All posts by Administrator

Children and Youth, Coronavirus, Health and Wholeness, News Releases, Pastoral Care, St George's Church

Space2Breathe

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If you and your family need a bit of a breathing space in lockdown, we may be able to help.

St George’s Church has joined up with Hale Community Centre and Space2Grow in central Farnham and all three are opening our doors to families who need to get out of the home and into a different space.

From Monday, February 8, families will be able to book a session in any of the three and allow their children to play or do schoolwork there with support from a volunteer who can also be a listening ear for parents. They can do so by emailing space2breathefarnham@gmail.com

The scheme has been developed in response to the growing mental health pressures that families are facing during lockdown. Many parents are struggling with working from home while trying to home-school several children, look after pre-schoolers, and run their households.

“The pressure on families is immense and we know that it is having a serious effect on mental health across the ages,” said Norma Corkish, chair of trustees for Hale Community Centre.

“Parents are getting to the end of what they can manage to juggle and many children are feeling frustrated and are struggling to do all the school work which schools are legally obliged to set. As one parent said ‘I am going a bit stir crazy being at home on my own’.

“Offering safe spaces where parents can bring their children is a practical step towards helping the families. Children can have some freedom to run round and play, engage with another adult, go for a walk, get some support with home schooling or whatever will help give a period of brief respite from the stresses of the current restrictions. And the parents can have another adult to talk to.” 

The spaces will have some teaching aids such as flip charts but families will need to bring their own toys and school resources.

The scheme is offering morning and afternoon sessions and the organisers hope to be able to increase the number of them if there are enough volunteers. Volunteers are needed to spend an hour either in the morning or afternoon with a family in the spaces and be willing to go for walks with the families. The organisers would also like to hear from any students who could spare some time to be an extra pair of hands. Anyone who can help should contact Cathy Burroughs at the Hale Community Centre on 07471 180958 or halecommunitycentre@gmail.com

Children and Youth, Health and Wholeness, Pastoral Care, support

Children’s Mental Health Week

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This week is Children’s Mental Health Week and it can’t come soon enough. All around us young people are struggling – lockdown, home-schooling, missing friends and family, anxiety, exam pressure, no space of their own. Some have added pressures – they may have parents or siblings working on the frontline, they may have lost someone during the pandemic, be ill or have a friend or family member who is ill. Some are living in homes where they do not feel safe.

There are lots of resources to help, particularly on the website www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/ This year the theme is Express Yourself. Finding creative ways of expression can be a huge boost to mental health. Art, craft, music, poetry, photography and drama are great ways of expressing our feelings and can make us feel better. There are ideas on the mental health week website, and some  free virtual sessions led by experts and familiar faces across acting, art, content creation, dance and writing. 

We are running a lockdown poetry festival so why not have a go at expressing your feelings in poetry – and encourage your children to do too.

If you need further help there are people out there to offer it. Don’t struggle on your own. Childline can be a great source of support for young people – 0800 1111 – and we have a list of numbers in the poster below.

Please do feel free to contact the clergy – revd.alan@badshotleaandhale.org
revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org
01252 820537.

And in an emergency, call 999.

Coronavirus, outreach, Pastoral Care

Help us say thank you with flowers

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UPDATE: Enough people have volunteered for Wednesday. Just need some car drivers for Thursday morning. Book via this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4AAAAA2BA2F4C16-abunch1

Is anyone in Farnham free tomorrow morning (Wed 3rd) or Thursday morning (4th)? Help is needed with bunching and then distributing daffodils to all the surgeries, pharmacies, care homes and the hospital with thanks from the Farnham community for all their ongoing hard work.

On Wednesday (3rd) we need people to go to the foyer at Farnham Maltings between 9.30am and 12.30pm to attach small cards to each bunch of flowers saying who they are from and helping to organise them, ready for distributing on Thursday. There are 500 bunches to get through.

Everyone will be seated at their own workstation in the foyer, two metres apart. Please wear a mask when you are in the building and make use of the hand sanitiser provided. Please also wear warm layers -as the space will be well ventilated. If you have fingerless gloves bring them along too. Bring a flask with a warm drink and any snacks you might want.

Sign up to help here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4AAAAA2BA2F4C16-abunch

On Thursday (4th) people are needed to distribute the flowers for a short period between 9.30 and 11.30am. You will need to come to Farnham Maltings on Thursday morning (you will be assigned a slot when you sign up) and pick up your flowers, a high-vis jacket and lanyard so when you drop them off they know you are a volunteer.

When you deliver the flowers, please take a moment to explain why the community is doing this, and pass on an enormous thank-you to those you are delivering to.

Sign up to help here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4AAAAA2BA2F4C16-abunch1

Children and Youth, Church Buildings, Coronavirus, Inclusion, News Releases, Services

Reports of our death have been exaggerated

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You may have read or heard national media reports on the Church of England in decline and dire consequences ensuing. Well, not on our watch. The parish has been bucking the trend and is seeing growing congregations both online and in person.

Though we were shut for many months last year because of Covid, we’ve seen new people coming to church when we have been able to be open and lots of people joining in online with our services, groups and festivals we have run.

Lesley Crawley says: “This has been a time of extraordinary change for us all and we have had to adapt to the challenges and respond in a way which meets the needs of those around us. Going online had been one obvious response and it is something we should have done years ago, alongside our services in church. There are lots of people who would like to come to church but can’t for whatever reason – disability, caring responsibilities, ill health, shift work and the like – so being able to access online services when they like is a real bonus.  What’s more they can take part by recording readings, prayers etcetera.

“We’ve also really involved people in the services in the churches themselves, ensuring that it’s a whole-church event rather than just the same people standing up the front and speaking. So we have families doing drama for instance, or reading poetry and they have really enjoyed it.

“But it’s not just the numbers, we have also thought carefully about how we relate to everyone around us. So we have, run online events – our latest is a poetry festival – and looked at how we can use the buildings better, make them more accessible, change the way we do outreach, really get serious about church health and develop ambitious plans for the future. We have seen this as an opportunity to understand what our community wants from us and how we can share God’s love with everyone so that everyone feels welcomed and valued whoever they are and whatever their circumstances.”

Watch out for more changes and growth as we continue to seek God’s will and respond to people around us.

Picture: New growth by Agatha Valenca on Unsplash

Environment, Lent, magazine

Your February Magazine is here

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The February issue of the parish magazine is out. It’s full of information for this month, particularly about pancakes and Lent, along with articles on food waste, giving north Farnham a voice, eco living, Climate Change, a word from the local MP, prayer, the Church Cat and lots more.

You can find the magazine below. But if you would like a paper copy, please let us know by emailing Anne Young: ah_young33@hotmail.com

The cover price of the magazine is £10 for the year which pays for the editorial costs. We would be grateful if those accessing it online would make a donation of £1 an issue. You can donate by clicking here.

The magazine is available here:

February 21February

Pancakes and temptation, Services

Pancakes and Temptations

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On 14th February, two days before Shrove Tuesday, we will be thinking about pancakes and how delicious they are and temptations and how tempting they are!

Please email us pictures of your pancakes in the week before the 14th and we will try to include them somewhere on our website.

Also, if you are coming to church on the 14th February please print out a picture of your pancakes (decorate them as you wish) and we will pin them up on a display board showing how delicious they all are!

Art, Coronavirus, News Releases

The Farnham Lockdown Poetry Festival

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Lockdown, lockdown. It’s all around us. And how are we feeling? Why not try to express it in poetry?

We are running the Farnham Lockdown Poetry Festival and invite everyone to write a poem about being in lockdown – whatever you feel, whatever your experience – and send it to us and we will put together a compilation video of our favourite poems and put it on our website.

Adults and children alike are welcome to send in their poems on the theme of lockdown. And don’t worry if you don’t think you can write poetry; read some and give it a go!

If you want some ideas, listen to this lockdown poem by Harry Baker:

Or this poem by Jim Carruth

the long bench

For the times ahead
when we will be

as if at either end
of the long bench

where distance kept
is love’s measure

and death dances
the space between

when words alone
are not enough

and queued memories
reach out to touch

let longing be a store
of nut and seed

that grows each day
in strange hibernation

readying for its end –
the sharing of the feast.

Send your poems to Lesley Crawley: revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org to arrive by February 26. Or you can send them in the post to Rev’d Lesley Crawley, The Rectory, 25 Upper Hale Road, Farnham GU9 0NX.

Services, St George's Church, St John's Church, St Mark's Church

Candlemas

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Candlemas coming up. This is the annual Christian festival which takes place 40 days after Christmas and commemorates the time Jesus was presented in the Temple in Jerusalem. The story is told in Luke 2:22–38.

The official day is February 2, and some people leave their Christmas decorations up until then, but we are celebrating it on the Sunday before – January 31.

At St George’s there will be a Christingle – see here – and at St John’s and St Mark’s we shall be lighting candles which will be ready for you at the services. You can pick up a cardboard drip-shield at the churches this weekend, and we would like you to decorate it and bring it with you on January 31.

On the day, Lesley Shatwell will be preaching at both St John’s and St Mark’s and there will be pencils and a sheet of paper on seats ready for you to use. She says: “There will definitely be creative, congregational participation – and it may be good to remember that ‘Creativity is intelligence having fun’ as Albert Einstein said, because we are going to have fun and everyone’s intelligent”.

We are celebrating Candlemas here online too, looking at how we can share the light of Jesus with others. Please bring your own candle and you can make a drip shield using a paper plate or other white card. You can bring battery-operated candle if you prefer. There will be craft at the end where you can make a candle to remember Candlemas and its meaning.

How to make a drip shield

Cut the card into a circle, or a square, depending on your preference, then make two small slits in the shape of a cross in the middle of the card. One cross should be enough but you can make another cross at a 45 degree angle to the first one, as in the picture below.

As you push your candle through the hole that these make, the card should just grip the candle gently. You can see an example of this here: https://youtu.be/DGTYIJv2peM

Decorate your drip-shield and you are ready to go.

Why Candlemas?

Finally, why candles and why Candlemas? Candles are a symbol of light and hope and the festival comes half-way through the period between the Winter Solstice (December 21/22) and the Spring Equinox (around March 21), so heading towards spring but not yet there. In pre-Christian times there was a ‘festival of lights’ then and the church combined this with celebrating the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, using candles at the service and blessing candles for use in the year ahead.

Picture by PhotographyCourse.net on Unsplash

Top picture by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash.

Christingle, St George's Church

Christingle at St George’s

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There will be a Christingle service at St George’s on January 31 at 10am.

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. Please join us – it’s all Covid-secure.

The word Christingle comes from the German word ‘Christkindl’, meaning ‘Little Christ Child’. You can find out more here.