St Andrews West Dereham Notices

St Andrews Church West Dereham has two church wardens: Alongside Graeme Pressley, our stalwart factotum, we have the gentler sex represented by Maureen Elmer (tel: 01366 501147.Maureen has been our churchwarden before: We welcome her back to keep us all in order as we set out the on the next phase of church restoration and improvements at West Dereham. This will start by replacing the ancient wiring system including extra lights for the chancel and extra sockets in more convenient places. Phase two will see the removal of some rear pews and the construction of a new inner porch also incorporating a toilet compartment and a cleaners' cupboard on either side of the entrance lobby.

Phase three will see the new pipe-organ installed atop the porch-toilet. We will have plenty to keep us busy for a few years to come.

The Rysdenderbex Chorale recently sang at the joint benefice service, this time held at St Mary the Virgin, Bexwell. It was great to have a really good balance of singers, including some of the youngsters home from Uni. Five sopranos, four altos, six tenors and two bass – we nearly ran out of copies! If you enjoy singing and would like to join us, then our next joint service is on the 30th October at St Andrews West Dereham. We shall be practising on the last Friday in September (at St Andrews) and the two preceding Fridays in October (21st and 28th). The music will include Schubert's, "The Lord's my Shepherd" and a setting of the Lord's Prayer by Malotte. All our practices are from 7 - 8.30pm. Phone 01366 - 500470 for more details.

Sunday 24th September at 9.30am: This is "Back to Church Sunday" and to celebrate, we invite you not only to come along but to choose a hymn which you would like us all to sing.(We like having a good sing at St Andrews) Please have a think about your choice (even two we might fit in!) and let Chris Young know by phoning 01366 - 500470 so that we can arrange the hymns into the service. There will be time for refreshments and chat afterwards.

HERITAGE OPEN DAYS

St Andrews Church will be open to welcome you on four special days in September from Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th : During those days the church will be manned from 10am until about 4pm. On the Friday 9th, we shall be holding our annual Musical Miscellany from 7pm to about 8.30pm with refreshments (see separate article if you wish to take part) On Saturday the annual Norfolk Churches Cycle Ride takes place, so again , the church will be open to welcome you and those visiting cyclists who are aiming to visit as many churches during the day in order to raise sponsorship for their own and the restoration of other Norfolk Churches On Sunday 11th September, there will be NO MORNING SERVICE because we shall hold our HARVEST THANKSGIVING SERVICE at 6.30pm, again with refreshments to follow and a "sale of harvest gifts" to raise money for charity.