This advent we are making a village advent calendar in Steeple Aston. 

We will be putting 25 large boxes around church, and would love village groups (or individuals) to decorate them. We have a scheme of 25 verses from the Bible which tell the Christmas story. Every day through Advent, a new box will be uncovered, revealing the next bit of the Christmas story. All the boxes have been donated from a removal company and are the same size - but how they are decorated to tell the Christmas story is...

In early 2014, Bob Clow bequeathed his 1950s bungalow to the PCC of Tackley.

We were astonished at his generosity and spent a lot of time praying and deciding what might be the best way to look after this incredible gift. A chance conversation with architect Kelvin Sampson led Rector Marcus Green to suggest that the PCC might do a brave thing...

Rather than simply sell the house and use the money for the parish, as seemed obvious, perhaps the PCC might develop the site of Bob's bungalow. 

Kelvin w...

Lent starts on March 6th this year, with a service to mark Ash Wednesday at North Aston at 7.30pm.

Our Lent Course follows on the next five Wednesday evenings, led by Marcus Green, Richard Bailey, Jan Grimwood, Robin Gibbons & new Methodist minister in Tackley, Paul Carter. We meet at 8pm each Wednesday evening in the Methodist Church in Tackley from March 13th to April 10th inclusive.

This year we will follow Jane Williams' beautiful new book, The Merciful Humility of God. If you can come on Wed...

We are delighted to have two new banners in Steeple Aston Church, displaying images of our famous Cope.

The Steeple Aston Cope is on permanent loan at the V&A museum in London, and we have had just a few small pictures of it in church till this point. But now, with our new banners, we have an almost-life-size copy of the dossal, the square portion of the Cope, centring on the crucifixion image, and a much larger-than-life image of one of our angels on another banner.

These super banners have been...

The PCC in North Aston is working hard to keep the churchyard open. 

Currently, it seems that there are no burial plots left, but we are trying to follow the Church of England's legal processes that allow for re-use of full churchyards. It isn't easy, but we have two plans - one involves moving some 27 headstones that are over 100 years old to a new site within the churchyard so we can use those grave spaces again; the other involves grave spaces that have been previously used but have no headst...

We begin Advent in Steeple Aston with an evening of words and music, poetry and song and instruments blending together under the direction of Nicholas Cleobury with singers from St Martin in the Fields, London and two astounding young Australian violinists, Eliza Scott and Liam Keneally.

Advent is always a special time - a time of excitement and yearning, a preparation for all that is to come as the year turns toward Christmas. 

This Advent promises to be especially wonderful, as we settle in to...

On December 8th we welcome the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church, Oxford, to St Nicholas' Tackley for what promises to be a superb evening of seasonal music! 

The Cathedral Singers sing over a hundred services a year at the Cathedral, when the Cathedral Choir is away or on vacation. They are made up of talented local volunteer musicians, from young professionals to professorial fellows (including our own Peter Read) under the direction of James Morley Potter. 2018 saw the 40th anniversary of th...

Rector Marcus Green had his new book The Possibility of Difference published by Kevin Mayhew Ltd last week. Here, he reflects on two launch events held to celebrate the book's publication. 

For me, as I look back, just a few days on, at the two launch events for my new book last weekend, the most remarkable thing is - how much I can’t remember!

OK - so here are some headlines. Some facts. There were over seventy people at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford on Friday, and around half that number in...

Our Harvest Charity this year is HoverAid. HoverAid work in Madagascar, taking medical and emergency relief to people who get cut off from the rest of the world by the extreme weather that hits the island mercilessly year by year. 

Over 92% of people on Madagascar live below the poverty line, and many of them are unreachable by road for much of the time. HoverAid use river systems to find communities and serve them with food, clean water and medical help. 

All three churches will collect for Hove...

We have been asked all sorts of questions about the proposals for the Building Project in recent weeks - Thank You for all your interest! Please keep it coming! 

To try and answer some of these questions, we've compiled a list of 'FAQs' - Frequently Asked Questions. Do write in if you'd like to ask about anything else!

1. Why spend so much money on paths and ramps?

The PCC has six guiding principles, six values in this Building Project: 

Access; Better Heating; Room for Children; Providing Loos...

 A year ago, I finished a piece on the church building project in the Steeple Aston Life with these words: “Lots of work to do. Lots of money to raise. Lots of good to be achieved - that’s why the PCC and I are committed to doing our best to make this happen, and if we fail, to know that it wasn’t for lack of prayer or trying.” Throughout Steeple and Middle Aston I have had so many conversations since then, and I have never ceased to be grateful to be Rector in a community where people care so...

Work began at 54 Nethercote Road at Easter.

Our plan to develop the site of Bob Clow's bungalow into a terrace of three stone cottages is now becoming a reality. Our architect, Leap Design, and our contractor, Edgar Taylor Ltd, are working together to turn Bob's generosity into the gift that keeps giving.

There have been a couple of early stumbling blocks, which have put the project a little behind schedule - but still very much within budget and with an end date of early December in view. 

We hop...

At the end of January Steeple church had a reverse collection...

We gave out £10 to everyone in church. And we asked everyone to use this money in the manner of Jesus' parable of the Good Steward - to think what their gifts might be, and to put them to work over Lent, bringing back any profit they might make from the £10 to church on Palm Sunday or Easter.

Immediately ideas began to flow. Marmalade was in pots almost before the service was over! Cards were being made, coffee mornings were be...