Future events :

Mothers’ Union Monday November 14th in the Garden Room 8.00pm

at All Saints'. Come and join us for a evening of making Christmas decorations, over coffee and a chat. You do not have to be a member.

Fresh Encounters (6pm at All Saints’) The programme for the autumn will be entitled Dwelling Places ...On Sunday 20th November ...a place to contemplate (Psalm 27/Psalm 63)

Family Fun at All Saints We are grateful for all the help and support given by members of the congregation.Future dates for this Sunday afternoon event are 20 November and an afternoon event on Wednesday 7 December in the church.All will start at 3:00pm.If you would like to know more then please speak to Judith, Sue Thomas or Emma.There is a sign up sheet at the back of the church or you can contact Sue on: susanethomas@aol.com or 07870 318366

Christmas Tree Festival: St Mary's are once again holding their Christmas Tree Festival on Saturday 10th December 2016 from 2pm to 6pm. This year plans are well underway to make it bigger and better than ever before! If you would be interested in decorating a tree on behalf of your family, club or business please get in contact and we would be delighted to send you details, there are prizes for the best trees. Last year we had around 600 people through the doors in one afternoon. It is a wonderful community event and a great promotional platform for your business or club and great fun to be part of. We have a wonderful afternoon of music planned and will have a bigger Christmas Market and designated refreshments area, we really hope to see you all there. We are also collecting good quality bric a brac and unused Christmas gifts and sets for our stall, if you have any let us know and we can arrange to pick this up if you are not near St Mary's. For more information contact St Mary's Office on 020 8657 9232 or email stmarys.office@sanderstead-parish.org.uk

Christmas Day Lunch is back! If you know anyone who would like an invitation to our Sanderstead Parish Christmas Day Lunch in All Saints' Hall, or you yourself would like an invitation, please ring Fanny and Marc Smith on 020 8657 2967, or leave a name and address in the Parish office. Lifts will be arranged if required. Helpers needed! If you would like to help with the lunch, organising or on the day –we'd love to hear from you. Fanny and Marc

News :Charlotte Brooks writes: To all my dear friends at All Saints, I can't thank you enough for such a generous leaving gift and I feel humbled and overwhelmed by it. We are going to a lovely small hotel for a friend's wedding later this month (October) so I shall treat myself to some of the pampering on offer - something I would never normally do and which will be much appreciated.We are happily settling in West Malling although the move itself was pretty traumatic! The house is fine and Gerard bought a second hand organ last week from Holland so is delighted. (It hasn't arrived yet...) He is coping well with the commute which is a relief. We are loving living in a small town and are especially enjoying some of the local pubs! Hamish starts work at a big engineering company in Bedfordshire on 17th so has flown the nest. Verity is enjoying her year in Kenya and got good enough grades to go to Southampton to study music next autumn which was her first choice.I am still trawling around local churches - it will probably be a compromise between proximity and style of worship and I haven't quite decided which way to go!Thank you again for your amazing generosity. With love and best wishes to you all. Charlotte Brooks

Planning for ADVENTure 2016 is well under way but it is not too late to take part. Just speak to Penny, Jeremy or Martin. You may remember that this is the project whereby we pose the question, 'What does Christmas mean for you? 'Throughout December the doors of a virtual Advent calendar open around Sanderstead as garages, porches and sheds are transformed for an hour.The ancient story of the Nativity - the journey to Bethlehem and the child born in the manger is here in our streets, given a contemporary twist, as lawnmowers and old bikes make way for stars and shepherds. Each day a new garage porch or shed is transformed and opens from 6 to 7pm.I hope you remember with pleasure the neighbourly conversations over mince pies and gingerbread stars, the excitement of seeing a garage transformed into a Christmas scene and the joy of seeing the wonder in children's eyes. Our aim, to make the true meaning of Christmas visible around Sanderstead through Advent and encourage people to get to know one another, was well achieved last year. Wouldn't it be good to share that even more widely this year? Can you think of friends who might like to participate with you this time? If you are a member of a house group, please talk to people there. Perhaps you could join together to host an evening, or help each other if several of you are able to offer yours. Even if you only come along to one and are able to chat about what Christmas means to you, your participation will be valuable. Thank you.

The Children’s Society had a very successful Race Night at St Antony's on Friday evening 28th October when they raised over £400. This may seem a small sum of money but over the last thirty years our committee has raised £150,000 for the work of the Society. The dedication and support of our Sanderstead Committee has been recognised by the Society and has been given an award for their work. Our next event is a coffee morning and box opening on 28th January at All Saints’ Hall.

Church stonework & roofing repairs are proceeding as you will be well aware by now. The re-tiling of the south facing roof slopes is progressing well, however the stonework repairs are lagging somewhat behind, particularly the work to re-render the Tower. The weather has been most kind so far with little rain although there was some water ingress overnight a few Saturdays ago during high winds but this caused no damage.As the pitched roofs have now been exposed and inspected, I am pleased to report that the roof timbers are all in good condition with no rot or infestation detected. Praise the Lord! On a historical note, regrettably nothing of any interest has been found in the roofs apart from one old bird’s nest! In hacking off the Tower pebble-dash, this exposed the walls having been constructed of rough un-knapped flints in a lime mortar with quoins (corner angles) in soft Reigate stone in very poor condition and therefore unsuitable to be left exposed. The re-rendering of the Tower has now commenced and its progress (3 coats of lime render) will much depend on the weather; the specialist requiring dry, frost-free weather to last for a good 4 days after the rendering has been applied. As soon as the Tower rendering is finished and the scaffold around it removed, the new roof tiling can be completed. Overall, the works are running about 1 week behind schedule but I am assured by the contractor that all the scaffolding to the main elevations (south and west) will be down before Christmas even though there may still be works on-going on the other less visible elevations. Let’s hope he keeps his promise! For the technically interested, 22,000 Kent peg roof tiles have been ordered for the new roof. Each tile weighs just under 1 kilo (1lb 12 oz to be exact) so the total weight of tiles is about 17 tons. Of course an equal weight was removed from the old roof so you can imagine that re-tiling is very labour intensive and heavy work. And if all 22,000 tiles were to be laid end to end, they would stretch from All Saints’ to the Whitgift Centre in Croydon, just over 3 miles away -and back again if you include the old tiles that were removed!   The old roof tiles that were in sound condition have been set aside and will be removed from site for salvage. David Chillman

Reordering The Southwark Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) has recently responded to our initial consultation on the reordering proposals for All Saints, following the earlier comments from Historic England, the Victorian Society and the Church Buildings Council. The DAC understands the challenges posed by the current limitations on the use of the interior space at All Saints but considers we need to provide a stronger justification for making changes to the fabric of a Grade 1 listed building, particularly the proposed removal of the Victorian pews, the chancel steps and the St Catherine’s aisle pillars. The DAC has also proposed setting up a sub group to work with us to refine our proposals, in conjunction with Chris Skilton the Archdeacon of Croydon and a former rector of All Saints. To start this process there will be a meeting with Chris Skilton at the end of November.The All Saints Reordering Group discussed the DAC response at a meeting on 13 October. It was agreed there was a considerable amount of work to do before a final proposal could be put to the Southwark DAC. A formal petition for a faculty would then need to be put to the Chancellor of the Southwark diocese for final decision, which would also take time. The timetable should become clearer after the meeting with the Archdeacon but it was already clear that the original aim of carrying out the building work in 2017 - which would involve closing the church for around 6 months - was no longer achievable. Despite the delay it was important that momentum should not be lost and a plan would be drawn up showing what needed to be done when so that building work could start in early 2018. The Reordering Group is committed to keeping the All Saints congregation fully informed of developments. Your prayers for a successful outcome for the reordering project would be much appreciated.