During the last few weeks our Appeal has received a major boost as a result of a number of generous grants - £5,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation (a trust established by the family who set up Associated British Foods), £4,000 from Worcestershire and Dudley Historic Churches Trust and £2,000 from the Alan Evans Memorial Trust. Meanwhile, English Heritage have delighted us by confirming that they will increase our grant by £29,000 (bringing their grant up to a total of £94,000)!

Adding these grants to the figure of some £100,000 that has been raised by generous donations from members of the congregation, friends of the church and fund-raising events means that we can now proceed with the essential repairs to the Nave Roof to stop the rain getting in. At the same time, we will also be able to carry out urgent repairs to the stonework of the parapets.

We are now in the process of finalising the Building Contract for this work and hope to sign it before Christmas. This will enable the contractor to start in the second week of January. The work is expected to take four months.

When the Appeal was launched, our ultimate target of £750,000 seemed a long way off. However, taking account of the funds raised for the Community Garden and towards the Organ Repairs, the amount raised and promised for St Thomas's Appeal is approaching £300,000 already! We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the individuals and organisations who have helped both financially and by giving of their time and talents towards this tremendous achievement.

However, this is no time to be complacent! We are already planning the next phase of our renovation project which will comprise repairs to the beams in the galleries and the adjacent Georgian plasterwork. This work is expected to cost some £70,000. At the same time we are seeking grants to help us with the renovation of the Organ.

It was with some anticipation, and not a little trepidation, that the tea, of ladies approached our first flower festival based on ~ the Saints~ to help raise funds for the appeal. We were determined to make it a success and with the help of friends we did just that.

The church was a hive of activity on the two days prior to the festival weekend, but by the Thursday evening it had been transformed.

Our Local MP Lynda Waltho opened the proceeding on Friday morning, followed by prayers by Ron. These prayers were certainly answered as a steady stream of visitors filed through the church over the 3 days.

Visitors came from as far afield as Essex while many people who had lived in Stourbridge all their lives, but had never set foot in St Thomas’ before, came along.

As well as the flowers, they were able to enjoy the beautiful stained glass windows, and then take refreshments in the church hall where the table were also decorated with flowers.

The weekend also featured music, and there was much praise for our excellent choir, who provided a musical accompaniment (on CD) during the day, and to hear them give a concert on the Saturday evening.

The weekend was rounded off on Sunday evening with ‘Songs of Praise’. Members of the congregation had requested their favourite hymn and the reason for choosing it. They were sung with great gusto and feeling by regulars as well as a number of visitors .

A huge thank you goes to everyone involved for all their hard work. Thanks to them not only did we raise in the region of £3,000 to boost the Appeal fund but a lot of love and friendship was shared too.

Val Homer