The Church Council is defined by our constitution to be the executive body of Trinity Church , and meetings of the Church Council are simultaneously also meetings of the Parochial Church Council. The membership of the Council includes the ministers, the principal officers of the church, together with those who represent the church on denominational bodies, and additional members elected to Church Council by the Annual Church Meeting.

The people who have served on Church Council during 2005 have been

Chair: Peter Musgrove

Ministers: Simon Howard (to May),

Nick Thompson ,

Nina Mead

Senior Steward/ Churchwarden: John Brimicombe (to March)

Steve Edwards (from March to December)

Church Secretary/Churchwarden: Elaine Munday (to March)

Roger Mead (from March)

Church Treasurer: Catherine Edwards (to December)

Stewards: John Bethell

Sandy Catchick

Andrew Curnow

John Goddard

Vronwyn Hutch (from September)

Alan Minns

Richard Munday (to June)

David Newell (from September)

Emma Thorne (from March)

Property Administrator: Ian Brickell (from March)

Representative to Deanery Synod: Virginia Thorne (to July)

Steve Edwards (to December)

Representative to Circuit: Tony Bonnett

Representative to District Council: Wendy Keeley

Appointed by AGM: Cath Bethell (to March)

Lynda Brannelly (from March)

Sandy Godfrey (from March)

Kate Robinson (to March)

Janet Whiteman (from March)

Minute Secretary: Kathryn Johns

Methodist Circuit Steward Jenny Dimmock (to September)

Julie Marsh (from September)

Church Council meets seven times a year. The average attendance at Church Council has been seventeen. Each meeting opens with worship led by two members of the Council, and includes a pastoral report from the ministers, and reports from one or two of our Church Committees and Groups (other committees and groups report to Church Meetings). The business of the seven meetings includes matters referred from the denominations and from the wider church, but is mainly generated from within Trinity, and during 2005 has included the following:

January. Formal reports were received on Schools Work in Earley and East Reading and from the Social Group. There were brief reports on Youth Net activity and Anglican Training. The major discussion was on “Equipping the Saints” (a discussion paper from the United Reformed Church General Assembly). The Council were updated on the Trinity Building Project and on the Three Mile Cross Church .

February. Formal reports were received from Education & Nurture and Worship Committees. The draft Annual Reports were received and approved. The major discussion was concerned with Spiritual Growth and the planning and development of small group activities. We had an initial discussion of the proposed Mission 2007 in Reading .

April. Formal reports were received on the work of the Deanery Synod and Methodist Circuit. There were discussions about Saturday Morning Prayers, and planning for our Away Day. Future planning for Spiritual Growth and House Groups and for Mission 2007”Regenerate” was discussed. We also considered the planning of future worship arrangements and enjoyed a farewell view from Simon Howard .

May. A formal report was received from the Social Committee. There were also updates from the Finance, Worship and Missions Committees and the Property Group. We received reports on the English Church Census, and on the CTB LEP Day and reflections on the Away Day. We considered the future planning of ministry in the Reading zone of the URC, and preaching plans and leadership for young people.

July. Formal reports were received on the work of Churches Together in Berkshire and Churches Together in Earley & East Reading. There were also updates from the Pastoral and Staffing Committees. There was consideration of the Reading zone of the URC, the appointment at Trinity of a Lay Worker, and the Mission 2007 “Regenerate”. We discussed problems of filling vacancies in the list of Trinity jobs.

October. Formal reports were received from the Property Group and from the Crescent Community Centre. There were also updates from meetings of the Missions, Education & Nurture and Pastoral Committees and from the Joint Church Council. Planning for Mission 2007 “Regenerate”, and for next year’s Away Day were discussed, and final arrangements for the Lay worker appointment were agreed.

November. Formal reports were received on the work of Junior Church and on Youth Net activities. The main discussion was on the Finance Report and on the re-organisation of the Finance activities at Trinity and the construction of the new Treasury Team. The annual Property Returns were approved and there was an update on the Building Project.

Roger Mead

Church Secretary

CHURCH MEETING

There have been the usual four Church Meetings during 2005, in March (the Annual General Meeting), June, September and December. The meetings have included the usual mix of items including worship, a pastoral report, regular reports from committees and groups, elections and appointments, decisions (mainly relating to the building development project, and presentations. A list of all new elections & appointments is given at the end of this report.

The average attendance at these meetings has been 40 people. The agenda matters at the four meetings have been as follows:

March (AGM). Worship was led by Keith and Lisa Waite. Nick Thompson reported on pastoral matters. Elections and appointments were agreed. The annual finance report was presented by the Treasurer, Catherine Edwards , and the annual accounts were adopted. The set of annual reports was presented to the meeting and the reports were approved. Progress and prospects for the Building Project, including finance and fundraising were reported and discussed. Ideas for the Mission in Reading in 2007 were introduced.

June. Worship was led by Roger Mead . Nick Thompson and Margaret Stephens reported on pastoral matters. Formal reports were received from the Pastoral Committee and the Missions Committee. Elections and appointments were agreed. We also discussed the arrangements for leading worship and the appropriate spread between denominations, finance and in particular our support of the Crescent Centre, progress for Mission 2007 and the Building Project. The main item was a presentation on ”Commitment for Life”, the URC programme for overseas mission.

September. Worship was led by Jill Duncan . Nick Thompson presented a pastoral report. A formal report was received from the Staffing Committee. Elections and appointments were agreed. Final details of the arrangements for a part-time lay worker were approved by the meeting. The main item of business was the further consideration of the Building Project including detailed design matters and financial progress.

December. Worship was led by Kay Slack . Nick Thompson reported on pastoral matters. Formal reports were received from representatives to the Contact Centre, and the URC Reading & Oxford District and Wessex Synod. Elections and appointments were agreed. The development of a new Treasury Team was explained and approved. The main business concerned the Building proposals; updates for the financial progress and for the detailed design proposals were presented and discussed.

The following elections have been made at Church Meetings during 2005:

Church Secretary/Churchwarden Roger Mead (March)

Senior Steward/Churchwarden Steve Edwards (March)

Treasurer Norman Briggs (December)

Property Administrator Ian Brickell (March)

Stewards Emma Thorne (March ), Vronwyn Hutch (September)

David Newell (September)

Members of Church Council (March for 1 year) Lynda Brannelly

Sandy Godfrey, Janet Whiteman

The following new appointments have been made at Church Meetings during 2005:

Representative to Reading Deanery Synod John Goddard (December)

Representative to CTEER Richard Munday (December)

Communion Steward Gaynor Davies (December)

Assistant Treasurer Gill Newton (March)

Crèche Co-ordinator Sandy Godfrey (September)

Leaders for Earley Youth Net Bethan Jones (December)

& James Pollard (December)

Member of the Joint Church Council David Ramsden (December)

& (as alternate to Elaine Munday) Richard Munday (December)

Worship Committee members John Goddard (June)

& Kay Slack (September)

Pastoral Committee member Margaret Stephens (June)

Staffing Committee member John Brimicombe (September)

Finance Committee member Nigel Holloway (December)

Education & Nurture Group members Lisa Waite (June)

& Sally Brimicombe (June)

Pastoral Team members Joanna Hassan (December)

& Janette Bushnell (December)

Each of these appointments is for a three year term. In addition many members have been re-appointed to positions for a further term of three years.

Roger Mead

Church Secretary

LEADERSHIP TEAM

The Leadership Team comprises the ministers and senior lay officers of the church. The team meets, informally, about once every six weeks, in addition to frequent e-mail communications and conversations in passing.

The membership of the Leadership Team has changed considerably during 2005. Simon Howard left to take up his new post at Twyford and Ruscombe. John Brimicombe stood down as Senior Steward/Churchwarden at the AGM in March, and was replaced by Steve Edwards, who has now resigned from the position on the removal of the Edwards Family to Cheshire ; the vacancy will be filled at the AGM in March. Elaine Munday stood down as Church Secretary/Churchwarden at the AGM in March and was replaced by Roger Mead (coming out of what he thought was retirement from the post in 1990). Catherine Edwards resigned as Treasurer in December and was replaced by Norman Briggs. Nina Mead joined the leadership team formally in December. And Nick Thompson has remained throughout as the only member of the team present for the whole of 2005.

We are, of course, immensely indebted to all those who have left the Team during the year. Simon Howard has been the Anglican minister at Trinity for more than eight years, and has made an enormous contribution during that time not only to the Worship and Life at Trinity but also through the development of ministry through the work in the schools of Earley and East Reading , and of course we are missing him. Catherine Edwards has looked after the finances of Trinity for five years and we are greatly in her debt for the care she has devoted to this responsibility, and not least to the way she has organised the construction of the new Treasury Team to handle all aspects of Trinity’s finances. John Brimicombe has been our Senior Steward and Churchwarden for seven years, longer than anyone else in Trinity’s history and has established many of the procedures that we now take for granted. Elaine Munday has been Church Secretary and Churchwarden for four years, filling a gap in a time of need, and has brought great energy to the organisation of our Church Council and Church Meeting, and the associated appointments within the church.

It is difficult to summarise the topics which have been included in the meetings of the leadership team, because anything and everything to do with the life of Trinity has been there. There has been a particular need to support Nick as we have approached and finally moved from two stipendiary ministers to one. Topics which have seemed most important have been (i) the arrangement of the pulpit plan so that a proper representation of all three denominations in the leading of worship is achieved while at the same time ensuring that our full-time minister is enabled to lead the majority of our services, and (ii) the organisation of pastoral care for all members and adherents at Trinity. It has been good that an increasing number of members of Trinity have been involved in leading worship, and that there have also been increasing numbers of members interested in training for pastoral support.

Roger Mead

Church Secretary

FINANCE

Aim: For Trinity Church to generate and develop its resources to meet its responsibilities to the wider church and to meet the Aims of growing, caring, unity and community.

During the year there were 6 members of the finance committee:

Catherine Edwards (Treasurer)

Emma Thorne (Assistant Treasurer)

Alison Travers (Assistant Treasurer)

Gill Newton (Assistant Treasurer)

John Medcraft (Gift Aid and Envelope Secretary)

Roger Mead

Tony Bonnett

In addition we welcomed Nick Thompson to some of the committee meetings. We aim to meet on a quarterly basis, but in fact in this year we met three times. During the year Alison Travers stood down after 6 years service and I would like to thank Alison for all her hard work and support. We welcomed Gill Newton as the new Assistant Treasurer.

The Church started the year in a strong position after last year. During the year significant funds were given by the congregation to the new building fund. As expected this led to a drop in the income being given to the general fund and our general income was down on last year by £10,000. General costs were kept under control, but there were exceptional items on expenditure on repairs and maintenance. This meant that we finished the year in a break-even position rather than a surplus. However the Church has sufficient reserves to maintain this position whilst funds are being raised for the new building. Detailed information is contained within the Annual Accounts.

Next year we face a very challenging position due to a substantial increase in our assessment, which with the fall in general income leaves the Church facing a deficit again.

As this is my last report as Treasurer I would like to thank those who contribute financially to church funds which enables the Church to achieve so much. Thank you for all your support during my time as Treasurer and I wish Trinity well in the future.

I welcome Norman Briggs as Treasurer supported by a new finance team of Gill Newton, Emma Thorne , Helen Rixon, Velda Nylander, Sandy Godfrey and Nigel Holloway.

Catherine Edwards

Treasurer

PROPERTY COMMITTEE

The property committee has responsibility for the church buildings, equipment and the Methodist Manse. The committee comprises:

Ian Brickell Property Administrator

David Carrick Buildings Supervisor

David Rains Equipment Supervisor

Jane Thompson Cleaning Coordinator

Vacancy Manse Steward

Tony Bonnett Church Users /Steward / Room Bookings representative.

Willing helpers Always wanted!

Nick Thompson is also on the committee in his Church Council role.

The separate Buildings Working Group has continued to successfully progress the plans for changes and additions to the Church building. The Committee is represented on the group by the Property Administrator.

Property Administrator / Buildings Supervisor arrangement

After a number of years as Property Administrator Steve Edwards stood down from this role. The extent and quality of his work was outstanding, and hard to follow! The Buildings Supervisor post had been vacant since John Louth left. Ian and David have split up the work between them with David dealing primarily with keys, security, lighting and most of the hands on work and Ian dealing more with contractors, administration and chairing of the Committee.

Staffing

The Manse Steward post is currently vacant and a volunteer is needed for this – no special knowledge or significant time commitment is involved.

Health and Safety Legislation applicable to the Church seems to grow every year and a volunteer is sought to progress outstanding matters on a “one-off project basis”. Also willing helpers to do odd jobs are always welcome!

If you are interested in any of these areas Ian Brickell would be pleased to hear from you – see Church directory or magazine for contact details.

What has been, and is going to be, done?

A number of maintenance items have been carried out to the church in the last year, many of which go unnoticed, but by way of examples have included: -

Repair of kitchen cupboard doors, re fixing loose door handles, multiple bulb replacements, broken heating boost thermostat and vandalised radiator fitting, First Aid box replenishment, roof tile repairs, drain clearance, electrical system inspection and Portable Appliance Testing, renewal of the large electric water heater in the roof and the small hot water urn, and of course regular general cleaning.

The current list `of items to tackle includes e.g. larger shelves in the Vestry , electrical modifications to meet current standards (where not affected by building project), rodent guard to outside bin store etc. There are also various items which are being deferred to be done as part of the building scheme such as various non urgent electrical repairs.

I should like to thank all those serving on the Committee for their time and expertise and hope that the current vacancies can soon be filled.

Ian Brickell

Property Administrator

BUILDINGS PROJECT

This report is covering the progress made on the Buildings Scheme by the following Committees:

Joint Church Council (JCC)

Buildings Working Group (BWG)

Buildings Finance Team

Fundraising Team

2005 has been a year of major progress for the Buildings Scheme, and all the above committees have met regularly (and frequently!).

Much progress has been made with David Ensom (who is designing the alterations) towards having the specifications and drawings drawn up to sufficient detail to enable us to go to tender. We are just about there as I write this, and we expect to be going to tender in Spring 2006, ready for building work to be going on in Autumn 2006, and be finished for next Christmas. During that detailed design process we have identified some small improvements to the use of the land which have resulted in an extra £9000 costs, but much better use of space (and extra store cupboards).

Fund raising has continued with lots of special events (too numerous to list here), which, together with last year’s efforts, have now raised over £10,000 for the fund. Much thanks to all those who have helped make these events so successful.

The fund total has risen steadily over the year with many very generous donations and pledges for which we are very thankful.

Altogether, by the end of 2005 we have pushed our fund-raising to more than £80,000, which is on target for the £88,000 2-year fundraising effort we set ourselves.

However (and there always has to be a “but”), we have not been able to raise as much as we had hoped from external sources (grants, trusts etc) and it looks like we will have to raise more money ourselves than we originally planned. To date we have only £33,000 towards our £80,000 target, and (realistic) hopes of probably another £14,000. This will leave us £33,000 short (plus the extra £9,000 extra costs mentioned above), so we are replanning how we can meet this shortfall – but we remain confident we can get there if we all work together, even if it takes a bit longer than we hoped.

Finally, we originally planned to give 10% of what we raised (£8,000) to another building project overseas, in line with our pledge to donate 10% of Church funds to worthy causes. We have chosen Kagando in Uganda to receive this to help them build their new visitors centre.

Alex Robinson

Secretary Joint Church Council

EDUCATION AND NURTURE

Aim: To encourage spiritual growth and to develop a closer relationship with God as individuals and as a church

Our April meeting was Lisa Waite’s first and Bridget Howard ’s last; and Sally Brimicombe joined us at the September meeting. Other group members are Wendy Crosson-Smith, Jill Duncan , Nina Mead and Nick Thompson

Through the year a number of fellowship groups have met:

Lent - four groups met with a total of 45 people attending the Lent study groups.

Voices from the South – two groups met with a total of 18 people attending a five week study looking at issues leading up to the G8 summit; we then met socially on the sixth week for an international meal.

Advent group – ten people have met for the four weeks of Advent to reflect on the Christmas story

Alpha course - organised by Joan Guile and Sarah Keeley , this ran from September with twelve members.

Prayer group – meets on the third Monday of each month

Prayer and Praise – meets on the second Monday of each month

With all of these groups the actual people vary from week to week as we all have other commitments; however they are a great way to grow spiritually and to make friends and the flexibility does not seem to detract from the fellowship.

Confirmation classes were run during May, with 5 people coming forward for confirmation at the joint service in July.

Some people went to Easter People and about 20 people went to Greenbelt in August. Both of these are recommended by those who went - perhaps you would like to organise a Trinity group.

The planned quiet day in September was cancelled due to lack of support. Although we are asked to plan these days, they are poorly attended and so we have decided to not organise another for a while.

On a Saturday in November we held a Phillippi Trust Listening and Responding Skills course at Trinity. Sixteen people attended and afterwards completed a short piece of work to gain certificates in this deceptively difficult skill

Lisa Waite held an evening of signing in worship in November.

Jill Duncan

TRINITY LIBRARY

I had a problem with the library database this year which took a lot of time to sort out, as I am the only who uses it I have only myself to blame!

New books bought: 13 adult and 16 children’s. Withdrawals 35, most of which were sold at a £1 each for the buildings fund. There are 16 books missing this year. The recorded loans of 35 books is down on previous years, but I know some are borrowed without being written in the book.

Could I ask that everyone writes down the books they borrow, so that I can properly record how much the library is used and so they are not marked as missing in the annual stock take. Every year we have between 10 and 20 books missing, perhaps half of these reappear; if all of the books were recorded as loans I could remind people to return them!

Jill Duncan

Librarian

MISSIONS COMMITTEE

The committee currently consists of Andrew Curnow, Pam Handy, Sally Garforth, Alan Minns, Graham Looker, Pam Thomson and myself. We try to maintain and develop some of the “Community” aspect of Trinity’s aims, being responsible for most of the church’s links with, and compassionate response to, the wider world. However, we also try to help with “Growing” church members in terms of developing their individual responses.

We met four times in 2005, to plan our regular annual programme of events and special collections and decide which of the many appeals that are received by the church we can realistically respond to. Trinity’s main activities, appeal and collections this year, most of which we were involved with, were as follows:

§ NCH fundraising included a house-to-house collection (£212) and an envelope collection on NCH Sunday (£166).

§ Members filled a large cardboard box with tinned food, for the Drop in Centre, to whom we also gave most of the tinned harvest produce.

§ Christian Aid Week collections (£1302)

§ Harvest Supper and auction of produce in support of the Refugee Council and the Association of Visitors of Immigrants in Detention (£400)

§ Easter collections (£307) donated to fund teachers at a Mission school in Msoro , Zambia

§ Autumn Fayre in support of the Niger famine appeal (£360)

§ Printer recycling box in vestibule, in support of Traidcraft Exchange (£69)

§ Special Disability Sunday service

§ The donation of Toy Service toys to NCH’s Bracknell Family Centre and the Mayor’s Appeal for local needy children

§ Donations at the Christingle Service (£80) for the Children’s Society

§ 46 “Samaritan’s Purse” shoeboxes of presents for children in Eastern Europe .

§ The Jar of Grace UNICEF appeal for feeding supplements for poorly nourished children (£108)

§ Christmas collections (£897) for Christian Aid’s “Child of Africa” appeal to help rebuild lives following the civil war in Angola .

The Christian Aid week collection, organised by David Raines, was a substantial improvement on previous years. So can we beat it this year?! Another highlight was seeing the photo taken by Anna Headley of some Bosnian children gleefully receiving some of the Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes. On the downside, the Autumn Fayre was not as successful as usual. We are looking at ways to improve on this in 2006.

We have continued to support the hospital and community in Kagando , Uganda with a £300/year donation to meet most of the salary of their evangelist. In addition, Trinity has decided that our tithe of £8,000 or so from the Buildings Project will support the building of a house for outside visitors to the project. (Perhaps one of us can try it out sometime!)

Trinity supported the Make Poverty History campaign, flying the banner and sending groups to the “Wake up to Fair Trade” all-night vigil in Westminster and to the G8 summit demonstration in Edinburgh . And Christine and Robert Adamson hosted a successful “Voices from the South” discussion series in the summer followed by a delicious International Meal.

There has been great support from many others in church for the activities that needed it. Thanks to everyone who helped to make a difference to God’s wider family, in whatever way.

Richard Cocks

Missions Committee Convenor

TRINITY TRAIDCRAFT

We have continued to have a regular stall after the 10am service on the fourth Sunday of most months, with occasional other special appearances, including the Autumn Fayre - and great efforts to exploit the seasonal trade in December!

Outside Trinity we again attended the Earley Carnival and for the first time Reading WaterFest.

The total orders we have placed with Traidcraft in 2005 amount to £2,231, a substantial increase on last year. The figures are substantially helped (though they were last year too) by a bulk order for the beverages consumed on Tim Ragget’s and the Bethal’s youth camp!

Pam Thompson’s craft stall sold £1,770 of goods at Trinity, making a total of £4,000 sales through the church – one third up on last year’s total. It seems that people are increasingly becoming aware of the difference that fair trade makes and are more prepared to pay a fair price for things.

We provide the tea and coffee - and now “Fairbreak cookies” - for after-service refreshments, for which the church reimbursed us £98 this year. We may even be able claim some credit for the addition of the new smaller cookies to Traidcraft’s range, having told them on several occasions that there must be a good market for them in churches. We hope you enjoy them!

Margaret and Richard Cocks

WORSHIP COMMITTEE

The committee consists of approximately nine members: currently on the committee are Kay Slack , John Goddard, Leslie Bainton, Peter Whiteman, Andrew Rixon , Kate Robinson and myself. Nick Thompson attends the meetings although if the meeting is held in church he does spread himself between the various committees as needed. Representatives on the committee come from music and Trinity worship groups as well as other areas.

The secretary is responsible for organising the readers’ rota and contacting visiting ministers/preachers about the services. There is always a need for extra readers particularly at the evening services.

At the committee meetings previous services are discussed and assessed for both accessibility and inclusiveness. The patterns of Easter and Christmas services are also both arranged and assessed.

The Trinity Worship Book was discussed fully through this committee. The music for this played a large part in the discussions at meetings.

Over the last year we have discussed the 6pm service in its various forms; Saturday morning prayers; copyright of the music in Trinity; the need for some consistency with visiting ministers now that Simon has gone; the need for more sensitive ministers during the summer, when there is no Junior Church; the greater use of combining worship with meals; a selection of hymns for use during communion was selected.

Elizabeth Netherwood

Worship Secretary

PRAYER & PRAISE

The Prayer & Praise evenings have continued throughout 2005.

The meetings take the form of an informal worship and prayer group. We meet to share in worship, learning new songs, as well as singing old favourites. We pray and share concerns, thoughts and reflections.

The meetings are attended by around 6 to 10 people and new faces are always welcome - even if you can't make it to every meeting. At present we are meeting once a month in the Church. Look in the monthly Trinity magazine for more details.

As a group we have continued to be involved in helping to lead worship at Trinity - in particular the Easter Sunday evening 'Easter Praise' service which we are looking forward to leading again in 2006. One of our aims is to identify the unknown songs in Mission Praise as well as finding newly published songs, and include them in the services we help to lead.

Keith and Lisa Waite

TRINITY BAND

At Trinity, where we are blessed with musical talent, there are so many prepared to give their talents and time to music in worship in Trinity (and elsewhere). Long may it continue.

I receive many positive comments (and, indeed, occasional constructive criticism which is always welcome) from the congregation and ministers and I gauge that the band is appreciated and remains a positive asset of the Church.

Our numbers do fluctuate as members come and go. University entrance programmes have taken their toll on our membership and we are always keen to welcome new musicians. Today we have ten full band members and six associate members, so if you are hiding your musical light under a bushel – or perhaps just learning an instrument and can play from sight reasonably well - why not consider contributing to worship at Trinity with your music? The commitment is low – an hour before a 10.00 service perhaps once every two or three weeks.

The Ecumenical nature of our church is echoed in the wide range of backgrounds, disciplines, ages, etc. within the band and we are particularly blessed with the number of younger people who contribute such vitality (within the band but also notably in other areas of music in Trinity).

During 2005 the band played twenty-eight times:

~ Twenty three services at Trinity

~ Two memorial services at Duchess of Kent House on 24^th April and 16^th October

May I say another big thank-you to all members, associates, supporters and friends past and present who have contributed.

Peter Whiteman

SINGING GROUP

The Singing Group has, over the last 4 years, become an established part of Trinity Church tradition and worship. The group boasts some 25 regular singers. In total, close to 50 people have sung with the group since it was formed. Some people may not realise, but the history of the group goes back to around 1990, when the group met purely socially once a month, in members' houses.

The objectives of the group are:

· To encourage and enable anyone who wishes, regardless of musical background, to sing as part of a group.

· To sing 2-3 times in a year. It is not the intention to practise every week. Instead, there are typically 5 to 6 practices, 1 per week, in the run up to the service. This way, people know what the commitment is, and we remain fresh and enthusiastic!

· To sing music from all periods, from traditional early music through to modern popular songs.

· To sing music from many cultural traditions and origins.

In 2005, we sang:

· On Trinity Sunday, in May. This happened also to be Simon Howard 's last service as minister at Trinity.

· 3 times during the Christmas period - as indeed we did in 2004. As well as the Carol Service and Midnight Service, we sang during Phil and Joy Hooper's evening of Christmas time readings and drama.

All levels of musical ability are welcome, from never having sung before and can't read music through to experienced musicians. There is a lot of “note bashing”, so all have confidence with the music. I would specifically like to thank Tim Raggett and Allan Moore for helping with the practices.

The music that the group sings is from all styles and ages. We have sung a number of modern songs (Rutter, Goodall), and this Christmas we sang some quite traditional and older music.

In 2006, we are currently planning to sing again at the Trinity Sunday service in May/June. There will be other services, and I would also like to look at singing away from the church.

For more information, please contact me, Andrew Rixon , on arixon(at)microsoft.com and 0118 986 1689.

Andrew Rixon