Archived News - Parish Project
Andy's amazing cycle ride
Andy Gibbons cycle ride is now well under way.
Please sponsor Andy on his 2,000 mile cycle ride from one end of Great Britain to the other (and back!) in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Andy hopes to raise £2,000 for the charity and is confident he can complete the journey in three weeks.
"Cancer has touched all our lives and I am pleased that Macmillan was chosen by the church as our charity this year."
There is a sponsor list on the table by the notice board in St Mary's Church, or please contact Sheila Banks.
To find out how you can help raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, telephone Beds community fundraiser Caroline de Carpentier on 01582 606677 or see the website www.macmillan.org.uk.
Source: St Mary's Church, Eaton Bray
Desserts and Divas Evening
Macmillan Cancer Support -
St. Mary's Church 2008 Charity
Desserts and Divas Evening
Saturday 19th July 7.30pm
Tickets Price £7.00
A summer gala evening is to be held in South End Lane, Northall to raise funds for this very important charity. We invite you to bring along YOUR favourite dessert/pudding and sample other delicious desserts. Recipes of these to be provided if required. There will be music in the marquee.
We have been very fortunate that most of the members of the 'Just A Cappella' group have agreed to sing for us in two separate performances during the evening.
Price to include all the desserts you can comfortably eat, plus your welcome drink.
Other drinks will be available throughout the evening.
All welcome. Tickets available from Lyn Stubbs 01525 220731.
Source: Focus, June 2008
Church raises £6,000 for MS Centre
Parishioners from St Mary's, Eaton Bray and Edlesborough, have raised more than £6,000 in eight months for the Chilterns MS Centre at Halton in Bucks.
The centre was the adopted charity for the church in 2007.
Led by vicar and rural dean, the Rev Canon Malcolm Grant, the parish has been supporting charity projects for the past four years and last year's effort is their best yet despite also fund-raising to pay for essential repairs to the medieval church building.
Mr Grant said: "The amount of money raised by people's hard work and generosity has far exceeded what we hoped for. For the past four years, we have had an annual parish project to raise funds for charities and concentrate efforts to make a real difference to people's lives rather than giving lots of little donations. This has been the best effort yet. People have been extremely kind hearted in their giving to others and this is the heart of what Jesus taught."
The Chilterns MS Centre, which is a registered charity, offers treatment and support to people with multiple sclerosis.
A team of professional staff treats 200 people each week at the centre and aims to keep patients as fit as possible, offering high density oxygen therapy, physiotherapy, complimentary therapies, and practical help with wheelchairs and benefits advice. It also offers support to families and carers.
Pictured left to right: Linda Oatley, a trustee of the MS centre, Jan Hunter the centre's manager, MS sufferer, Heather Martin, and the Rev Malcolm Grant.
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Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 15 January 2008
Churches raise cash to help Uganda hospital
Kind-hearted Eaton Bray folk have raised more than £2,000 to help a hospital in Uganda.
Local physiotherapist Rebecca Baldock returned to St Mary's Church as part of her annual holiday to pick up a cheque for the Kagando Hospital.
During 2006 the congregations of St Mary's and All Saints Dagnall collected £5,291 between them.
Rebecca said that because of the support offered by the churches the hospital - close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo - has now been equipped with basic equipment, including a blood pressure monitor.
A path has also been built thanks to donations, which means wheelchairs and patients with crutches can now move between surgical wards and the physiotherapy department.
During her talk Rebecca also highlighted the hope that the hospital brought to local people, and stressed how grateful the community was for the churches' fundraising efforts.
Source: Dunstable Gazette, 14 March 2007
Special welcome for African bishop
Villagers in Eaton Bray played host to Ugandan clergyman Bishop Benezeri Kisembo for a special service in the village church.
The visit was arranged by Anglican missionary group, SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad), whose national director, the Rev Don Brewin, lives in Great Billington.
He arranged for the visit to enable people in churches in Bedfordshire to hear first-hand about what is happening in the Church in Uganda and to allow the bishop to meet with church leaders here on the current situation of the Church in England.
Bishop Kisembo's diocese, Ruwenzori, is in SW Uganda and borders on the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is close to the Kagando Hospital which is being financially supported by parishioners from Eaton Bray and Edlesborough.
Since the start of the year fund-raisers at St Mary's Church have raised more than £2,000 for the hospital.
The money was collected at a series of events held throughout the year around Eaton Bray and Edlesborough, including beetle drives, barn dances and open gardens.
The Kagando Hospital was adopted as the annual parish project thanks to the work of Rebecca Baldock, a local physiotherapist, who is working there as part of the African Inland Mission.
For more information about the hospital in Uganda go to www.stmaryseatonbray.org.uk/Parish-Project/2006/.
To donate money for the project cheques payable to St Mary's PCC can be sent to Canon Malcolm Grant at The Vicarage, High Street, Eaton Bray, Dunstable, LU6 2DN. Please enclose a note explaining what the money is for.
Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 24 October 2006
Ugandan hospital backed by cash boost
A hospital in Uganda is set for a much-needed cash boost thanks to the generosity of parishioners in Eaton Bray and Edlesborough.
Since the start of the year fundraisers at St Mary's Church have been raising money for the Kagando Hospital in the Kasese district in the south-west of the country . To date they have raised more than £2,000.
The money was collected at a series of events held throughout the year around Eaton Bray and Edlesborough, including beetle drives, barn dances and open gardens.
The Kagando Hospital was adopted as the annual parish project thanks to the work of Rebecca Baldock, who used to be a lay-reader at the Priory Church in Dunstable.
Rebecca, a physiotherapist, is working at the hospital as part of the African Inland Mission.
Canon Malcolm Grant, vicar of Eaton Bray, said: "We believe that the church has a responsibility to do what it can to help others, at home and overseas, and we in the developed nations have a particular responsibility to share our prosperity with those who have so little of the world's resources."
The hospital provides a vital service in an area at the heart of the Aids pandemic and torn apart by internal conflict.
Fundraisers at St Mary's are hoping to arrange a visit to the hospital, which is close to the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but no definite plans have been agreed yet.
The fundraising effort is set to continue next month, and half the proceeds from the church's Christmas Fayre on Saturday, November 18 will go toward the Kagando Hospital.
For more information about the hospital in Uganda go to www.stmaryseatonbray.org.uk/Parish-Project/2006/
To donate money for the project cheques payable to St Mary's PCC can be sent to Canon Malcolm Grant at The Vicarage, High Street, Eaton Bray, Dunstable, Beds LU6 2DN. Please enclose a note explaining what the money is for.
Source: Dunstable Today, 13 October 2006
Open gardens raise funds for hospital
Eaton Bray's first open gardens day was a blooming success.
The sunny weather helped attract nearly 350 visitors to the six busiest gardens, all in walking distance of St Mary's Church.
May's rain and June's warmth had left the gardens in top condition with even the roses opening up just a few days before the event. Eleven owners of gardens and allotments worked hard to make their plots look so attractive and the event a success. Their hard work also paid off financially, as more than £2,000 was raised to support the St Mary's Parish project - the Friends of Kagando Hospital in Uganda.
The garden owners spent their Sunday afternoon fielding questions about their gardens and, in some cases, talking about and learning from visitors about the history of their properties.
Already people are offering to open their gardens for 2007.
Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 20 June 2006
Gardens on show to raise hospital cash
Forget Chelsea.
The only place to be this Sunday is Eaton Bray for an opportunity to look at and discuss all things horticultural.
From the lowly to the grandiose, houses in the area are throwing open their gardens in the first of what the organisers hope will become an annual event.
A total of 11 gardens in the area are up for viewing between midday and 6pm, and their owners will be on hand to answer questions.
The open gardens event which includes a plant sale from 11.30am in Eaton Bray Village Hall, is part of the St Mary's parish project to raise funds for a Ugandan hospital.
There's a chance to tour both St Mary's Churches in Eaton Bray and Edlesborough and enjoy a cup of tea among the foliage in the village hall.
Visitors can either look for signs around the villages to see which gardens are open or pop to Eaton Bray Village Hall for directions. Admission is £3 (accompanied children free).
More information about the parish project can be found on www.stmaryseatonbray.org.uk
Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 6 June 2006