Come along to our assortment of carol services taking place across the parish. Join in with your favourite carols and hear the story of Christmas in Bible readings.
St Mark’s on 8 December 6:00pm
St John’s on 10 December 6:00pm
St George’s on 17 December 6:00pm
Carols around the tree at St George’s, 18 December
Open air Carol Service at Hale Chapels (in Hale Cemetery) on 20 December 7:00pm – 8:30pm. The Mayor will be at this Carol Service and there will be refreshments afterwards at St Mark’s.
Come along to our Christingle Service at St. Mark’s Church on the 10th December, from 11:00am to 12:00pm.
Christingles are a tradition whereby the story of God’s love for the world, shown in Jesus Christ, is told using an orange, a candle, a red ribbon and dried fruits and/or sweets.
Each element of a Christingle has a special meaning:
· The orange represents the world;
· The red ribbon (or tape) symbolises the love and blood of Christ;
· The sweets and dried fruit represent all of God’s creation and/or the seasons;
· The lit candle represents Jesus’s light in the world.
The word Christingle comes from the German word ‘Christkindl’, meaning ‘Little Christ Child’.
The service has its origin in the Moravian church in the 18th century. The Children’s Society has explored the origins of the Christingle service and its website states: “At a children’s service in Marienborn in 1747, Bishop Johannes de Watteville looked for a simple way to explain the happiness that had come to people through Jesus, and created a symbol — the Christingle — to do this”.
Christingle services are also a way of raising money and awareness for the Children’s Society which works to support vulnerable children across the UK. You can find out more here: www.childrenssociety.org.uk/
The Church Recorders completed their work at St John’s Church and last month presented the parish with a book which has a record of everything inside – the windows; memorials; ironwork; textiles; the organ; the woodwork; stonework; and documents – essentially a snapshot of the church in 2023.
The recorders are members of The Arts Society Farnham, and are led by Margaret Popovic and Alison Boydell. They said afterwards: “We had a very warm welcome at St John’s for our presentation. We were pleased when Alan said how interested he’d been to read the St Mark’s Record and was looking forward to seeing what we’d written about St John’s. Afterwards we had an unexpected treat with Diana’s delicious cake!”
The book is available in St John’s which is open daily for prayer as well as on Sunday mornings for a service at 9.30am.
Come join us for the November Craft Market this Saturday, to get your hands on some beautiful homemade crafts and support your local community.
This month only our craft market will be visited by none other than Santa! So please come along and get into the Christmas spirit with us.
Its free entry and starts from 10am – 2pm Saturday, 18th November at St. Mark’s Church, Alma Lane, Upper Hale
Here are some examples of the crafts are wonderful stalls make:
Please come celebrate with us at St George’s Church on Monday, November 20th, starting at 5.30pm.
Update: There will also be hotdogs!
Remembrance Sunday is on November 12th this year and there will be services at each of the churches in the Parish – 9.30am at St John’s and 10am at St George’s. There will be an Act of Remembrance at the Hale War Memorial at 10.45am, where there will be a two-minute silence at 11am. Councillors Tony Fairclough and Sally Dickson will be attending to lay a wreath on behalf of Farnham Town Council. This will be followed by a service at St Mark’s itself.
There will also be an Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial in Badshot Lea following the St George’s service which Councillors Mark Merryweather and Chris Jackman will be attending. Anyone wishing to attend that who has not been at the service is asked to arrive for around 10.50am.
There will also be an Act of Remembrance at Weybourne Village Hall at 4pm which Councillor Matthew Brown will be attending. This will be followed by tea in the hall.
As we approach the upcoming vacancy following Lesley and Alan’s retirement from the parish which is set for next February, there will be a number of steps to take. These were outlined at a meeting of parishioners at St George’s on October 30th, where Martin Breadmore, Archdeacon of Dorking and acting Archdeacon of Surrey, answered questions and explained what would happen next.
Martin has written a newsletter for the parish which you can read by clicking on the download button below. Please do also ask any questions either by contacting the archdeacon (details in the newsletter) or Dave Walter who is lay vice-chair of the PCC.
Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com
The November parish magazine is now out with the usual mix of news and what is on, plus prayer and reflection and a poem this time. Please do have a read and send us your own comments, poems and reflections, and share the magazine with friends and family too.
Don’t forget our wonderful advertisers as well. If you use their services, please let them know that you saw their advert in our magazine.
To send us a comment, article, piece of news, reflection or poem, click here.
To download the magazine, click on the button below:
On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an assault on Israel with both rocket attacks and militants on the ground. The BBC has reported that at least 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and that the Israeli military estimated that 203 soldiers and civilians, including women and children, were taken to Gaza as hostages.
At the time of writing, the news agency Al Jazeera has just reported that 3,478 people have been killed in Gaza so far, with 12,065 injured, and in the occupied West Bank, 69 people have been killed and 1,300 injured. As well as the 1,400 or more killed in Israel, another 3,800 have been injured.
Airstrikes in Gaza have caused widespread destruction of homes, schools, healthcare facilities and telecommunication installations. Hospitals that are already at breaking point are overwhelmed by casualties while hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.
We are grieved and deeply concerned at the violence in Israel and Gaza, our hearts go out to those Israeli families whose loved ones have been targeted in the appalling terrorist attacks but also to the innocent victims of retaliatory attacks, who have been caught in the crossfire. The devastating news and images shared and the suffering of all is almost incomprehensible.
If you have not seen the Archbishop of Canterbury‘s recent poignant message on this, please do read it here. In it he wrote: “Pray for the people of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Pray for the future of the Holy Land. Pray for those who will weep, and fear, and die tonight.”
If you are looking to help, the Diocese of Guildford recommends the following three agencies that are operating locally in Gaza, providing immediate assistance:
Christian Aid
Christian Aid’s local partners stand ready to respond with medical relief and community-led initiatives such as food, shelter, sanitation and protection. They are actively exploring ways to support Israeli civilians who’ve been directly impacted by the violence.
Donations could make a huge difference to the conditions of those affected and can be made here.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
MAP’s team on the ground is releasing their entire pre-positioned stock of essential drugs, disposables and essential healthcare supplies from our warehouses to hospitals treating those injured in Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza.
More support will be needed as casualties are expected to continue to rise in the coming days, and MAP stands ready to respond.
Palestinians Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF)
PCRF is the primary humanitarian organisation in Palestine, delivering crucial and life-saving medical relief and humanitarian aid where it is needed most. Access to essential resources like food, clean water, and healthcare is severely limited. Urgent action is needed. With your support, the organisation can continue this vital work, ensuring that the over one million children of Gaza receive the urgent care they need and deserve.
Picture: Wikimedia Commons
Kitty Milroy, the artist responsible for the murals in St Mark’s Church, has been commemorated with a plaque on the ‘Famous Names of Farnham’ wall in Farnham’s town centre.
The plaque was unveiled on September 21st by Cllr Alan Earwaker, Mayor of Farnham; Nick Seversway, who led the work in organising the restoration of the murals and who is an expert on Kitty Milroy; and Rev’d Lesley Crawley.
The plaque now takes its place on Farnham’s ‘wall of fame’, in South Street, celebrating local luminaries, including writer and politician William Cobbett, racing driver Mike Hawthorn and cricketer Graham Thorpe.
Kitty Milroy (pictured below) was born Eleanor Catherine Milroy in 1885 in Newnham, Hampshire, but lived almost all her life in the Farnham area. From 1906 onwards, she enrolled in the Slade School of Art — a renowned centre for innovation in mural art — which had recently opened its doors to female students, and between 1911 and 1920 she created the murals in St Mark’s. between 1911 and 1920. They represent local scenes and Biblical passages and the figures in them were modelled by locals at the time. In 2021 they were restored by conservators Rickerby and Shekede.
Further information is available here.
Pictured clockwise from top left: Kitty Milroy; members of the parish Arts and Crafts committee at the unveiling – from left: Chriss Green, Nick Seversway, Bob Shatwell, Jean Sanders, Lesley Crawley and Alan Crawley; Kitty’s plaque; apple tree from Kitty’s murals; figures from Kitty’s murals.
Pictured top: the unveiling of the plaque.
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 
