All Change in the Church in Westbury Park

By Abigail ShepherdNo Comments
At a recent meeting of Westbury Park Methodist Church Council it was decided to ask for permission under Standing Order 611 from the District Synod to merge the accounts of Westbury Park Methodist Church and St Alban’s into the Ecumenical Parish Council and to place all rights and responsibilities of the local trustees into their hands. The recent circuit meeting agreed to pass this on to Synod (which meets in September). A new constitution and building sharing agreement needs to be finalized but we hope that all of this can happen by Christmas this year. This should not affect the current building users in any way – indeed, we hope to further develop community use in all of our buildings. This is the obvious next step in our partnership and we hope that all concerned will benefit from it. At the same meeting, the church council also decided that the time had come to stop Sunday morning worship at...
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Westbury Park Festival

By Abigail ShepherdNo Comments
This year's Westbury Park Festival starts with a concert by Westbury Park School on Monday 29th June, wrapping with a festival service on July 5th, and then open gardens for the afternoon.  The week-long festival is packed, and includes a guided tour of the downs's trees, botanical gardens, a quiz night, an art exhibition, the big street party and a choir explosion in St Alban's for Only Choirs Aloud. Full details see the Westbury Park Festival website....
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50 Years On!

By Abigail Shepherd1 Comment
Our organist (and choir master) Nigel Walton celebrated 50 years as an organist at a special evensong on June 7th.  We were pleased to see so many people, including many who rarely (if ever) have heard evensong. The music, including Zadoc the Priest, Balfour Gardiner's Evening Hymn and Nigel's preferred responses, were of course chosen by Nigel. (more…)...
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St Alban’s on Songs of Praise

By Abigail Shepherd1 Comment
The first of two episodes of Songs of Praise shot in St Alban's was broadcast on Sunday 3rd May.  If you haven't watched it yet, you can still catch it online on the BBC website. To warn those not expecting it, the accompaniment is jazzy, which suits some of the hymns better than others. You can enjoy the ever-fun game of spotting people you know and seeing St Alban's in a different light.  To help you, here are some stills taken from BBC iPlayer. Unfortunately, the prayer that Emma so patiently recorded was cut from the final edit. The next episode, featuring the Exaltate singers, will be shown on Sunday 5th July. Update: More pictures of St. Alban's in Songs of Praise Post updated 11th May: new pictures, fixed dates....
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