THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF BUXTED AND HADLOW DOWN

Chichester Diocese

Three Churches

The Parish of Buxted and Hadlow Down in East Sussex is a single parish with three parish churches: St Margaret the Queen in Buxted Park, St Mary the Virgin in Buxted, and St Mark the Evangelist in Hadlow Down.

The parish is in the Uckfield Deanery, the Hastings Archdeaconry and the Chichester Diocese. The Parish was created by a pastoral scheme and came into operation on 1 January 2008.

It is administered by a single PCC.

One Parish

The villages of Buxted and Hadlow Down make up the ecclesiastical parish, which also includes part of Five Ash Down within its boundary. It is a rural community, but is growing as a result of planned housing development.

There are two Church of England Primary schools in the parish:
Buxted C.E. Primary School (church-controlled)
St Mark’s C.E. School Hadlow Down (church-aided)

The parish maintains close links with both schools, details of which can be found on the pages for St. Margaret’s and St. Mark’s. The parish is a registered charity (Charity Reg. No. 1130925).

Parish Mission Statement

We are committed to playing our part in God’s mission to the world by being:

A worshipping community
A learning community
A serving community
A community of wholeness & reconciliation
A praying community

To become the people of Christ

Welcome from the

Parish

Welcome to the new look web site for the Parish of Buxted and Hadlow Down. We are one parish with three churches. Each church has its own style of worship and we welcome everybody to join us at our services on Sundays and throughout the week. We have lots of other activities, and We look forward to seeing you at one or other of our events.

– PCC

“The Reverend Pete Molloy has been appointed Rector of Buxted and Hadlow Down.  Pete comes to us from Canada, where he has served in parishes in Saskatchewan and Ontario.  He has now been granted the necessary visa to undertake this role, though his post is subject to legal formalities.  We look forward to welcoming him, his wife Ann and son Simeon.  The date of his institution and induction will be finalised in the near future.”

Christian giving

Without an appreciation of generosity there is no Christianity. So, as creatures made to reflect the nature of God, the Bible calls the followers of Christ to be generous. Christian giving is at the heart of Christian living. 

Money

We can give of our money: to help those less fortunate than ourselves, to promote the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the world, and to support our own local church.

Time

We can give of our time: to perform acts of kindness through the opportunities which God will give us each day, to take on some of the often unsung labours of the church, to pray and to worship faithfully.

Talents

We can give of our talents: to exercise special skills which are our “gifts”, or which we have developed by training or experience, because God has given us those skills to make a difference in his world.

Bodies

We can even give of our bodies: in a new initiative - fab (flesh and blood) - churches are promoting the need for blood and organ donations to help others. This is something we can all consider.

An Invitation

The Church invites all members and visitors to consider how God wants each one of us to discover afresh the joy of being a “cheerful giver"

This is the Church of England’s preferred scheme for giving to your parish. PGS already operates in 22 dioceses nationally, with over 26,000 donors in some 1,500 parishes. Our parish joined PGS in 2012 and currently has 62 members, but we are seeking for more parishioners to join the scheme, to confirm their commitment to the parish. We have recently updated our PGS information pack, which contains full details of this excellent scheme. If you would like to discuss further, please contact the parish treasurer, David Munday, at treasurer@bhdchurches.co.uk.

Alternatively to request a pack, please ask any church officer, who will arrange for one to be sent to you.

Are you a PGS member?  Existing members wishing to change their gift, or any other details, should contact the PGS team directly and not their bank. This can easily be done by telephone to 01452 835595 or by email to info@parishgivingscheme.org.uk  quoting your PGS reference number. For further details, contact Homer Cox on 01825 732321

Where there's a Will there's a way.......to help God! At a recent PCC meeting our Rector presented a Legacies Policy that was discussed and then adopted for our parish. Legacies are a fundamental part of our Christian giving; leaving a gift in one’s Will is one of the most valuable and lasting ways to give thanks to God for the gifts of life and indeed a lifetime. Once provision has been made for loved ones, there is an opportunity to make a lasting gift to God, by leaving a legacy to support the Parish, to help to keep it alive and to continue its mission and ministry in the local community into the future. Anyone who is considering leaving a legacy is welcome to talk to the Rector in confidence about the sorts of purposes their gift might fund, and how/if they would like their gift to be acknowledged. There is also a very useful Church of England internet site: http://www.churchlegacy.org.uk/ . I will be opening a discussion on our giving (in every sense of the word) in the coming months, both in our worship services and through the weekly e-mail newsletter. If you would like to have your name added to the newsletter mailing list please an email to rector@bhdchurches.org.uk 

Why should I volunteer?

The Parish of Buxted and Hadlow Down is a busy, socially-active parish with lots of events for people of all ages. We want to keep it that way. But we need your help! 

We need everyone to volunteer a little of their time and talents to help us, as the parish cannot afford to pay for all its needs. No commitment is too big or too small. For example: 

  • we need people to serve coffee after services
  • we need people to clean our beautiful churches
  • we need people to help maintain our churchyards
  • we need people to help with flower arranging in church
  • we need people to help with the catering for our social functions

These are only a handful of the many areas where help is needed and we can instruct you, if necessary, for any role you are prepared to undertake.

Why should I do this? 

  • In a Christian sense, to offer love to others, albeit in a very practical way, as God has loved you
  • As part of this community, to help sustain the community, so that you and others can continue to enjoy it
  • For yourself, because you will learn from new experiences and new people (and probably have a lot of fun!)
  • You will gain more than you give, we promise.

What we really need is your commitment, whether for an hour a month to do some church cleaning, or to become one of our church readers. We need you, your time and the talents that God has given you. 

Please think carefully about what you could do for your church and community. Have a look through the “Our three churches need your help” volunteering leaflet in the carousel unit in each church and see which roles might suit you. If you have time or talents to offer, or need to know more, please either:

  • send an email to volunteering@bhdchurches.co.uk or
  • speak to someone in church and they should either be able to help you, or put you in touch with the person who can. 
Our parish cannot survive without its teams of volunteers

Please continue to make a special point of supporting families in need through our food collections, to be handed on through Michelle, our local diocesan Family Support Worker. Please look for the box in each church, where food items can be left. These should be non-perishable items of general use to an ordinary family.

Although the Parish Giving Scheme offers the most advantages, there are other methods of giving to the Parish, including:

A. Cheque or BACS. Unlike cash (see C below), these methods identify you as the payer and, if you sign a Gift Aid Declaration form, we can increase the value of your gift by 25%.

B. Gift Aid Envelopes. The yellow envelopes in each church* are intended for casual visitors to our churches, rather than regular worshippers, although the latter are encouraged to use them when donating to other charities at church services, e.g. Remembrance Sunday, Sea Sunday, funerals, etc.

C. Cash in the collection bag. Whilst we still welcome this, cash obviously requires sorting, counting, logging and banking, which creates extra work and carries more risk than the other methods.

D. Online. The parish is registered with BT MyDonate for on-line donations. If you wish to make an online payment to our parish, you can do so by clicking on this link MyDonate. Your donation can be Gift Aided.

E. Standing Order. Although nearly all our standing order donors have agreed to switch to PGS, we recognise that this is still a possible method of giving. If this is the only method you are prepared to accept, please contact the Parish Treasurer.

F. Payroll Giving. If you are in employment and your employer offers such a scheme, this is a tax-effective way of giving to the Parish.

FOOTNOTE: On 6 April 2013, the Government introduced the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, which enables us to reclaim a 25% Gift Aid "top-up"

  • on cash donations of £20 or less,
  • given at church services where ten or more people are in attendance.

This is subject to a total donations limit of £5,000 per church per tax year.

*At St. Mark's and St. Mary's, we are well below this annual limit and therefore we can reclaim this top-up without your having to complete a yellow envelope, if the above two conditions are met. 

*At St. Margaret's, our cash donations exceed £5,000 p.a. and we therefore ask you to complete a yellow envelope if you are able to sign the Gift Aid Declaration thereon.

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Blog

News, events, history, announcements & information

These are the most recent additions to our blog.

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Get In Touch

Address: The Rectory, Buxted, East Sussex

Telephone: 01825 733103

Email: info@bhdchurches.com

Hours: M-F: 8.30am - 4.30pm

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