Theatre with a Message of God

An example of this is The Aldhelm Mission Fund, a fund that supports new mission initiatives and fresh expressions of church in parishes, schools and the wider community in our Diocese.

The Aldhelm Mission Fund specifically encourages and resources creative thinking and risk-taking, helping to fund new work and projects that connect the local church to the wider community. It has recently funded a fun-filled performance of Rapunzel by the Saltmine Theatre company in the parish of Corfe Mullen, at the beginning of December.

The Saltmine Theatre company describes itself as ‘theatre with a message’, and their showing of Rapunzel, with her very knotted hair, took us on a twisty tall tale unravelling the knots of being different, being yourself and being loved by God. A great message with all the fun of the pantomime. 

Vicar of Corfe Mullen parish, Revd Jane Burgess said:

“A key part of our church’s vision is to grow much stronger links with our community in both serving and reaching out. The Saltmine productions have hugely helped us; indeed the tickets this year, even with Covid concerns, were sold out two weeks before the event. The St Aldhelm funding has been critical in enabling us to mitigate the financial risk and to have the confidence to begin staging these productions. Over three years this year-by-year growth has enabled us to offer this event as an annual and now self-sustaining event, for our community.”

It was great to see the church filled with families for a fun-filled performance of Rapunzel. It is their third visit to Corfe Mullen in a project that was made possible by an initial grant from the St Aldhelm Fund. Each year the numbers attending have grown and so we anticipate we will now be able to continue staging the Saltmine Christmas pantomime for our community but on a self-supporting basis.

To find out more about the St Aldhelm Fund, please visit www.salisbury.anglican.org/mission/funding/aldhelm