What happens in the Parish Office?

Each weekday morning, from 10-12, someone is in the Parish Office in the rooms at the East End of St Alban's.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it is Julie Shrimpton, our Parish Administrator, who prepares pew sheets, wedding and funeral service sheets, orders the supplies we need, deals with wedding and baptism bookings, looks after correspondence, and much else.

On other days, we have pairs of volunteers, who deal with the photocopying, filling in baptism registers, preparing service sheets, dealing with the phone, and lots of other jobs, all of which happen behind the scenes, and which keep the Parish running (relatively) smoothly.

Some of the teams specialise - so Kath Barnes and Maureen Franklin on Tuesdays keep a record of all the fees for weddings and funerals, and deal with other financial matters.

On Fridays, Bunny Ellard and Barbara Jackson deal with the pew sheets for Sunday, and get those ready to go into each Church.

They seem to have quite lot of fun, as well as a certain amount of frustration, when the photocopier doesn’t work as it should.

And there is also the tradition of the End of term Cream Cakes, when we get all the volunteers together, to talk about anything which is worrying people or any training which is needed.

It is a very worthwhile and enjoyable part of our Parish Ministry, and is certainly enormously valued by the clergy, whose administrative load is greatly reduced by the Office.

Bunny and Barbara on Friday mornings (occasionally helped by Chloe). Bunny has now decided to retire, and so there is a vacancy for Friday mornings.

We would like to thank her for all that she has done on Fridays since the Office began a couple of years ago.

And Alan Williams is on his own on a Wednesday at the moment, so there is a vacancy there, too.

If you would like to know more about the Office, or have a couple of hours a week to spare and would like to think about helping, please speak to Gary or Vicky, or phone the Office, 8067 9787, any weekday morning, between 10 and 12.

You would be very welcome, and you would probably have quite a lot of fun, as well as discovering a bit more about what happens behind the scenes.

The current volunteers are:
Mondays - Kate Harley and Sylvia Street
Tuesdays - Kath Barnes and Maureen Franklin
Wednesdays - Alan Williams and a Vacancy
Fridays - Barbara Jackson and a Vacancy.