A year in the life of St. Mary Magdalen, Sheet

Petersfield Area Churches Together (PACT):
Peter Belton, (Church PACT Representative)

This last year our chairman, Ted Dowdeswell of the PCF, has handed the baton to Fr. Jeremy Garratt. Our own Bill Ritchie remains as Secretary.

PACT affiliated groups are:

• The King's Arms: Numbers of children attending is still rising. More volunteers needed.
• August Holiday Club: 300+ children attended last year and I understand some 380 are expected this year (1-5 August)
• Social Concerns Group: Arranges various activities, e.g. Causeway Prospects, Christmas Lunch and Welcoming Scheme. There are links to Positive Parenting, Money Matters, The Voluntary Centre & Bereavement Support.
• Home Start Butser: Supports parents and young children.
• Petersfield Counselling Service.
• Petersfield Society for Special Needs: Membership has grown to 175 and 5 outings were arranged last year.
• Petersfield Voluntary Care Group: Over 1500 drives by 50 drivers!
• Christian Aid: Fund raising for foreign relief work. Once again there have been highs and lows last year and they look for more support from churches.
• Unity Bookshop: Continue to be a vibrant service and witness in the town.
• Petersfield Housing Association: Record year! 250 homes. Acorn planted in 1973, now small oak!

And PACT itself?

• Prayer Impact: The number of groups is growing: currently about 21. Feed back awaited.
• New Welcoming Leaflet: which will support the Welcome Leaflet to inform the public about the Church in Petersfield. Well done Anne Davidson.
• Easter & Christmas Cards: Designs from local schools, printing in ever increasing numbers and distribution all round the area. Well done Phillida! I hope you had a bit more time this year for getting them out.
• PACT News: Continues to stimulate and challenges us. Thank you Anderson! Adopt a cop: We have had only one prayer request from a the police but I know that people are still praying. It will bear fruit. You'll see!
• Listening Course: This has now been translated from PACT into the churches and we had some taster sessions with Susan Judd in January.
• Youth Strategy for the area: Wouldn't it be a good idea if we reviewed what was going on in the larger field, so that we could learn about who, what, where and why? We met with Phil Hulks of Crusaders, who talked to us about his good experiences with inter-church youth need assessment and practice. We discovered a number of interesting items. Only 4 out of our 11 churches have viable youth groups! It is important for the churches to grow and pray together before rushing off to try to fill the gaps.
• Good Friday March: Numbers were up.
• PACT OUT in the Square: Youngsters from the King's Arms joined us for this social event.
• Crowhurst: Our own Margaret Glenny spoke to the Committee about this healing centre and circulated leaflets. We await feed-back!
• Carols in the Square: 13 carols in 45 minutes and 12 mini sermons in between! And the drama, a combined effort from 6 churches.
• EHDC Local Strategic Partnership, where Ron Wing has been our rep. has produced Petersfield Tomorrow Initiative. There's was a meeting at Penns Place on 15 March at 7.30. Helpers needed.

At the end of the year there was the Tsunami. A memorial service was held and a generous collection achieved.

If you have any thoughts, want more details, or have queries, do let me know. There is certainly a lot going on in which there is a Christian voice. And there is a lot more to do.

And it was Good.