Taking a bough
As an Eco Diocese, we are encouraged to make the best use of resources, and to be good stewards of what we have. As you will see, St James Church Ludgershall and Faberstown have had a literal windfall this year.
Our contact Julie Walker explains:
"In June this year, a rather large bough fell off the Horse Chestnut tree in our churchyard, narrowly missing landing on cars in St James' Street – it did hit a van, but caused little damage.
"The PCC felt that we ought to get a safety assessment on the tree and it was condemned as unsafe, and sadly had to be taken down at a cost of some £3000 to the PCC. The tree was probably over 70 years old.
"As the tree was being felled, one of our church members, a retired priest - Errol, who is keen on wood turning - suggested that we ought to make bowls from the timber so that members of the parish would have a keepsake or memento of the tree.
"Quite a bit of the tree was taken for wood turning, and something over 20 bowls have been made, as have half a dozen vases.
"Errol’s wife Sue is an artist and suggested that if he turned up figurines from the wood, she could paint them, and we could also produce holy families of Mary, Joseph and Jesus as keepsakes. No charges were made for any of the items produced, but people were invited to make donations to the church.
"In all, over 100 items have been turned and, at the time of writing, approaching £1000 has been donated, much of it covenanted and so around a third of the cost of the tree removal has been offset. This is a very welcome situation, given the strictures of income in this difficult year.
"Examples are shown in the photos, and you may also recognise Tim our Rector and Jimmy our curate!" [pictured below]
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