advent art and craft fairs
3rd Advent Art and Craft Fair - Dec 2007
Our third Advent Art and Craft fair, organised by the creativity group, again showed what a talented bunch of people we are here at Essex Church, selling such a variety of items professionally produced. This year's highlights were the florists shop full of felt flowers, the wide range of cards for all occasions, the new re-usable shopping bags with the Kensington Unitarians logo on - to mention just a few. Ploughman's lunches and mulled wine were offered to create a festive atmosphere. My only disappointment was in going back for a second piece of Michaela's stollen, an essential precursor to getting a third piece, only to find that a more organised (or possibly greedier) person had bought it all while my back was turned.
The wide support of the congregation, friends, family, and the occasional passer by delivered an excellent day. Joe Darling, in his town crier uniform out on the street, added a lively festivity to the occasion. In spite of challenging weather the event was a great financial success. We are ever nearer building our disabled access toilets. My sense of the event is that again demonstrates the commitment of the congregation to work collectively to achieve a common goal. Thanks and congratulations to everyone involved.
Jim Blair
2nd Advent Art and Craft Fair - Dec 2006
I think the mark of a successful fundraising event is if it makes money and we all had a good time along the way. Using those criteria then our second Arts and Crafts Fair held back in November was a winner - we raised a total of 1398.88 and a look around the hall showed plenty of happy faces amongst both stall holders and the buyers. The church looked particularly lovely with its new, seasonally adjusted wall hangings on show for the first time, which have been commented favourably upon by various visitors.
The service theme was a "Celebration of Friendship" which encouraged people to bring their friends and families along and it was delightful to have over 50 of us joining together for worship. We were especially pleased to see Graham Woodhouse, now a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition living in Dharamasala in northern India. Graham is the son of Joe and Kathleen Woodhouse, long time Unitarians from Sheffield, and they are all involved in a Himalayan Education charity which provides education and health care in the remote Spiti valley, which I hope we can learn more about in the year ahead.
Who could have failed to be impressed with the high quality wares that were on sale - beadwork, scarves, cards, photographs and paintings, note books and toys - not to mention delicious cakes and ploughman's lunches. A lot of work over several months went into making sure we had plenty to sell on the day, so a big thank you to everyone involved for all your efforts.
The money raised has been added to our Garden Fund for which we are also seeking external funding at present, with the aim of making our front garden a much more attractive area. We are also starting to think about other ways of raising money towards the vital task of creating accessible toilets for the church. Do let us know if you have ideas of ways to raise money or special skills in writing bids for funding. Look out for more news about this in future newsletters.
Rev. Sarah Tinker
last updated: 03 Aug 2009
