The times for our Christmas Masses are as follows;

• Christmas Eve – Vigil Mass at 6pm
• Christmas Day – Morning Mass at 9.30am

Also there are Confessions for Christmas on;

• Friday 23rd December – 6.30-7pm
• Christmas Eve – 9.30-10am

All are welcome to join in with this service as we prepare to celebrate Christmas.

A splendid time was had by all.

Special thanks to Mr Ron Darby and the staff at the Blue Bell Hotel.

• Christmas Eve – Vigil Mass at 6pm
• Christmas Day – Morning Mass at 9.30am

The Organ Fund now stands at £7233.19; many thanks for your continued generosity.

The cabinets for the new speakers for the organ have now been fitted in the Choir Loft and it is hoped that the new organ will be installed in time for Christmas.

Many thanks to all who contributed to the celebration of Christmas – decorating the tree, putting up the crib, moving chairs down from the choir loft and putting them back again, cleaning and helping to prepare the church, arranging the flowers, preparing the children for the Christmas tableau – and to our altar servers.

Our parish Christmas Fair, which took place last weekend at St Margaret’s Church Hall, raised a grand total of £2,160.79 (details inside). This is a tremendous amount. Thanks you to all who helped organise the Fair, who worked on the stalls, who gave so generously of their time, skills and money, and to all who supported the Fair in any way.

Is it you?

The fabulous Christmas Cake and bottle of Champagne are, at the time of writing, still unclaimed.
The winning ticket is a yellow ticket number 119 and is believed to have been sold at a Saturday evening Mass.
Please check your ticket numbers! If you believe you have the winning ticket (the security number will need to be checked) please contact Maureen Dowd at fundraising@stclare.org.uk.

A special note of thanks

Thanks to all those from outside of our Catholic community who continue to support our Christmas Fair, especially to the Anglican community of St Margaret’s, Jane Dionysiou of Plantarama Garden Centre (01642 320514) and Bob Singh of McKenzie Dry Cleaning (01642 247605) for their generosity.

Our Parish Christmas Fair

Our parish Christmas Fair raised £2,160.79 from the following;

There were also kind donations totalling £436

Of this amount £375 was given away as raffle prizes leaving £61

However £15 of this total was received after the money was banked

The money banked was £1736.79 + (£61 - £15) £1782.79

The extra donation of £15 needs to be added to this along with the kind support of Barclaycard who will match £ for £ the tombola total (£58+£305) making the final total £1782.79+£15+£363
Final total £2160.79

Thank you to all who have responded so generously so far. We are still accepting prizes for the tombola and the children’s tombola.

We would like to remind those planning to bake cakes or make edible produce that the date is fast approaching.

Also could all the ticket stubs and unsold tickets be returned as soon as possible? They need to be accounted for and folded.

We are not asking for prizes just yet, only the promise of them so that we can get the raffle tickets printed.

Please contact Maureen Dowd on 01642 291947 or email fundraising@stclare.org.uk