the pews, and the other equipment we need to make the most of our church building.
Holy Trinity, Prestwood church was consecrated on October 19th, 1849.
Our 175th Anniversary Celebrations will run from October 19th, 2024 until Trinity Sunday, June 15th, 2025, when there will be a Flower Festival and we’ll welcome the Bishop of Oxford to a special service.
There will be lots of things taking place between now and then. You can find everything on this page.
In particular, we’d love people to share their memories of special events that have taken place in Holy Trinity church. These could be weddings or christenings, or anything memorable. If you have a photograph and would like to share it, along with a paragraph describing the memory, please visit www.htprestwood.org.uk/175memories.
We begin celebrating our 175th anniversary with an Arts Expo on Saturday 19th October and Sunday 20th October.
All are invited to come and see the work of prominent local artists, which will be displayed in church. It’s the perfect opportunity to purchase a one-off, special piece as well as supporting local, small businesses. Entrance is free and drinks and refreshments will be served throughout.
There are lots of ways you can get involved too:
- Entering your budding artist’s artwork in our Children’s Art Competition
- Submitting a photo to our Art Expo Photo Exhibit
- Sharing photos and memories of your special event at Holy Trinity, Prestwood
More details will be shared over the coming weeks but for now, all you need to know can be found at www.htprestwood.org.uk/175. We’d love this to be an event for the whole community so do get involved and help us celebrate this special milestone in our church’s history!
The Art Expo will be open to the public on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th October. We are looking for volunteers to man the church during the hours that it is open. This will involve welcoming visitors, selling paintings using the Sum Up machines and selling drinks at a small bar. If you are able to spare an hour or two over the weekend then please speak to Fran.
We have good news and bad news!
Bad news first - the price has gone up to £3.75. This is the first price increase in 2 years, and the ingredients, sugar and cooking costs have gone up dramatically in that time.
Good news - Hildreth's have offered to stock our jams, marmalades, chutneys, etc.
Good news indeed, but slightly concerning! In the first 3 days of trading they sold 20 jars. (In the first 15 days of trading they purchased over 100 jars for resale.) Concerning because I am not sure we can keep stock levels up. So I am coming to you with several requests.
- If you are a preserve maker do consider joining the team. We have members who make 6 jars a year, others who are into 3 figures. Whatever you can manage will be gratefully received.
- If you make preserves for yourself and have capacity to make just a couple of extra jars each time, again gratefully received.
If you can do either of these, I will produce labels and pretty lids for the jars. All I ask for is a list of ingredients. Also, if you use butter to clarify I need to know for the allergen information. - If you grow, and have surplus produce to your requirements, we can take any extra off your hands. This is not only fruit, but tomatoes and veggies as we enter chutney season.
- While walking round the supermarket, greengrocers or market and you see a really fantastic bargain, please do get it for us and one of the team will make something with it. We can reimburse if needed.
- Provide jam jars—clean, labels removed, with lids please.
- Support Hildreth's!
Our Harvest Festival takes place on 6th October at 11.15am at St Mary Magdalene Church. This is the time when we give thanks to God for all his goodness and we help those who have less than we do. Please bring your Harvest gifts to the service (as described above).
If you can please also join us for the Harvest Lunch which takes place at 12 noon in the village hall, after the morning's service. An excellent menu of jacket potatoes with a variety of fillings with salads, followed by homemade crumbles for pudding, accompanied by a glass of wine or soft drinks will be served. The cost of the lunch, payable on the day is £12 for adults and £8 for children under 12. An auction of the harvest produce will follow the lunch. Reservations can be made by completing the form at the back of the church or by contacting Kate Brocklehurst on 07786430666.
Our Harvest Festival this year is on October 6th. This year's Harvest donations will be supporting the work of the Chiltern Foodbank (CFB). CFB play a crucial role in our community, supporting individuals and families with emergency and longer term food support. We support clients each day at the Prestwood Distribution Centre at Holy Trinity, Prestwood and the CFB are noticing an increase in clients.
The CFB would be delighted with donations of dried food (tins and packets) along with toiletries and household cleaning products. The items that they have asked us if we could specifically provide are:
- Tinned Chicken
- Tinned mince beef
- Tinned Meat Pies
- Tinned Cold Meat
- Tinned Rice Pudding
- Chocolate
- Crisps
- Deodorant
- Household Cleaner
Please bring your Harvest donations to our Harvest family services at Holy Trinity, Prestwood and St Mary Magdalene, Great Hampden on October 6th. Please only bring donations of produce to decorate the churches. At Holy Trinity these will be available to take away for a donation after the Harvest service. At Great Hampden, these will be auctioned off after the Harvest Lunch.
We will be holding training in administering the Chalice for anyone who is interested, or anyone who would like a refresher. This will take place after coffee following the 9.30am service on:
- 8th September
- 15th September
- 27th October
For Holy Trinity, Prestwood's 175th Anniversary we're running a Children's Art Competition! Create an A4 artwork inspired by Holy Trinity Prestwood to be displayed at our Art Expo in October. Come down and work on your artwork over the summer - you'll find a labelled box filled with art supplies and A4 paper at the back of the church (but you're welcome to use your own too). Submit into the box for submissions by the 30th of September! Fantastic prizes up for grabs! *See flyer for full details.
The life of our churches depends on many volunteers. We are always seeking to welcome new volunteers as a way of building community, supporting our activities and giving people opportunities to discover more about themselves whilst growing in faith and love. To help us with this we have created a new volunteering portal. You can find it at https://www.htprestwood.org.uk/volunteer. Please have a look and see what interests you and share this URL when anyone you think might want to volunteer. And let us know if you can think of a role that should be here. Please pray for volunteers to support the life of our churches and all that we do to build God's Kingdom.
We are in need of some volunteers to help at three of our weekly clubs. The more volunteers we have - the less often you are likely to need to do it.
This includes:
Sparks Club | Mondays, 11.45am - 12.45pm | Prestwood Infant School
Light Club | Thursdays, 12.15pm - 1.15pm | Prestwood Junior School
Toy Library | Thursdays, 9.30am - 1pm | The Annexe
If you would like to help with any of these then please speak to Frances.
We work in the community with Acts 435. Acts 435 is a giving website that allows people to give money directly to others, and 100% of what is donated via Acts 435 goes directly to those in need. When so many people need so much help giving to charities and good causes can sometimes feel overwhelming and hard. Acts 435 puts people who want to help in touch with people who are in need, through a network of churches and local charities. Acts 435 enables virtual, online giving for specific needs.
If you would like to be notified by email when a local Acts 435 is made by us, please let one of the clergy know.
More...
After a thorough audit and the submission of our paperwork to the A Rocha Eco Church Awards Scheme Holy Trinity, Prestwood has been awarded the Bronze Eco Church Award. This scheme is our church's primary means of addressing the climate crisis through the PCC's Climate Strategy. We are now working on achieving the next-level Silver Award.
Help us respond faithfully to the climate and nature crises! Join us in reaching the Silver Award!
- Community and Global Engagement—Transforming local and global communities and ecosystems
- Buildings—Finding energy efficient and innovative ways to manage our places of worship
- Land—Nurturing spaces for people and nature
- Lifestyle—Living joyfully and sustainably as followers of Christ
- Worship and Teaching—Embedding creation care in worship, prayer and learning
We get many generous donations via the supermarkets towards our Foodbank. Unfortunately, due to the hazardous nature of cleaning materials, they are not included in the list given to supermarkets but are still essential items.
At the moment we have a shortage of household cleaning products such as bleach, antibacterial spray, kitchen / bathroom cleaner etc. If you are able to donate such items, please could you drop them off at the church office or give to a member of our clergy who will keep them under lock and key until we can move them to our foodbank storage. Many thanks.
More than 1.7 billion people around the world are unbanked and can’t access the financial services they need. Kiva is an international nonprofit, founded in 2005 in San Francisco, with a mission to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive. They do this by crowdfunding loans and unlocking capital for the underserved, improving the quality and cost of financial services, and addressing the underlying barriers to financial access around the world. Through Kiva's work, students can pay for tuition, women can start businesses, farmers are able to invest in equipment and families can afford needed emergency care.
We have had a team on Kiva for about ten years. In that time we have:
- Loaned over $20,000.00
- Made 875 different loans
Currently there are 15 team members. You can be one of them! By lending as little as $25 on Kiva, you can be part of the solution and make a real difference in someone’s life. 100% of every dollar you lend on Kiva goes to funding loans.
Follow the link on the website or scan the QR code and you too can Join our team today!
Great to see the work of Holy Trinity, Prestwood featured on the BBC News website, alongside our village schools and council services. Our amazing Family Suport Worker, Fran McLean spearheads our fantastic team of volunteers who do so much work in the community, just some of which is referenced here.
Cost of living: The hidden poverty in England's least deprived area - BBC News
