The Friends make grants of money to cover, or contribute towards, the cost of specific activities, works and purchases which variously enhance the life, functioning and appeal of the parish, the Abbey, its environment, St Swithun’s and the Church Rooms. For want of a better term, each specific funding opportunity is called a project. These may be identified by the Vicar, Churchwardens, sub-committees and working groups of the PCC, as well as by FRA trustees and members. Funding budgets are agreed by the Committee of Trustees.
All advertising, purchases and activities concerned with encouraging tourists to visit the Abbey are generally funded by the Friends. For example, we pay for the Abbey’s advertisement in the South East Tourist Board brochure and for the thousands of free Abbey self-guide leaflets handed out by Stewards each year. We recently produced a new self-guide for Ukrainian visitors.
The Friends are committed to supporting the provision of activities and services which encourage and enable children and young families to be part of the church family. To this end we make an annual grant to support the parish’s work with Children and Young Families; pay all incidental expenses incurred in running the annual Light Festival and, in the past, have supported financially joint projects with local schools and other special events for children.
We are always looking for ways to enhance the experience of visiting and using, not only the Abbey, but also its environs, St Swithun’s and the Church Rooms. Some years ago, we paid for re-fitting St Anne’s chapel to give it a light, modern appearance; and for new staging which takes-up less storage space. More recently, we have paid for equipment to facilitate live-streaming of services and the purchase, installation, user training and first-year subscription for a commercial church management IT system, all of which proved very useful during the covid pandemic for maintaining contact with parishioners. Currently, we are funding all work to repair and stabilise the much-loved memorial to Alice Taylor; and the replacement of all external signage and notice boards to project a modern, friendly and more-informative image. We are also pursuing an in-depth condition survey of the external Saxon Rood and refurbishment of the Vestry at St Swithun’s.
There are, additionally, many smaller projects that come into this category. For example, a cashless payment system for the shop when unattended; the Verger’s new top gown (with blue tassels); cashless and traditional alms boxes; repair of the clock mechanism.
For many years now, we have paid for the incidental expenses incurred in staging the Ethelflaeda Festival.
