Events

Christmas 2023

CHAPS Pantomime: The Wizard of Oz - 26 to 28 October 2023

Many thanks to everyone who came along to this year's pantomime - it was a sellout every night - and over £2000 was raised through the ticket sales, raffle, tuck shop and donations.

Holiday at Home - Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 July 2023

This year’s Holiday at Home theme was Germany. Each day started with with coffee and chat. Activities included chair exercises, a sing-along, painting German scenes, flower arranging, "Octoberfest" abd entertainment from a Ukulele group.

Charities Barbecue - Saturday 8 July 2023

Our annual Charities Barbecue was held on what turned out to be the last truly warm day of summer. Raising £310 for our two Church charities, Family First and Suffolk Refugee Support, the warmth of the evening was matched by the warmth of the Fellowship. And it was a feast. The burgers and bangers perfectly cooked over the charcoal by Ian Bragg and Martin Combes was supplemented by a variety of dishes freely donated by so many people. There are so many people to thank; to Anita and Michael, for allowing us to hold it in their lovely garden, to Vanessa for organising the raffle and for each of those who provided the various dishes.

Mussbach Visit - Wednesday 7 to Tuesday 12 June 2023

After 38 years the twinship between Castle Hill and Mussbach is still thriving. It was so good to welcome back our German friends to Castle Hill after a halt in our yearly exchange visits due to Covid. Next year a group from Castle Hill will visit Mussbach.

Coronation and Church Anniversary Afternoon Tea - Monday 8 May 2023

Many thanks to those who organised and ran the wonderful afternoon tea to mark the King's Coronation. It was a lovely event and very well catered for!

Good Friday Walk - Friday 7 April 2023

Forty walkers - and four dogs - joined our Annual Good Friday Walk, held this year at Felixstowe. Walking just over 5 km from organisers Mark and Fiona Ward’s beach hut to Felixstowe Ferry and back the group enjoyed light refreshments by the sea to cap a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of fellowship and gentle exercise.

Holiday Club - Wednesday 5 April 2023

Few children would have left this year’s one-day Holiday Club without an understanding of the Easter story. Told in a new and interactive way the story was structured on different coloured beans, taking the story from Good Friday through to the Resurrection. There were videos, Easter eggs and activities that included making Easter gardens. Feedback from participants was a great big thumbs up!

Castle Hill receives an Eco Bronze Award - March 2023

Len Green, on behalf of the Church, receives the Eco Church Bronze Award from Jeremy Flack, the Synod Green Advocate, before they jointly cut the cake prepared for the event by Ann Watson

WONDERFUL WORLD: Air Be Aware It's Everywhere! - February 2023

Exploring the wonderful world that God has made for us. Several young people certainly appeared to enjoy the session on ‘Air’ held on 16th February. The children had a lot of fun carrying out various experiments and challenges with of course accompanying tasty snacks!

Remembrance Sunday - Sunday 13 November 2022

Members of our Girls’ Brigade took part in the Remembrance Sunday parade held in Christchurch Park. They are pictured above with programmes that they distributed to members of the public who attended the event.

50 Years of the United Reformed Church Celebrations - Saturday 15 October 2022

Fun, fellowship, dancing and music made Castle Hill’s URC Jubilee party an evening to remember. All ages and abilities took to the dance floor and Adam and Gillian displayed their musical ability with a medley of inspiring and frequently amusing songs. A ploughman's platter followed before the Jubilee cake, baked by Ann Watson, was cut by Barbara McGlinchey and Elaine Thomas.

Ordination and Induction of Adam Earle - Sunday 24 July 2022

In addition to the Mayor of Ipswich, Adam was welcomed by representatives of the Salvation Army, St Mary and St Botolph Church, the Methodist Church and Revd Lythan Nevard Moderator of the Eastern Synod who presented Adam with his Certificate of Ordination.

Tiny Tots Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebration - Thursday 16 June 2022

Amongst all the other wonderful celebrations to mark the Queen’s remarkable 70 year reign, Tiny Tots held a party attended by 24 families. We decorated the rooms with bunting and balloons, dressed in red white and blue, made crowns, iced jubilee cakes, and the children took away a home made ‘flag’ to wave.

Jubilation - Friday 20 May and Saturday 21 May 2022

CHAPS presented a fun variety show to celebrate the Queen's 70 year reign in aid of Headway.

65th Anniversary Celebration Afternoon Tea - Sunday May 8 2022

Good Friday Walk - Friday 15 April 2022

After a two-year break due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the traditional Good Friday afternoon walk returned. Arranged by Mark and Fiona Ward the two-mile stroll by the sea at Felixstowe was enjoyed by a good turn out of Church members and friends. Elsewhere, the weather was sunny and warm but an on-shore breeze shrouded Felixstowe in a damp mist. That did not affect the enjoyment expressed by those taking part who were so happy to be together as a fellowship in the fresh air after such a long break.

April 2021

Return of Live Worship with Live Streaming

Church Roof Repairs March 2021

The Church now has a new roof and top windows

Church Roof Repairs February 2021

Work on the high level windows in the Church has been completed and the scaffolding is coming down paving the way for the Church to be thoroughly cleaned and tidied in readiness for whenever Live Worship recommences.

Church Roof Repairs starting August 2020

February 2020: CHAPS Pantomime - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Now called CHAPS, Castle Hill’s Amateur Players have been putting on panto’s for over 30 years. Since the production of Aladdin in 1988 by the then 18 plus group they haven't missed a year, except for in 2017 when they put on a variety show instead of a panto. Playing to audiences that must total around 9,000 over this time, their performances have never failed to delight.

This years panto, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was outstanding and ended with the entire audience on its feet rocking to the ‘Baby Shark’ dance. In fact audience participation in traditional panto style ‘its behind you’, ‘O yes he has’ etc was a reflection of the engaging standard of performance. Particularly encouraging this year was the number of young people taking part and the standard of choreography although the old favourites were there. Members who took part as young performers 30 years ago are now appearing alongside their adult children such as Pete Rodger who has performed in almost every production. This year’s cast included four parents appearing on stage with their children including the mother and son who made up the front and back end of the Panto horse! A word has to be said about the costumes, scenery and props. For an amateur production these are exceptional and almost entirely produced in-house (literally - the backdrops were painted spread out on the Church floor and many props constructed on the stage). The stunning changes to scenery really brought the stage to life. The costumes were mostly hand-made in-house by Eileen Fisher and Emma Wilding. So much talent!

Busy Fingers - Knitting For Children in Uganda

The ducklings pictured here, knitted in a single session by members of the Busy Fingers Group, will be taken out at Easter for children in North Kigezi, Uganda.

Care and Share

Extending God’s love through service to others is a powerful form of witness. Our young people demonstrate this each month as they prepare a buffet meal for worshippers to enjoy after Morning Service. It is especially welcome to those in our congregation who would otherwise have to prepare their own meal and dine alone at home.

Christmas 2019

The Christmas Story	Lunch Club Christmas Meal	Tiny Tots Christmas Party

Ipswich and East Pastorate Away Day at Otley Hall: a time of fellowship, worship, reflection and learning

Twenty two people from Castle Hill, St Johns and Saxmundham gathered at Otley Hall for an enjoyable Away Day. Led by the Rev Janet Tollington who led us on a journey through the Old Testament. Janet was so informative and thought-provoking and her delivery was excellent and easy to listen to. We also had time to relax and to chat together and as the sun shone for us we were able to stroll in the Otley Hall grounds. Many thanks to those who organised the day and invited Janet to speak.

Girls' Brigade at Summer 2019

Our 2019 camp was at Hallowtree Activity Centre where we enjoyed lots of activities - Go Karting, Two Tyre Ravine, Crate Stacking, Archery, Gymnastics Centre and a campfire where we baked bread and toasted marshmallows! We were very lucky with the sunny weather and also to be joined by Pam who led our devotions for the camp and we had a visit from David on the Friday. We are very grateful to Ros for coming along and for all the hard work she has put into planning, designing and making a new banner for Girls' Brigade.

Please see our noticeboard in the sports hall for lots more photos!

Visit to our Mussbach Friends - May 2019

Pulling Together In A Roman Galley	Daily devotions outside Rastatt Palace

Girls' Brigade Sporting Success

At the Girls' Brigade District Sports competition, our girls were winners of the Senior section and our Company came second overall. Congratulations!

Induction of Revd David Rees - Saturday 29 September 2018

The service was held at St John's URC and was a wonderful opportunity for members of the four Churches to chat together and meet David

Pam's Farewell

Farewell Tea

Tiny Tots

On 19 October the Tiny Tots held a party to thank Pam for all the love and support that she has given to the group during her time at Castle Hill but it was a party tinged with sadness as we were saying goodbye! Ann Watson made a beautiful cake, which we shared along with other party food. We presented Pam with a voucher and a pair of little earrings called "Go Fly A Kite" (they are kite shaped!) which we thought just perfect from our group. Our craft activity was making kites and one of the children made one especially for Pam to remember us by.

Harvest Weekend: Harvest Festival and Scarecrow and Flower Festival With Art exhibition - 30 September and 1 October 2017

Thank you to all the Church organisations and individuals who entered into the spirit of our Scarecrow, Flower and Art Festival by producing such professional displays. We have so much talent within our Church community!

60th Anniversary Celebrations - 15 to 18 June 2017

Over the weekend of the 15 to 18 June, as part of our 60th Anniversary Celebrations we were privileged to host members of the Gospel Choir "Christcendo" from our twinned Church in Mussbach. After arriving in the UK on the Thursday they visited Windsor before meeting their hosts in the evening. Friday was spent in Cambridge finishing with a visit to King's College for Evensong. Saturday was spent with the hosts and they then joined us for Strawberry Tea in the afternoon. There then followed a wonderful and inspiring Concert of their music. Sunday the Choir joined us for morning worship and after a lunch at the Church they returned to Germany. Many thanks to all the hosts, Mussbach Committee and helpers in the kitchen for making this all possible.

60th Anniversary Celebrations - 7 May 2017

On Sunday 7 May we had a happy day of thanksgiving for Life and Worship for 60 years at the Church. Thank you to everyone who took part in any way; the lovely service led by Pam with input by Arnd and sermon by Richard Mortimer, the food, the memorabilia and the quizzes (some of the baby photos wouldn’t be recognised by their own mothers!). Pam spoke about all being members of one body, and it certainly felt like that.

Castle Hill 60th Anniversary Celebrations: Reunion of 20th Ipswich Boys' Brigade - 1 April 2017

Over 75 people gathered to chat, look at various forms of memorabilia, eat and generally enjoy seeing so many ‘lads’ from the past.

As one old boy wrote after the event:

Thank you for your efforts and thorough planning yesterday. I thought that the event and the different ways to interact (quiz, photos, memorabilia, rogues gallery) were brilliant and memories really flooded back.

However, those things alone weren't it alone: it was the spirit of the BB which I felt underpinned it all - "Sure and Steadfast" - the teachings from scripture (hope, forgiveness, peace, kindness, self-control, respect) which tend towards Christian manliness, and the challenge to all to follow Christ's example.