The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

As part of our review of parish life and resource needs, we are looking at the role and contribution of our vestry staff and volunteers, and our needs for the future. Have we achieved the right balance? Could we find more volunteers to help us with specific, time limited activities?

At present we are very grateful to the long list of our volunteers who:
Help clean the church
Do odd jobs around the place
Maintain the churchyard
Are involved in the services (as welcomers, sidesmen, servers, readers or intercessors) À Help with or teach at Sunday School
Visit the sick and elderly
Launder the church linen and robes
Buy, arrange and water the flowers
Provide and serve food (and wine) for events
Make the coffee after the Sunday morning service
Support the junior choir
Help at our Summer and Christmas fairs

But having more people on existing rotas would help to spread the workload for all who are involved. And with more volunteers in some areas we could achieve even more.

And there are other jobs that we would like help with if we knew that there were skills “out there” that you were willing to share with us. For example:
Contributing as a member of the church council (PCC) or Deanery Synod
Writing for or collating the magazine
Fund-raising researching and writing grant applications
Advising on building developments
Being a trustee of the Additional Burial Ground
Being in church on days when the vestry is closed to “guard” it and greet visitors
Developing our pastoral care and outreach programmes.
Almost without exception, whatever skills you have, we can use them! Other needs at present are business and financial skills, organising ability, and experience in adult education and youth work.
Do any of these appeal to you?

If so, please let us know. If you have even a small amount of time to give, and skills that you think we could make use of, we would love to hear from you. We are not shy in asking you directly for help; our problem is that we often don’t know what skills you have so that we don’t know when to approach you!
Volunteering Cards are available with this issue or on the shelf at the back of the church – please consider what you could do, fill in the details and return it to the Parish Office or one of the Churchwardens.