Get Involved > Friends of St Stephen's

Caring for the historic building

The present church was consecrated in 1880 and today the church is part of the heritage of buildings of Bath.

It costs £20,000 per year to maintain. We are fortunate not to have to include in our costs the running of the well known low-energy, award-winning lights of the tower but we need your help in meeting the significant cost involved in maintaining our local landmark.

The aim of the Friends is to help with the restoration, preservation, improvement and maintenance of the Church and grounds and to further the charitable purposes of the Church. It also aims to widen and improve its facilities for music and community activities. The Friends will themselves be organising a range of community events in the church and its centre.

You can be a friend without being an active member of the Church. As a friend you will be supporting a local landmark and preserving our rich architectural heritage for future generations.

To join, please complete the application form and send it with your subscription to the Hon. Treasurer. The minimum subscription is £10 per annum, but if you are able to give more, the extra would be much appreciated.

If you are a UK taxpayer you can increase the value of you subscription by completing a Gift Aid Declaration. This allows the Friends of St Stephen’s to recover the tax paid at the current basic tax rate. Currently in 2009/2010 the tax recovered on a £10 subscription is £2.80.

If you require further information, please contact Richard Hewitt the Hon. Treasurer.

Friends' Newsletter June 2010

We are very pleased to tell you that thanks to the generosity of your giving as Friends of Stephen's, supplemented by the proceeds of the Films on the Hill evening and the Stentorphon Opera Gala Concert, we found ourselves having sufficient funds to assist St Stephen’s Church by wholly funding the purchase of a new heating system for the Church Centre. Given its high level of community usage it was vitally important to upgrade the Centre’s previously failing system to ensure that all users will in future be kept warm and comfortable whatever the time of year.

Happily we have since been able to partially replenish our funds when the May Fayre proved to be such a great success both financially and socially bringing many new families to the church.
There will now be a temporary break in proceedings over the summer months but there’s much planned for later and here are a few dates for your diary;

Friday and Saturday 5th and 6th November

Under the musical direction of Peter Clare, who may be well known to you, we will have a concert which consists of two performances on the two consecutive days. This will be a new production taking as its theme the events of Armistice Day.

Sunday 21st November

Stentorphon Opera return with an evening of opera pieces – if you missed their launch evening please don’t miss this one. We found after their last event there were new converts to opera! Performers feature from both Bath and London.

Saturday 27th November

Films on the Hill returns to the church with the big screen, latest digital equipment and a golden oldie for everyone to enjoy. This time we will be supported by Bath Film Festival – last year we packed in 230 people and we will make this a regular event in the run up to Christmas. And yes - I promise we will have a more sensitive sound system!! We are looking for sponsors for this so if you have any suggested leads please e-mail on viv_simpson@yahoo.co.uk or telephone 01225 443906.

Saturday December 4th

The ever popular Silver Ring Choir bring a special evening of Christmas music and carols.

Bath Cantata will also be performing and we are pleased that a number of musical groups are now increasing their use of the church’s facilities – so watch the Church website and notice boards.

Further information on all these events will be forthcoming.

We have in mind setting up a regular Dinner Club with guest speakers but this would be an ambitious project for our existing very small committee to undertake, so we are looking for more Friends to help with this so please do let us know if you are willing.