St Mary Magdalene recently reached a major milestone in its history. In 2020 the church turned an amazing 800 years old. We had plans to embark on a church refurbishment project that year however due to Covid this was postponed.

But now our '2023 and beyond project' is in place, and we need your support to help us raise nearly £300,000. We pray you can assist us on this epic journey. If you are able to make a monthly pledge or significant donation you can do that online right now!

If you have any queries please do email me direct at rector@greathampden.org.uk .

Thank you in advance and good wishes to you! You are always welcome to attend a Sunday service at 11.15am.

PROJECT UPDATE

September 2024

Great Hampden Redecoration

We are delighted to have received a generous grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Our redecoration is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to complete the redecoration of the church before Christmas, as well as improve access to the tower.

As well as The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have received grants from Stoke Mandeville & Other Parishes Charity, Bucks Historic Churches Trust, the Leche Trust and The Rank Foundation (Pebbles Grant). Coupled with the generosity of so many individuals in our church community who have donated to our appeal, we have reached this important milestone. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far.

Our work is not over. We have discovered a large void under the sanctuary floor. It means this part of the church is currently out of use, and we are investigating how to remedy it. We are also fundraising for stackable chairs, new seat cushions for the pews, and the other equipment we need to make the most of our church building.

August 2024

We are closing in on our total, with donations and successful grant applications in the last few weeks—but we need your help!

As I write, I've just heard that we have received an amazing grant of £10,000 from the Stoke Mandeville and Other Parishes Charity. So we really are in the last lap!

The total we now need to raise is £25,000.

We need to book all of this in at the start of September to lock in the work before Christmas.

If you've supported us already—thank you for your generosity, and I hope you are pleased with the results so far! Please help us again, we are so close now!

If you are yet to help us—this is a great time to support us. Help us get the church redecorated before Christmas—we are almost there!

June 2024

Phase One is complete! All we need to do now is redecorate. Please help us raise the final £36,500 by September to get this final work done this year.

February 2024

Great Hampden Prize Raffle

Many thanks to everyone who bought tickets for the Great Hampden Prize Raffle. It raised over £3,300 towards the last £60,000 that we need to raise to finish the job and redecorate the church. Prize winners are being notified of their prizes. A huge thank you to Georgina and Glyn for all their hard work in organising and running the raffle, and to everyone who sold tickets. You can contribute to the appeal by visiting www.greathampden.org.uk/project.

Full report and prize list is available on the website article.

November 2023

We have reached an important milestone in the Great Hampden ‘2023 and Beyond’ Project. Thanks to generous donations, pledges, grants, and fund raising we have now raised a total of £235,000.

This means we can proceed with the main phase of the works.

Work will begin in the North Aisle immediately, but public worship will continue in church until Christmas, albeit with some disruption.

After Christmas the church building will close to public worship for a period of about 12 weeks whilst the main works take place. (Details of rearranged worship will follow.)

During this closure the floor and ramp works will take place in the nave, and the new lighting, heating, and audio systems will be installed.

After that we will be left with repairs to the stonework and the floor in the chancel, and the restoration of decorative stonework and redecoration throughout the church for the first time in almost a century.

We are now actively fundraising for the final £60,000 needed to finish the job. If we can reach our total before March 2024 we can roll the works on into the main phase. This means we will save money and get the job done before the first wedding of 2024 in May.

If not, we will continue to fund-raise and plan to close the church again for these works to take place in the autumn/winter of 2024.

Please help us reach our target of £60,000 as quickly as possible so we can get the job done.

What's have we acheived?

We need to upgrade the sound system and AV equipment; relight the interior of the church; improve the heating and stabilise the floor tiles; sympathetically redecorate and clean the stonework; and open up the chancel space.

The Benefits

We will have a restored building, improved by sensitive redecoration; a well-lit, warmer, more comfortable and accessible church; sensitive creation of space in the chancel for worship and concerts; architectural and historical features enhanced and made more visible; and our church continues to be a significant place in peoples lives and the community for generations to come, enabling a place of meeting between God and his people.

What we'll be Able to Offer

We'll be able to continue our popular Sunday services, welcome the wider community by continuing to host weddings and baptisms. We have a rich tradition of musical events including our popular chamber music concerts, which we will be able to host in a unique and flexible space and we can explore offering educational events to make the most of the church's special historical connection with John Hampden the Patriot, plus we can offer a space for spiritual exploration, retreats and cultural events.

*Only online donors/supporters are counted on this page. In addition to the number of online donors shown, 15 individual donors have contributed offline*