Friends How money spent St John's Church, Moggerhanger

Latest Projects
New Lighting

View of new nave light fittings from West door

Thanks in huge part to the Friends of St Johns we have been able to improve our lighting, swapping old single pendant (no longer EU compliant) 200W bulbs, with 5 branch fittings, each 24W Globe shielded.
There have also been fitted aisle spot lights to light up the North and South Ailses and two new performance spots pointing into the middle of the church to help our singers to read their music when they entertain us.

We were very pleased with the work of Steve Davies of Willington, who installed the new lighting system and are happy to recommend his firm.

Other projects which will call for our help in the future are to provide an improved heating system, as these last cold winters clearly demonstated how inadequate ours is.

The regular contributions made by the Friends are very important and we are greatful for your continuing support.

Church Kitchen
We have been extremely busy this year, apart from the 150th anniversary celebrations. Our vicar the Revd. Lynda Klimas obtained a Luton and Bedfordshire Community ‘Grassroots’ grant to enable us to put in a new kitchen (designed and installed by Loline Biggleswade). The Friends have contributed £1477 to complete this project.
Do pop in for a cup of tea or coffee and use our beautiful new kitchen

Before

Messy corner, cloth covered bier with a shelf placed on top

The other messy corner, sink and kettles

After

Beautiful new kitchen all shiny and clean

General Maintenance

Unfortunately widespread woodworm was found in the church, throughout the pulpit, choir stalls and pews. The Friends gave £517 to have this throughly treated by Mr Buck in early 2007.
Repairs to the guttering, (in one area more like weeding of the guttering) and replacement of the studs that fix the wire mesh screens to the apse windows have been Completed by G Kinns, Kempston. The Friends has contributed £297.28 in April 2007 to on going guttering repairs.

Roof Damage
The Parochial Church Council (PCC) informed 'The Friends' that in 2004 the Apse roof suffered considerable storm damage. This was assessed in September and found to be urgent and had to be completed before winter. Work on the Apse roof was completed before Christmas (see below for some pictures). 'The Friends' trustees agreed to release £2400 of money towards payment of this repair.

Repaired Apse roof Front Repaired Apse roof side
New leading on repaired Apse roof

New wall for Churchyard
Anyone walking past the Church today will see that the wall on the southern side has been fully repaired. The close proximity of a very large old tree and the presence of some small young feet, had caused the wall to collapse early last year.

Several quotes for the work were obtained and the task was finally undertaken in March by Messrs H & A Gudgin. As you can see from the photograph, the wall has been well restored and is no longer the unsightly and somewhat dangerous structure it had become.

The entire costs of rebuilding the wall, £658, and making repairs to other sections around the Church were met by the Friends. Last winter it was also necessary to call the tree surgeons in to make one of our large trees safe and again, the Friends met the costs.

More recently, we have paid for the provision of an extra light inside the Church over the kitchen area. The back of the Church is used as a meeting place for coffee each weekday morning and the kitchen is used frequently for many social events and church activities.
The Friends are also making a substantial contribution to the annual costs of insuring the church building.

Friends of St John's Church, Moggerhanger
Charity No: 1097011