St Laurence Church 1325 Celebrations

This year is the 700th anniversary of the building of the east end of the church – the chancel. A series of events - talks and musical evenings, are planned for the year to mark this special anniversary and celebrate the life of our church and village over the centuries.

The celebrations begin with a series of three talks outlined below.

Sunday 27th April. Combe’s Early History. A talk by George Speake about his excavations at Combe East End. George’s talk will be in the School Hall from 4pm – 5pm.

Sunday 11th May. A History of Combe Church. Alison Ray, Archivist Lincoln College. In the late 15th century Lincoln College took over from Eynsham Abbey as Patron of St Laurence Church. Alison Ray’s talk will focus on the history of our Church from the records of Lincoln College and will be in the church from 5pm – 6pm.

Sunday 8th June. Northleigh Roman Villa. Byron Russell is giving a talk on the social setting and the Romano British way of life during the time of the occupancy of the Roman Villa at Northleigh. Byron’s talk will be in the School Hall from 4pm - 5pm.

Lent Groups

Our Lent Group will begin meeting this year beginning on Thursday 13th March until 10th April. The meetings will be in Stonesfield at the St James’ Centre, beginning at 2.30pm. Do come and join us. We will be following the Lent Course prepared by the Diocese in which the theme this year is Baptism. What it means to be a human being created by God and what it means to be baptised as a Christian.

The Church Building various matters in progress

There are a number of projects upon which we are currently working, these include,

• We hope to shortly to place a notice board adjacent to the churchyard gates.

• Preparatory work is in progress to replace the stone cross to the apex of the chancel roof.

• South Wall

  • We hope shortly to commence on repair of the south wall plaster followed by redecoration of the Nave. The Chancel will be redecorated in entirety.

  • We have a small group who are looking at the present heating and lighting arrangements, with a view to upgrading.

• The Vestry

  • The repair and redecoration of the Vestry is long overdue. We hope to tackle this shortly, in conjunction with a review of our catering arrangements, to make the best of the increased available space in the Nave.