All Saints' and St. Nicholas' Churches
Church of England
Poplar, Tower Hamlets, London E14
Church Mouse Blog 7 (New Year to Easter 2009)
This blog records all of the important, memorable or disastrous events which occur at All Saints and in the Parish of Poplar.
It therefore provides a narrative and pictorial record of the people and events in Poplar.
The New Year and Annual report of the Parish web site
So, as usual, the new year is welcomed in by the midday mass followed by a binge in the Rectory. The boss does a brilliant job each year and produces enough to eat for dozens of starving souls, which along with warming fluids, sets us all up for the year. It's very cold at the moment, but despite the ancient heating system in the Church we are all surviving. Now I suppose we need to make a resolution to start raising funds again to re-furbish the Church.
We need to replace the pews with comfortable chairs, paint the inside of the Church, replace the boiler - and the list goes on and on. However my faithful readers will remember that the only way to eat an elephant - is one mouthful at a time.
We wish all of us a fruitful 2009 in which we can achieve our potential, enjoy all that God sends, be a blessing to those around us, and pray and support those less fortunate than ourselves.
What do you think of our web site? The web master is always happy to hear of improvements, suggestions and corrections. Do write to him at the e-mail address - drmikesheldon@aol.com.
This is the time of year when we have to renew the web site, so the clever web master has given me this report. Each day over 80 people visit the web site (on average 3000 each month), about one third of them being referred after a Google search. Many are from North America and interested in the history of the Parish. Several local people access the site each day and mainly look at the obvious pages - staff, services, parish diary, sermons and of course the Church Mouse blog!
There are now 174 seperate pages on the web site, and the web master attempts to keep them all up to date on a weekly basis. Several new people coming to the Church have said that they looked at the web site before they came, so it seems to be serving its purpose of being a resource to new people in the area as well as the regular congregation. Recently the web master has been including videos on the site, so it is gradually coming into the 21st century. We still have no adverts but would like to look at ways to raise some money to cover the costs which are around £100 a year. The first two years have been successful and we wish www.parishofpoplar.com a long and fruitful future.
10th March 2009
A long tale
Yes, I know what the date is! But my faithful readers will understand that this is the time of year when mouses go on a hibernation. So the two pictures below indicate where I have been to in my dreams - far, far away from the dirt, grime and crime of Poplar.
And then, before I came home I decided to visit some old friends in Uganda - seeing some of the many orphans in that country.
I hid in the suitcase of Jenny Sheldon, who on returning preached a sermon about her time there. There are a lot of needs, I shall save up my Lent offerings and send them out there. So now I am awake and looking forward to Easter, when the year really starts as far as I am concerned.
31st March - Still asleep?
"The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated". Many have been asking "Where is the church mouse?" Well, I'm sorry but I haven't been feeling too well lately, so I sampled the delights of our local hospitals and had a little time off. But now we are all back in the swing of Lent and saving up our pennies for the Lent charities. Easter is only a few days away, and your fearless reporter will be there at the crack of dawn to record events. I did get to sit at the back of the Annual Parochial Church meeting and was impressed by the Rector's annual report, which can be read elsewhere. Life goes on and not much changes. The one thing we miss are the fund raising events organised in the past by our Eileens (Williams and Alabaster), and new blood is needed. Any offers?
