disuse, and I appeal to all such people to come and help us.

A few facts and figures may help to put things in perspective. Our Electoral Roll (i.e. the local church's membership roll) has on it fifty-nine names, but our average congregation is nine! It costs £15.60 every week to meet ordinary expenses, but our income from all sources is about £6.00 a week! Necessary repairs will cost £1,600 and restoration of damage done by vandals is estimated at several hundred pounds. In view of these figures you may well ask, how we manage to pay our electricity bills or meet any of our other expenses when our income falls so far short of what is needed. The answer - at the moment - is that money put by a few years ago for repairs is being used at an alarming rate to pay our way. But, obviously, this cannot go on for very long. In fact, if things don't alter soon we shall just not be able to heat or light the church. With inflation running at its present rate, I reckon that three years will see us without any resources except for church collections and small efforts, and these - as the above mentioned figures indicate - are just no enough. Unless we do something about it now!

I am not being dramatic about this, merely realistic, and I am sure that many of you will want to help meet the challenge. The Parochial Church Council has arranged several events for the next few months and various requests for grants have been made, and we hope that as a result the roof repairs will be done before another winter sets in. In July we are going to make an envelope collection round the village and hope that this will be a welcome means for many people to give what they can. Stockbury parish church is your church! Its registers contain a history of many local families, and people of the village still come for the Church's ministrations through baptisms, weddings and funerals. It is, therefore, a concern of the whole community that the church should be preserved for the future. But more important than preserving a building is the preservation of the life of the Christian community, the worshipping community, for without that there is no need for a church building.

Yours sincerely,

Neville Brook.

P.S. - Our first effort to raise some money was a Coffee Morning at 'Orchardlands' on Friday, May 6th. It was well supported and a profit of £30.00 was made. Thank you to Mrs. Lewis for organising it and to all who came and shared in it. Below are listed some other events planned and we look forward to seeing many of you cif you can manage to come.

JULY 9th - SUMMER FAYRE & WHIST DRIVE

JULY 12th - WINE TASTING at Portico House 8 p.m. 50p

JULY 27th - BARBECUE at 'Merrifields': 7 p.m. (£1.00)