Film at the Pound & Parliamentary Candidates – 6th February 2024 – Corsham Climate Action organised this event which was virtually “sold out” (it was free but donations for the film producers were gratefully received). Gastard ECO Church’s Climate Voter initiative promoted this event as a perfect opportunity to both get a better global understanding of how climate change is affecting people around the world right now and a great opportunity to ask questions of the parliamentary candidates for the new Chippenham constituency. The Film – It was pleasing to see so many people attending from Gastard. The film, entitled “Once You Know”, was harrowing and followed the stories of several people. There was the story of a young man’s enlightenment of the consequences of our currently unsustainable society. Another of the anxiety of young adults, once they understood what lies in their future; their frustration with the collective failure of politicians around the world to make effective timely plans to decarbonise society; of activism fuelled from the frustration; of the futility when denials, constant excuses and lip-service is paid to the crisis. Another story told of the real loss of land in Bangladesh and how they have adapted – for example, by building their schools on concrete stilts so the frequent floods doesn’t destroy their classrooms. Once you know, you can never accept the complacency exhibited by leaders, nor the wasteful way we live. The Candidates – After the film, 4 parliamentary candidates were grilled by the audience and they fielded questions on: “What do you think needs to be done in the next 20 years?”, “How can the ‘system’ be changed to encourage more sustainable demand for air travel?”, “Constant growth will destroy us, so what is your response?” , “What are your views on Carbon Tax?”, and “How do you feel about the ‘Loss & Damage’ funding agreed at COP?”. The answers were quite telling … A great start for Climate Voters in determining how they will exercise their democratic right to vote for a credible future.
Charity Appeal Service for Gastard’s 2024 Eco Charity – Sunday 25th February 2024 – Each year our church chooses a new charity supporting an overseas ecological development project in prayer & and a charity to financially support. In 2021 we raised a huge amount (£2,000) in aid of the International Tree Foundation for the Watu Wa Miti project in Kenya helping sustainable forestry and helping in the global battle against Climate Change. In 2022 we funded the drilling of a well for the Kenyan village of Cheputue and raised over £1,000 to fully fund a new well, now in operation. THIS YEAR, we are supporting an NGO called The Nasio Trust – a UK registered charity and Kenyan NGO which supports orphaned and vulnerable children and empowers communities in Kakamega County, Kenya to break the cycle of poverty and thrive, by focusing on three key strands: Education, Healthcare and Sustainable Livelihoods. One of our residents is volunteering for them this year.
Please contribute on our special Just Giving page St JOHN’S INTERNATIONAL CHARITY APPEAL 2024 The Nasio Trust, Kakamega County, Western Kenya – JustGiving, or check for updates through 2024.
Village Quiz & Cheese Supper – Saturday 2nd March 2024. The St John’s Village Quiz (with a light Ploughman’s Supper) was held in the Village Hall. Another sell-out, raising over £450 for church funds through ticket sales and raffle tickets. Thanks to the organiser Jill Kent and here many helpers. thanks also to the many who donated raffle prizes and especially Octavian who donated champagne bottles! The team with the lowest score received a booby prize of a Wagon Wheel each!
Mothering Sunday – Sunday 10th March 2024 – Beautiful posies of Spring flowers were given out to each attendee. Some were taken to those unable to attend. Surplus posies were hung from the railings for passing mothers to take home. The service reminds us of the origins of Mothering Sunday – a calling to attend ones mother church -and is a fitting gratitude for mothers the world over as we share the enduring qualities that mothers have.
Earth Hour Candlelit Event– 8:30pm Saturday 23rd March 2024 – We marked this hour to honour our home planet, lamenting the harm humankind is inflicting on our biosphere – all electric lights were off for one hour. We gathered together to share thoughts about our future on planet earth. Tea, coffee, chocolate provided! Volunteers shared: a short reading, poem, picture, piece of music – Find out more at www.earthhour.org
Walk of Witness – Good Friday March 29th 2024. Organised and led by the Corsham Area Christian Churches – we met by the stone cross in the garden opposite the Co-op in Corsham at 10.30am – with singing of hymns and the telling of the Easter story, using readings from Luke’s Gospel, as we processed around the town centre with the wooden cross.
Good Friday Vigil – Friday 29th March 2024 – An unstructured quiet time was available for people to reflect and pray on this sombre Christian day whilst the altar was stripped.
Easter Sunday – Sunday 31st March 2024 – we celebrated this major date in the Christian Calendar with tiny chocolate eggs for children (and grown-ups).
How to Address Your MP on Climate Change – 16th April 2024 – Gastard Eco Church promoted this event, hosted by the charity “Hope for the Future”, to complement our Climate Voter initiative. Participants learnt how to query their parliamentary candidates during the one hour Zoom call. It provided a step-by-step guide to having impactful conversations with politicians, from how to find out who they are, to how to move them beyond their party line. There was an opportunity to discuss specific issues participants had faced or were concerned about, and the team offered meaningful support both in the session, and afterwards. Corsham Climate Action are planning a hustings later in the year once the general election is announced – so be ready!
ECO Fair – Saturday 20th April 2024. We had a stall for the ECO Churches group of Gastard, Neston, Corsham and Lacock providing information on what ECO church is and how each of the team churches are making progress on this award scheme. Gastard showed off its Silver Award.
ECO Church Celebration Service – Sunday 28th April 2024 – We started our ECO church journey in 2020 and celebrated in 2022 with our Bronze award, and in 2023 with our Silver Award. In 2024 we celebrated all our achievements on our journey to Gold! We had a clear and simple display about Eco church and another about our current campaigns: BE A CLIMATE VOTER, SUPPORT LIME DOWN SOLAR PARK, and our upcoming ZERO WASTE SUPPORTER. The displays were complemented by a talk about our journey for people to see how transformative and inclusive our work has been.
ECO Church Open Week – 28th April to 3rd May, 2024 – the week following our Celebration service the community and our sister churches had the opportunity to see our Eco church display.
Annual Church Meeting – 5th May 2024 after the 10am Sunday service – we held our annual meeting of parishioners reporting on the past year (2023).
Rogation Sunday Service/ Walk – 12th May 2024. We started from St John’s church and finish at Boyds Farm where refreshments were served. Many thanks to Sally for agreeing to host the refreshments and to Steve & Fiona for their musical accompaniment on the walk.
Summer Lunch – Sunday 2nd June 2024 at Boyds Farm – – We held a delightful lunch for the community using bio-degradable ‘crockery’.
Open Gardens & Afternoon Tea – Saturday 8th June 2024 – After a successful flower festival in St John’s Church in 2023, this year we asked our fellow villagers to open their garden for an afternoon. With delightful weather many wonderful gardens received interested visitors, seeing everything from classical layouts and plantings to unique designs featuring eco areas for wild flowers and water life. We served cream teas at the church during the afternoon from 2pm to 5pm. A map showing the gardens which were open was available from the church. A small charge was made. Proceeds from the event went to church funds.
Tea in the Garden then Patronal Festival Sunday 23rd June 2024. Following an enjoyable hour of an early supper in the garden with pleasant weather, we held our annual patronal festival to recognise Saint John the Baptist, after whom our church is named. This year we used an Evensong format.
General Election Exhibition 24th June to 4th July 2024. We provided an Eco church information board urging readers to become either or both of climate voter and active travel voter. The aim here was for prospective candidates to hear these pleas so whoever was elected to represent us understood our desires to proceed with decarbonisation as quickly as possible, to protect our threatened eco systems and to shift more of the transport budget in support of active travel (walking, wheeling and cycling) to reap so many benefits for current and future generations. The implication being that if a candidates didn’t support these aims votes may be cast in favour of those that do. We provided information on the assessments on climate and nature by Friends of the Earth/ Greenpeace and, for active travel, by Cycling UK charity.
FairTrade Sunday – 8th September 2024 – We celebrated the Fairtrade movement. Of course, Fairtrade tea or coffee was served (as usual).
FairTrade Fortnight 9th Sep– 22nd Sep 2024 – see web – on the 30th anniversary of the
Fairtrade Foundation Kenyan tea producer Patrick Kaberia spoke at Thursday Café at St Bart’s on 12th September.
Ride & Stride – Saturday 14th September 2024 – every year, Wiltshire Historic Churches Trust organise a county-wide event for sponsored people to walk, cycle or ride between churches to raise money for the Trust. The Trust give grants to churches that need expensive repairs, but also give back half the money raised by our sponsors to St John’s. This year we had 2 riders who cycled 60km and visited 16 churches, over 9 hours!
Early Autumn Afternoon Charity Tea – Saturday 21st September 2024, Gastard Village Hall. Members of the church and community enjoyed Fairtrade Tea or Coffee with a variety of cakes made by our splendid group of volunteer chefs! A volunteer from Wiltshire Air Ambulance gave an interesting presentation appreciated by all. We raised £265 of funds for Wiltshire Air Ambulance. As always, this was a lovely occasion for our community. Thanks to Felicity and numerous helpers.
Harvest Praise & Supper – Sunday 29th September 2024 – A well-attended Harvest Praise service in the church was followed by a Harvest Supper, acknowledging the food grown on the land that sustains us, at the Village Hall.
Climate October 2024. The Church was open daily through October with a whole host of talks and events enjoyed by audiences from the 4 participating parishes and further afield! We came to terms with the Climate & Nature Emergency as we learnt about ways that the emergency is being addressed.
For details of the talks and event reports, go to >> The Climate October Event Programme <<
Climate Sunday – Sunday 13th October 2024 – Our Eco champion gave an update on how the world is on a dangerous course of permitting too much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere generating higher temperatures in the seas and air with increasingly extreme destructive weather events. We have effectively already broken the 2025 Paris accord from COP21 to limit temperature rises to 1.5oC by the end of the century – 2023 exceeded this target! We prayed for more effective leadership around the world and for those suffering from its impacts.
All Saints/ All Souls Service – Sunday 3rd November 2024. Names from our Book of Remembrance and others who have passed away were solemnly read out.
Remembrance Sunday – Sunday 10th November 2024 – We held a service in remembrance of those fallen as a result of armed conflicts, with a two minute silence at 11am.
Carol Service – Sunday 15th December 2024 – 9 lessons and carols by candle light.
Crib Service – Tuesday 24th December 2024 at Boyds Farm. The Nativity story was retold with props and popular carols sung. This was a hugely popular event for families and children, following those held in 2021, 2022 & 2023.
Midnight Mass – Tuesday 24th December 2024. With regret, we were unable to hold a midnight mass in 2024 due to a lack of clergy.