Friends of Essex Churches Trust
We announced the a few days ago that we had been successful in our approach to the Friends of Essex Churches Trust for repair works to St Christophers. The grant was a generous £7,500 and we encourage friends at St James’s to give thanks in their prayers for that organisation and to consider supporting it in their own philanthropy. Here we wanted to give a little more detail of the proposed work and plans moving forward.
This money will cover the bulk of the costs towards restoring the belfry at St Christopher’s. Some of you may be aware that it has a single bell arranged in a ‘prairie schoolhouse’ style in the centre of the roof and is rung by means of a rope that depends into the body of the nave.
Long before our renovations we had to stop ringing this bell due to a jammed mechanism and questions over the structural integrity of the belfry. It is our deepest hope that, before long, we might hear it in Jaywick once more.
The belfry has a felt roof and timber weatherboards and these will be replaced with slate tiles and new timbers, and will be painted to protect against our coastal weather.
The completion of the belfry will come alongside the rendering work to the East and South sides of the buildings, and a subsequent redecoration of the entire building. It is set to make quite an impact and we can’t wait to see it completed.
It constitutes phase two of our original plans which can now be realised, and helps us look towards phase three which has its focus on the flooring, chairs and the facilities capacity.
Thanks be to God,
Fr Justin and the PCC
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