Helping at St Peter's

The Society has received a request from the Ipswich Hospital Band to help them open St Peter's to public visitors. As most of you will know, the Band with a great deal of effort and support from other organisations succeeded in winning a substantial award from the Heritage Lottery Fund to transform St Peter's into a Centre for Music, Arts and Heritage.

St Peter's is arguably the most important church in Ipswich because of the historicity of its site, its celebrated font, its association with Wolsey and its architecture. It will be magnificent after this restoration. In addition to facilities for rehearsals and concerts, there will be a permanent exhibition of the history of the church and parish, and other displays which may include the Millennium Wall Hangings and the Society's own information boards.

The Society would very much like to help by manning the church for one half day a week probably starting in May. In that case we should need to have a Society co-ordinator, who would draw up a rota of people (and reserves) to be present in the church, and of course a good number of volunteers. The more there are, the more the duties can be spread out. Helpers would need to keep an eye on the displays, talk to visitors and be prepared to deal with sales of booklets. They would not be responsible for opening or locking up the church.

Members who would like to help are asked to contact Beryl Jary initially on 726229.