As I approach almost two months here in the Benefice, again I’d like to thank everyone for their warm and generous welcome to Helen, I and the family. It has been great to meet a good number of people not only in church but at a wide variety of social functions.
To build on what has happened so far from the New Year onwards I will be in the various communities and available to all whether you choose to attend one of our churches or not. To help facilitate this, starting the week commencing 19th January I will be dedicating part of each day to be in and around the villages. I will use that time to be in schools, visiting individuals or in the church.
Because there are so many different communities I thought it would be helpful to initially designate certain days to certain places. Here’s what I’m proposing starting January 19th 2009:

Mondays: 11.00am - 2.00pm:
Broad Hinton (finishing up at Broad Hinton School at 1pm).
Tuesdays: 10.00am - 1.00pm: Winterbourne Bassett, Winterbourne Monkton.
Wednesdays: 9.00am - 12 noon: East Kennett & Avebury
(often starting with a school assembly with Kennet Valley Upper School at Christ Church).
Thursdays: 10.00am - 1.00pm: West Overton, Lockeridge & Fyfield
(often at Kennet Valley Lower School at 11.30am for a school assembly).
Friday: Day Off

If you would like me to make time in my schedule to come and see you, please call the Rectory Office (01672 539643) and Anne and Ray will make sure that I am aware of this. Alternatively, you can always try and reach me by calling my mobile phone (07766 831661) and leave a message, although as you know mobile reception isn’t great in the area.
These arrangements are of course subject to urgent pastoral issues such as funerals and other commitments I will need to honour in both the deanery and the diocese. That said, I hope what I’m proposing will be a way of systematically making myself available in the communities. I’ll be reviewing how it has worked around Easter time and if it isn’t working as well as it could it can be improved – I look forward to seeing you!
                  Revd Paul Bradish

 We would like to thank everybody who supported the coffee and cake morning on 6th December at West Overton Church.
Although the weather outside was distinctly wintry, inside the atmosphere was very festive with carols playing in the background and friends and neighbours meeting up to enjoy refreshments.
The meeting room, decorated with holly and seasonal candles, provided a wonderful background for the huge array of donated cakes and goodies. The bric a brac table was laden with some beautiful items and it wasn’t long before cakes, coffee and gifts were disappearing.
We would like to thank everybody who supported the event either by donating items, buying gifts, making cakes or simply by turning up to enjoy the festive get together. We are delighted to announce that the amazing sum of £244.45 was raised. This will be divided equally between The Trussell Trust, The Convenience Fund (to raise money for a toilet at West Overton Church) and parish funds.
Please watch out for details of a summer event which will be publicised in the UKN later this year. In the meantime, our thanks again and good wishes for a happy new year!
Rachel Fisk, Gilly Roberts, Liz Roberts and Jacqui Taylor

Opening night
Thursday 4th December
At the Kennet Valley Hall
6pm 'till 7.30pm for 7-11 year olds
7.30pm 'till 9pm for 11-15 year olds

Please note There will be an annual admin fee of £3.50 payable on joining and a cost of £1.50 per session.

There will be organised sports activities
Arts and crafts, Pool
Chill out area and much more!

Did you know that Peter Noble from Marlborough has recently produced an up-to-date map of Savernake Forest?
It is clear, coloured and easy to use and there is plenty of additional information about the history and wildlife of the forest.
The leaflet costs £1 and is sold in aid of the charity ‘Mercy Ships’.

It can be obtained from Marlborough Library, Avebury Tourist Information Centre, White Horse bookshop, St Peter’s Church, Marlborough, and Fyfield Service Station.

Our bishop, Bishop Stephen - has agreed to lead the annual ‘Sleep Out’ in support of the homeless and poor that are being reached through the Wiltshire Drop In Centres, run by the Alabaré Christian Community.
The Sleep Out at Salisbury Cathedral takes place on the night of the 27th February 2009 and Bishop Stephen is hoping that at least 250 other people from across the Diocese will join him in sleeping on the cloister floor in solidarity with the poor and homeless and in doing so, raise money for the continuing work of the Wiltshire Drop In Centres through sponsorship.
If anyone would like to join Bishop Stephen, please contact the Rectory Office for more information and forms.
But if that’s not for you - and let’s be honest a cold, frosty February night on the cold stone of the cloisters isn’t for everyone – the whole community can still be a part of this worthwhile initiative by sponsoring me to sleep with the Bishop on your behalf.
This is how it works. £1 buys you 1 minute of Sleep Out time. So you can sponsor me for 1 hour or 1 minute or anything in between – it’s entirely up to you. You can also gift aid your pledge to increase its value.
I promise to report back and tell you how I get on – although whether the Bishop snores may well have to remain a cloister secret!
Please call the Rectory Office (01672 539135) or drop me an email (revpaulbradish@googlemail.com) to make your pledge and help this worthwhile cause.

Revd Paul Bradish

There’s no doubt about it, walking is good for you. It’s good for your heart, it’s good for your lungs, it’s good for the muscle and bone growth of your children and it’s good for your feeling of wellbeing! Strong scientific evidence now supports the many benefits to health of regular walking – it is recommended that we take at least 10,000 steps a day.
Studies show that walking can:
Reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke
Lower blood pressure
Reduce high cholesterol
Reduce body fat
Enhance mental well being
Walking offers a great way to help kids get the active habit. If parents express excitement about the prospect of a walk in the countryside, they are more likely to transmit this feeling to their children. It’s important to treat the walk as an exploration or adventure and to go at the child’s pace, no matter how often they want to stop and look at things; take treats to eat and plenty to drink; and head for some landmark that will appeal to them such as a castle, a playground, an ice cream van or a boating pond. If children experience walking as part of a fun activity they are more likely to want to go again.
So, how do you find out what is on offer? John Harris, a keen walker, got fed up with the lack of information on walks that were going on in the County. So, he decided that if he couldn’t find what he was looking for – he had better create it! So www.walkinginwiltshire.org.uk came into being.
www.walkinginwiltshire.org.uk gives you all the information you need for the best walking in the County:
Details of more than 80 walks to download and print free, details of all the Devon walking groups, maps and walk books – plus loads more information.
So check out the website and get walking!

Probably all our lives have been touched by cancer at sometime so any initiative to support those who work in hospices has to be supported and applauded.
I’m pleased to say that there was strong support and lots of applause at Avebury & District Club last Saturday night (6th December) for an exhibition evening of darts with Ronnie ‘The Rocket’ Baxter. Ronnie lives locally and is well known for his dynamic darts playing and his high ranking within the world darts community, having previously played in two world finals.
The evening was organized by Roly and Helen Lockey and the Club was packed to watch Ronnie be challenged by 17 local players. Three out of 17 managed to win their game of darts against Ronnie and a couple of the highlights from the evening were seeing Tom Stevens, a local youngster give Ronnie a fright with his deadly left-hand throwing (one to watch for the future) and Shane Waters who achieved a scoring average of 33.4 per dart over 15 darts!
Thanks are due to Delia Lockey, Kay Northall, Helen Oakey and Beryl Greenaway for all their support both before and on the evening and also to Joy Padmore - steward at the Club - for hosting the event and local businesses, organisations and individuals for all their donations and financial support.
The great score at the end of the evening was that over £4000 was raised to support the work of the Prospect Hospice. I enjoyed the evening very much and was pleased to be able to join with everyone in supporting this important and worthy cause.
Revd Paul Bradish
Roly Lockey adds – ‘A big thank you to all who took part in this event.’