Headlines for December Issue

Christmas Services
View our paper on screen to see a full list of Christmas Church Services in Caversham…. (Read more)

Caversham Traders Association (CTA): Late-night opening in Caversham
A cracking Christmas celebration is being lined up in Caversham next month. It’s a late night shopping extravaganza on Friday 7th December and will feature music and entertainment, festive fun and food, the popular Caversham Artisan and Farmer’s Market and seasonal savings at a host of local shops and restaurants. Star of the show will be Santa who will be welcoming visitors to his pop-up grotto in the Precinct. But it’ll be a Santa with a difference – instead of handing out goodies he will be accepting gifts to put in a sack to distribute to less fortunate local…. (Read more)

Saturday December 8th: Green Christmas tree sale at Caversham Court and a Christmas Market in St Peter’s Church
Econet’s annual sale of Scots Pine Christmas trees, harvested as part of local heathland management, is on Saturday 8th December from 9.30am to 1.30pm at Caversham Court Gardens, in Church Road. Our trees are fragrant and do not drop their needles, and you may get one pre-decorated with pine cones! Money raised goes to Econet, a network of practical voluntary environmental groups that manage different pieces of open space around Reading, including Clayfield Copse and Mapledurham Playing Fields. The money pays for our insurance, tools, plants and community events. And it’s not just trees for sale: you can buy wreaths and stars made from local willow, either decorated or plain; beautiful
Christmas ornaments from natural materials; as well as….. (Read more)

St Barnabas ‘Puppet Ministry’
‘Poppy’ alias Miss Boss. E. Boots, wowed Emmer Green Primary School pupils as she took the school register in St Barnabas Church. However, she got very confused when she saw all the gifts of food being brought into the church. The Revd Derek Chandler explained to her and the…. (Read more)

Amersham Road Cookery Club (ARCC)
Anna Clarke (Children and Family Outreach Worker from St John’s Church in Caversham) has recently joined the team: she is very energetic and the children immediately related to her enthusiasm. The cookery club was originally set up in May 2011 by Reverend Jeremy Tear and Deacon Becky Lovatt with a team of helpers. It was for children of primary school age and they met on a Wednesday afternoon after the school day had finished. Somet ime later the venue and time and day were changed, and we now meet in The Weller Centre on the 3rd Sunday afternoon of each month from 4.00pm to 6.00 p.m. Children are encouraged to help prepare the food for cooking but are not allowed to use any cookers or hot plates – this is all done by the adult helpers. Emphasis is on….. (Read more)

Scout Christmas Post 2018: Support your local community and save money at Christmas!
The 89th Reading Scouts are once again providing the highly valued Christmas Post service for the delivery of Christmas cards to Caversham, Caversham Heights, Emmer Green and Caversham Park Village. Last year they delivered nearly 3,000 cards. The Scout Christmas Post is a community event that provides a cheaper service than the Royal Mail at £0.30 per card, and most importantly provides a great service to the local community. The 89th Reading Scouts have been running this service for over 35 years, raising funds for the Scout Group. In the weeks that lead up to Christmas, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers take on the responsible job of delivering Christmas cards that have been posted in our bright red….. (Read more)

SCCS Christmas Concerts 2018
One of the joys of Christmas is to listen to (and sing along with) Christmas songs and carols. So, with that in mind, the South Chiltern Choral Society (SCCS) are delighted to invite you to a musical celebration of the Christmas story, when they will be performing Shawn Kirchner’s ‘Behold New Joy’ and Bob Chilcott’s ‘On Christmas Night’. The former weaves together a modern medley of well-known carols from medieval times; the latter follows the sequence of the Christmas story using several familiar carol melodies within Chilcott’s own settings. Conducted by Paul Burke and accompanied by Ian Westley, the SCCS will be joined by the choir of The Hill Primary School and professional instrumentalists including the amazing Alexander Pullen, who appeared in the BBC Young Musicians 2018 percussion final. There will also be opportunities for…. (Read more)

Friends of the Holy Land (FHL) National Gathering at Kenilworth
The Friends of the Holy Land (FHL) accomplished its ninth year in 2018 and held a National Gathering at Kenilworth on Saturday 22nd September. A record number of delegates (110) attended, including two from Our Lady and St Anne RC Church in Caversham. It was a classic ‘Wet Saturday’ outside, but the gathering itself was animated not only with reports from officers but also with excellent speakers and a good deal of informal communication over lunch and refreshments. The meeting began with an ecumenical service before proceeding to the sessional programme. Jim Quinn (Chair of Trustees) opened the meeting, and introduced Maria McCaffery (Chief Executive) to speak on the theme of ‘More Christians helping more Christians’. To date FHL has…. (Read more)

Christmas cards and Robins
Will you be sending Christmas cards this year? Maybe you’re one of those people who just don’t. Once your friends get used to the idea, it makes things much simpler. And there’s no need to feel bad about it – after all, you can always say that you’ve decided to give the money you would have spent on cards and postage to charity. Apart from the bother and expense, what do you do with all those cards when you get them? When the mantelpiece and sideboard are full, perhaps you have to resort to hanging them on string. Then there’s the awkwardness if you’ve lost someone’s address, or if they’ve moved house since last year. You might receive a card but don’t know who sent it because you can’t read the handwriting, or you might not…. (Read more)

REMEMBRANCE SERVICE AND PARADE 11/11/2018
As dawn broke on the morning of this very poignant day it was pouring with rain but by the time of the Service the sun was shining. On a day with such significance it seemed fitting that we celebrated the Armistice in 1911 in the sunshine – it seemed to add to the joy that people must have felt as the guns fell silent. Great thanks was given for the end of the War, everyone present, gave extra thought to the sacrifices so many had made to give us our freedom – lives ruined in so many ways. Thought was also given to the suffering that still lie ahead for those that did return – either they came…. (Read more)

Caversham GLOBE update
In the April edition of the Caversham Bridge, Caversham GLOBE activists highlighted the air pollution killer on our busy roads with front page news. Having since installed more test tubes at four locations over a six months period, the alarming amount of harmful and dangerous nitrogen dioxide in micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m3 ) has been confirmed
by Winchester based Gradko… (Read more)

The Caversham Heights Society: 2018 – 2019 season
The first few weeks of the 42nd season of the Caversham Heights Society have been full and encouraging. The first meeting, on 5th September, began with the Annual General Meeting and re-election of the Committee, with the exception of the Treasurer and the former Hospitality Secretary. John Brunnen was elected to replace Carol Cozens, who was standing down as Treasurer, and Lis Nealon who was retiring after many years of loyal service. Both were presented with bouquets of flowers and thanked for their services. Following on from these proceedings, members old and new were enthralled by two complementary talks on the ‘Challenges facing the NHS at 70’. The first was given by an administrator at a large London hospital, the second by a paramedic who works for the South Central Air Ambulance Service. We all had to grasp the enormity of the pressures facing the NHS since its inception in 1948: the number of patients dealt with on a daily basis; the numbers healed of different illnesses, many of which were not identified 70 years ago; the numbers of doctors and nurses and other health care professionals; the increasing sums of money spent on the NHS and concerns over value for money achieved; the substantial reliance on non-UK staff; the changing patterns of work so that nurses are now expected to take on work previously done by doctors, whilst…. (Read more)

Two appointments bring wide community experience to
Grace Church
Two new members of staff have been called to serve at Grace Church, Caversham, which has been without a full-time pastor since April 2017. The new man in charge is Keith Saynor. He has previously led two Churches, the most recent in Wokingham, and has also been involved in a wide range of community and evangelism projects. Before answering the call to full-time Christian ministry, Mr Saynor, age 50, was an officer in the Thames Valley Police Force. Since then he has undertaken overseas mission work in Nepal, Vietnam, Colombia and Sri Lanka. His wife Vinolia works for the Luis Palau Evangelistic Mission, and the couple met while they were both studying for…. (Read more)

Rosehill WI
We have had a good summer at WI with good attendance at each meeting, and a good selection of speakers. In June, Emma Stiles talked about ‘Nutrition’ explaining how our system works and telling us how we can help ourselves with sensible diets and very gentle exercise. In July our speaker was Stuart who came along with his guide dog called ‘Olivia’. Stuart told us that he had not always been blind and how he had learned to cope with life with the help of his trusty ‘Olivia’. Some of his stories were very amusing. In August (on a very hot afternoon) we had our summer tea party which…. (Read more)

Chazey WI
The October meeting held on 5th October was very successful when two of the committee organised a quiz! Teams of four battled it out and the winning team had a good score of 40 points. A variety of questions were put to the ladies and they found they knew many of the answers, probably because there were no pop music or TV questions. A lovely tea was provided by Alma’s daughter to celebrate Alma’s 90th birthday. Chrysanthemum plants were given to Alma and…. (Read more)

Caversham WI
For our October meeting we welcomed Tony Weston, to talk to us about the ‘Thames Crossings’. He gave a very well informed talk. The bridges have meant so much to the prosperity of their local areas over the years. Crossings are known to go back to Roman times – although rather later on, there are also some records showing that Caversham had a bridge in 1231. At next month’s meeting we will have chosen to cover a very different topic: Jane Sampson will be…. (Read more)

 

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