Notices
For more information, please see the current edition of "The Grapevine".
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6th February
Bishop in Europe - Lent Appeal
The Bishop in Europe: |
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
BISHOP’S LENT APPEAL 2017
The Menedékház Foundation, Budapest, Hungary
The Menedékház, founded in 2005 on the outskirts of Budapest, helps homeless families with children reintegrate into the workplace and society at large. The name says it all: Menedékház, or shelter, originally referred to a temporary refuge in a forest or on a mountaintop placed there for those in need of cover during storms and at nightfall.
Last year my wife, Helen, was privileged to visit the Foundation. As she stood at the front door a family of six arrived who owned no more than a little cardboard suitcase. “Is this a prison?”, asked the 4-year old. Later in the day Helen came across the same family who had been admitted and were now crowded into a single bedroom, enjoying some hot soup provided by the project.
At the Menedékház a professional staff of social workers serves some 160 people, many of whom do not meet the criteria of other established social assistance programmes. Some clients find their way to the shelter from impoverished villages in the countryside. Other clients are residents of Budapest who may have suddenly lost a job or been evicted from housing. Still others make their way to the Menedékház from alternative shelters now abruptly unavailable to them for bureaucratic reasons.
The Menedékház is housed in aging Soviet-era military barracks. They provide minimal amenities and little privacy for the families served. It is a roof over the head – sometimes not much more -- a place for families to catch their breath while parents seek employment and children try to continue their schooling during the crisis the family is facing. A significant proportion of clients are of Roma family background. The Menedékház has also from time to time provided shelter to refugees and migrants.
The 2017 Lent Appeal Project
Whilst the Menedékház has washrooms and toilets, they are in poor repair and highly communal, offering little privacy or sense of security to families already traumatised. Built decades ago for military recruits, the facilities are today wholly inadequate and run-down, with peeling paint, cracked flooring and tiles, and little ventilation.
Accordingly, this year’s Lent Appeal Project at the Menedékház in Hungary aims to fund the comprehensive renovation of the family washrooms, providing individual cabins or cubicles for family groups to change, wash, and shower.
We estimate the cost of renovation to be in the range of ten to fifteen thousand pounds sterling. The proposed renovation will include….
Three large bathroom areas, one on each floor of the building
Ten to twelve cabins or cubicles in each washroom with doors and locks for individual and family use
One or more baby-changing and washing stations
Sinks
Toilets
Tile flooring
New walls
Ventilation
Showers
Upgraded electricity
Upgraded plumbing
Windows
Sometimes it is the smallest things in life that count the most. With this project, we hope to improve the lives of those served by the Menedékház. Washing-up and toileting facilities may not seem exciting in the grand scheme of things but they are essential and much appreciated among those who are vulnerable or otherwise just getting by.
Learn more about the Menedékház and their services to the homeless online at www.menedekhaz.hu
Please do consider how you can support my appeal. I wish you a holy and spiritually fulfilling Lent. As usual, you can give money to this appeal through your church treasurer, who will forward money to the diocesan office.
With every blessing,
+Robert Gibraltar in Europe
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ELECTORAL ROLL 2017
The Electoral Roll is essentially a "register" of all eligible members of the congregations of a church who then have a right to attend the Annual Meeting, vote at this meeting for motions and elections, and stand for election to council or other offices. The number of people on the Electoral Roll also affects how many Council members can be elected and how much we pay to the Common Fund of the Diocese so there is a financial implication. It is the duty of the Electoral Roll Officer to compile and revise the Roll and to maintain the confidentiality of the information - publishing only an "extract" when necessary.
There is a strict timetable for the annual revision based upon the date of the Annual Meeting which this year will take place on April 1st. I am therefore required to revise the Roll no earlier than the 4th March and no later than the 18th March. Once the revision has been made the Roll is "frozen" until after the Annual Meeting. If anyone wishes to be added ( or removed) from the ASV Roll please contact me as soon as possible. Application Forms for enrolment can be obtained from me or one of the Wardens.
Chris Green, Electoral Roll Officer
Email : greensinfrance@yahoo.co.uk
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Message of Condolence
Robin Kenyon, R.I.P.
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21st April 2016
This prayer has been received from the Church of England and
approved by the Queen:
Heavenly Father, as we celebrate the ninetieth birthday of Her Majesty the Queen, receive our heartfelt thanks for all that you have given her in these ninety years and for all that she has given to her people. Continue, we pray, your loving purposes in her, and as you gather us together in celebration, unite us also in love and service to one another; through Jesus Christ. Amen
