May Madness!

We've been a bit quiet on the blog front recently, but that's not for lack of activity.  The New Saints have been beavering away at a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) application; plans for events in the church to welcome in the local community; and ways to wow the Churches Conservation Trust's Trustees when they stop off at Langport on their tour of CCT churches.

...And all of this comes to a head in May!

We submitted our HLF application at the very start of April; they take 8-10 weeks to review applications, so we should be hearing their final decision at some point in May (the suspense is building already at Camp New SAints!)  This will provide us with funding for a series of events over the following 12 months to give the New Saints great experience in leading events, to strengthen ties with local institutions such as Huish Episcopi Sixth Form, Somerset Art Works, and the Langport and District History Society, get lots of people of all ages and backgrounds into the church to reignite the whole community's passion for the building, and allow us to speak to those members of the community to hear what they want and need in Langport, so that we can start planning new ways of using the building in future accordingly.

Our first (non-HLF-funded) public event is going ahead on the 12th May.  We're holding a cinema event in All Saints church, showing 'Toy Story 3'.  We chose this film because it's enjoyable for all ages (I'm certainly looking forward to it), so that children and their parents, and grandparents can get engaged, and there's very little to find offensive about it.  This is our amazing poster, designed by our very own Charlotte:

We're very grateful to SPAEDA, specifically Flora, who have worked with us to get this event off the ground and into reality.  Please come along and enjoy the show!

As I mentioned above we're getting our act together ready to welcome the CCT's Trustees to All Saints Langport toward the end of May.  I would like to think that the main exhibit will be ourselves - a group of young people passionate and active about seeing new uses happening in a CCT church, but we're also sorting out some displays using Prezi a really cool new display tool that will hopefully knock their socks off!

Stay tuned for a write up of the cinema night, hopefully with photos of a very full church and happy people!