Dear Friends,

It seems hard to believe that we are now into the third newsletter of the year. March and April have been busy with our Holy Week and Easter services once again well attended. It was good to mark Palm Sunday with a procession from Tangmere to Oving, which gave an opportunity to reflect and talk to people who we may not ordinarily have the opportunity to speak with.

We held our Annual Parochial Church Meeting on 26 April. Emma Jackson and Helen Thompson were reappointed as Churchwardens, and we are pleased to welcome Jayne Sansby and Bob Dixon Gumm onto the PCC. We have also filled all three Deanery Synod places with Alice Chandler joining Margaret Lumley and Jackie Ford as our parish representatives.

On 2 May we welcomed the Gambaro Wind Quartet to St Andrews. A good crowd enjoyed music from Rossini and Saverio Mercadante, followed by tea and cake. Our thanks to Dr Penelope Cave for organising a wonderful afternoon, avoiding the worst of the bank holiday rain!

Our next Churchyard Working Party – 9 May from 10am to midday

We held our first working party of the year in April. We are grateful to all who came along to help out, and to Jayne for organising the churchyard work so carefully. We will be meeting monthly from now until October, so do come along and join in. No gardening expertise is needed, just a willingness to help keep our churchyard looking good.

The following dates are planned as 13 June, 11 July, 8 August, 19 September and 10 October.

Cathedral Celebration of Eco Church – Sunday 10 May at 3pm

Earlier this year, we successfully achieved the Eco Church Bronze Award. There is a service at the Cathedral on Sunday 10 May at 3pm where there will be a celebration of all churches that received an award. The service is a standard Cathedral Evensong with Bishop Will preaching from a creation care perspective, followed by a reception afterwards, with tea and cake. If you would like to attend, but need a lift, please do reply to this email and we will organise help.

Ascension Day - Thursday 14 May at 6pm

Ascension Day is the Thursday forty days after Easter, where we remember Jesus being lifted up into heaven. We will be holding a service at 6pm to celebrate the day when Jesus promised his disciples they will be gifted with God’s Spirit, to be their comfort and strength for the work of mission that lies before them.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Saturday 23 May and Sunday 24 May, both at 11am

Ian Howard from the CWGC will be visiting Tangmere at the end of the 2026 Commonwealth War Graves week. He will tell the stories of some of those who rest under the headstones in St Andrews on Saturday 23 May and Sunday 24 May. The talks will start at 11pm and last approximately one hour, and we hope to provide some refreshments after the main talk. Tickets are free and can be booked at www.cwgc.org/war-graves-week. Alternatively, you will find a QR code on posters displayed at the Church.

St Andrews’ Draw/Sixty Club

Would you like to be in with a chance of winning a prize four times a year? Would you also like to help raise funds for the upkeep of St Andrew’s Churchyard?

St Andrew’s Draw is a membership draw that is open to anyone with a connection to Tangmere. Each member agrees to pay £5 per month by Standing Order. At the end of each quarter, all members are included in the draw with a chance of winning one of three cash prizes: 1st Prize £120, 2nd Prize £60, 3rd Prize £30. The remaining draw money is used for the upkeep of the St Andrew’s Churchyard.

If you would like to get involved, please email standrewstangmere@gmail.com

Quiz 12 June at 7pm for a 7.30pm start

We will hold our next quiz on 12 June at Tangmere Primary School. It is always difficult to find a date that doesn’t clash, but we hope to see you there. Tickets (including food) will be £10, and £7.50 without food. Goodwood has kindly donated two tickets for the Friday Revival Meeting and two tickets for the August Bank Holiday Racing (Sunday), so we will hold the grand raffle during the evening. Tickets for the raffle will be £1 and sold in church or from members of the congregation. Please do let us know through reply to the email address standrewstangmere@gmail.com if you would like to come along. Friends, family and neighbours are all welcome, but we will limit team sizes to no more than 8 people.

Survey on our new Bishop

As mentioned before, Bishop Martin retires at the end of May, and as a diocesan family we are beginning the search for his successor. Have your say in the appointment at tinyurl.com/next-bishop  It will take only a few minutes to complete, and it is open until May 26th.  The Diocese is keen to receive as many responses as possible to inform this important appointment.

Our Bell Restoration Project

Sadly, there is no update regarding a replacement bell. However, we know that the Keltek Trust is keeping an eye out for a suitable option, and we hope to bring more positive news later in the year.

And finally………. this month’s Eco message:

Support pollinators. Nothing says Spring like the buzz of a bee! But these precious pollinators are declining due to habitat loss, climate change and agricultural intensification. Wednesday 20 May is World Bee Day, so look around to see how you can improve habitats for bees and other pollinators. Read more about bees, butterflies and habitats that support them in our Target 25 resources at arocha.org.uk/what-we-do/target-25.

Sow a pollinator friendly seed mix, make or buy a bee hotel, let some wild flowers grow in your garden, and don’t use pesticides. Pray that our pollinator populations will increase. For more about World Bee Day visit: awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/world-bee-day/

Contacting us

As you will appreciate, being in Vacancy makes more work for the Churchwardens and the PCC. If you need to contact us, please use the email address standrewstangmere@gmail.com or speak to Helen, Emma, or one of the PCC on Sundays.

Please note that we have a new email address. The old one should still work but seems to have become increasingly unreliable, and unfortunately we appear to have missed some emails. If you use the old email address and do not get a response within a few days, please try the new contact email.

If you no longer wish to receive these newsletters, please respond to this email address and we will remove you from our circulation list.