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News Releases, Pentecost, Services

Strange events, the Holy Spirit and a Sung sermon – it must be Pentecost

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Media outlets have a new rival – the Roman Broadcasting Company (RBC) whose reporter has been recording virtual interviews, trying to uncover the truth behind strange events taking place in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago. The interviews will be broadcast on this website on Sunday, May 31, in a Pentecost service which will be online from 9am.

The RBC will be investigating stories of ordinary people being transformed from scared individuals into confident and joyful women and men who started telling everyone about Jesus, a man from nearby Galilee who had been killed by crucifixion but had risen again and was offering a new way of living and coming close to God.

The story, of course, is the one recalled in chapter two of the book of Acts, when the disciples received the Holy Spirit and began a new ministry which saw the beginning of what became the Christian church. This story will be celebrated on Sunday, May 31, in three services – a formal one and an informal one available in the morning, and an all-sung service in the evening, available from 6pm. The informal service will include a dramatised version of the story involving the RBC interviewing witnesses of the events. You may also want to have a candle, a pot of bubbles and also cake to help you take part!

Here’s what Lesley Crawley has to say about it: “A few days before the events we celebrate at Pentecost, the risen Jesus had ascended to heaven and had promised that the disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit came down on them, enabling them to be brave and follow Jesus in loving service to others. This is what we are reflecting on here. And of course, the Holy Spirit wasn’t just for those early disciples but is available to all of us and is in us as we work to help others and love others, trying to be the hands and arms and heart of Jesus today.

“So come and join us online on Sunday, May 31, at our formal or informal services in the morning or our all-sung service in the evening from 6pm. Even the sermon is being sung! It’s all on https://badshotleaandhale.org/ and everyone is welcome!”

Pentecost also marks the end of The Kingdom Come, the period from Ascension Day which each year is dedicated to prayer. We are celebrating Thy Kingdom Come with a different version of the Lord’s Prayer each day at noon and sharing resources from the Thy Kingdom Come organisers.

Prayer

Prayer Stations

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Prayer stations are prayer activities which are often set up in churches, but can be set up anywhere, including homes. The idea is to engage people in some form of prayer activity – reading, writing, listening, drawing, touching, reflecting and then responding to God’s voice.

Could you set up one at home, or in the garden, and video or photograph it and send it to us to go up online? Send it to Alan and we can put it up on the website and social media.

It can be something as simple as a candle and music – as in the video below – or a wonderful artistic creation, or something in between.

If you like to sit before God with music playing, try our reflection here. The music reflects a number of moods – quiet contemplation, excitement, passion, joy, peace – rather like prayer really!

Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

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Each day during Thy Kingdom Come – the period of prayer between Ascension and Pentecost (May 21-31 this year) – a different member of the parish will appear on a video saying a version of the Lord’s Prayer.

Day 11: One of the joys of the Lord’s Prayer is that it is said by millions around the world – a wonderful sharing. Here are just a few of us:

Day 10: a musical version provided by three Lesley Shatwells and two Bob Shatwells!

Day nine, and Stella Wiseman chooses a version of the Lord’s Prayer which is rooted in nature and an inclusive spirituality. It comes from The Earth Cries Glory by Steven Shakespeare (c) Steven Shakespeare 2019. Published by Canterbury Press. Used by permission. rights@hymnsam.co.uk.

On day eight, John Evans sings a plainsong version of the new translation which churches arrived at in the mid-20th century, and gives us the history of its development. He also explains the doxology at the end: ‘For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever’.

Day seven, and Alan Crawley takes us back to the 1970s with the Series Three version of the Lord’s Prayer:

Day six: John Innes explains that The Lord’s Prayer “starts with the finishing line”. It is presented in the opposite way that many people practise prayer – ie a plea for help, but John explains that “Jesus teaches the prayer as one who has arrived”. He then prays the Presbyterian version:

Day five: One of Lesley Crawley’s favourite versions is by Rev Bret Myers which she loves for its accessible language:

Day four: What if God suddenly interrupted and had a chat?

On day three, Margaret Emberson has recorded a beautiful musical Lord’s Prayer, in which she sings two parts and also plays the piano:

On the second day of Thy Kingdom Come, Wendy Edwards has recorded a version she has written herself:

Alan started the series with the version we use every Sunday in church when we could meet in the actual buildings, and still use every Sunday in our online services.

Ascension Day, Pentecost, Prayer

Thy Kingdom Come

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Thy Kingdom Come – words so many of us know from the Lord’s Prayer, and, since 2016, the name given to the days between Ascension and Pentecost (this year May 21-31) which are set aside by many churches and individuals as a time of prayer.

We are joining in – church closures can’t get in the way of prayer! Every day we will be posting a video below, and, at midday you will find a version of the Lord’s Prayer spoken (or sung) by a member of the parish. There are also loads of wonderful resources on the Thy Kingdom Come website, including an app for Apple and Android.

Then there is a fun, interactive prayer map (the Archbishop of Canterbury is said to be a bit of a fan),  with a daily podcast , a prayer journal, a Novena (a guide for nine days of prayer), and other ideas. It will end on Pentecost Sunday when we will be having three services – 9.30am formal, 10.30am informal, and 6pm all-sung (even the sermon!).

Day 11: This Pentecost is very different from last year’s but it is the same Spirit! Here are some highlights from last year:

Day 10: Can you meet God in silence?

Day Nine:

A touching video about what adoption into God’s family means:

Day Eight:

Pope Francis prays ‘Thy Kingdom Come’:

Day Seven:

Faith on a different frontline.

Christian Armed Service workers share about the power of faith on the frontline and how it sustains them through difficult times.

Day Six: The power of prayer.

Methodist Youth president, Thelma Commey reflects on God’s love through praying and serving others.

Day Five: Watch Eye Can Talk author Jonathan Bryan reflect on what it means to offer our lives to God irrespective of our circumstances.

Day Four and a moving story about the life-giving, transforming, rescuing power of Jesus, with us in real darkness, in light and in everything:

Day Three and two videos. In the first, Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church talks about giving thanks and in the second emergency workers talk about prayer:

Day Two, focuses on praise and a new hymn for Thy Kingdom Come:

Day one of Thy Kingdom Come:

Ascension Day, Bible, Children and Youth, News Releases

Look up to the sky for Ascension Day

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Next Thursday (May 21), we will be celebrating Ascension Day online with a special service for all ages which will be available on this website from 7.30pm.

Ascension Day is a Christian festival which takes place 40 days after Easter Sunday, and which celebrates the story of Jesus ascending to heaven as told in the Bible in the book of Acts, Chapter 1.

The service will incorporate many of the elements which will be familiar to followers of the parish – hymns on fiddle, double bass and keyboard, photos of members of the church looking up to the sky (they may even be wearing tea towels on their heads in time-honoured fashion), prayers, a story about the impact of Jesus on the life of his disciples and a talk about the impact he still has. There will be contributions from people from all across the parish.

We do still need a bit of help though. Can you pop a tea towel or scarf on your own head and transport yourself back 2,000 years to the time just after Jesus died and rose again? Imagine you are one of the disciples and you are with Jesus when he ascends to heaven. Look up to the sky and take a selfie.

Maxine Everitt, who is organising the service along with Kris Lawrence, explains a bit more: “We would like you to imagine what it would have been like to watch Jesus ascend into heaven; the tea towel or scarf is to help you get into character.

“What would you be thinking? Can you capture that in an expression? Individuals, couples and families including youngsters would be great too –  Please!”

Once you have taken your selfie, send it to Alan, then join us here on Thursday, May 21, from 7.30pm or on Facebook.

 

Coronavirus, St George's Church

Share Farnham community store now open

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The new Share Farnham community store opened on Tuesday, May 12 and will be open Monday to Friday, from 10am to noon, at Hale Community Centre, GU9 0JH, and Farnham Maltings, GU9 7QR.

Share Farnham is full of free-to-borrow activities and equipment to help keep you busy and active and has been stocked thanks to the generosity of local people who have donated scores of books, games, puzzles, DVDs, toys and craft activities. Those who dropped off their donations at St George’s Church Hall have accounted for five tables’ worth of items, so thank you so much!

How to borrow

Simply visit the store at either venue between 10am and 12pm Monday to Friday, or if you cannot because you are shielding or self-isolating at home, please call the Farnham Coronavirus Helpline helpline on 01252 745446.

How to donate items

More donations are welcome and can be dropped at the Farnham Maltings or Hale Community Centre during store opening hours.

Share Farnham donations 1Share Farnham donations 2

Some of the donations at the Hale Community Centre.

 

Pictured top: Enjoy puzzles and games. Picture by Debby Hudson on Unsplash.

Health and Wholeness, Pastoral Care, Psychology

Additional grief in lockdown

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There is an interesting article about the additional problems of dealing with grief in lockdown on the BBC News website, and tonight (Tuesday, May 10), Rio Ferdinand talks about how he and his children have coped with the grief of losing his wife, their mother, from cancer. You can see Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad at 11.45pm on BBC1.

The increased effects of grief at this time is something that Wendy Edwards, Licensed Lay Minister in the parish, has been considering and she shares her thoughts below:

What I think may be happening for some people, maybe quite a few people, who are grieving the death of a loved one, is that extended periods spent in your own home, often with reminders of your loved one all around you and an inability to have the normal tactile comfort of cuddling or kissing your other family members due to lockdown, are increasing your sense of loss and sadness.

This makes perfect sense in psychological terms but is difficult to experience. You may like to know about this if you wonder why you are struggling more with grief, if you are  – and you may not be, we are all different.

Grief is felt not just when a loved one dies. It is also felt in all sorts of other circumstances. These are all causes for grieving in older adults just now: –

  • Loss of mobility or worsening senses of hearing, eyesight, taste etc or worsening health generally – you grieve for your mobile self or your healthy, hearing, seeing self;
  • Pain- you have lost your pain-free self and you grieve for pain-free days which you did not realise you needed to appreciate as pain -free!
  • Loss of a job or role in life, homemaker, breadwinner, carer of your loved one all cause grief, if you do not have these roles any more;
  • Separation from family members for other reasons, maybe due to distance or disputes or arguments – you have lost the happy close connection you once had with them and there is real grief to work through;
  • Ageing – none of us can stop the passage of time and we can all grieve for our seemingly lost younger selves (I think we contain all the ages we have ever been);
  • Inability in lockdown to see your friends and family, to hold or kiss them;
  • Inability to escape the confinement of your home or the confinement of your grief.

The list could go on, but I hope you see my point. If you are getting on with things and keeping busy, as many of you are, that’s great. Your grief may be held at bay for a while, but it will likely surface at unexpected moments.

Grief can be held down but, like a jack-in-the-box whose lid has been held down, it can spring up when you least expect it. It takes energy to hold grief down and when it is released (hopefully in tears but not all of us can cry) there is healing in tears.  We may feel anger or frustration, remorse, or guilt in grief too, or any human feeling really.

At these times, if you are suffering, please do not despair. We all have increased grief in the lockdown and those who have lost a loved one will be feeling it worse. It will pass in time. It can take three to five years to heal from the worst of grief over the death of a close family member and sometimes longer. Some losses are more painful for different reasons. It is no cause for shame or concern if your grief is taking longer or feels worse now.

Reach out as much as you feel comfortable to trusted friends or family and your support network. Or indeed reach out to your GP also, if you feel you need to. They are available for consultation regarding emotional, mental, or physical health matters, over the telephone or online. Or contact Alan or Lesley Crawley, join rectors of the parish, on 01252 820537 or revd.alan@badshotleaandhale.org or
revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org

With all good wishes, Wendy Edwards LLM

Events, Inclusion

VE Day

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Today we commemorate the end of World War II in Europe, 75 years ago, the end of almost six dark years of a war against a fascist ideology which sought to destroy all freedom and which denied the God-given beauty and equality of all people.

As we remember, let us vow never to let it happen again.

Join us here for a VE Day service on Sunday, from 9.30am.

Health and Wholeness

Tips for giving cheerfully

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God loves a cheerful giver

A scriptural quote which helps me when I overwork, which I first saw on a church Gift Aid envelope, is ‘The Lord loves a cheerful giver’, but a bit more of the passage is more instructive.

2 Corinthians 9.6-7 (NIV): 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

It is easy to just think of the first sentence about bountiful sowing bringing bountiful rewards as, probably, we all want to do that, but the two sentences are juxtaposed for a reason, I believe. They are, for me, an encouragement towards generous giving but also a warning against giving compulsively or reluctantly.

When I have been over busy in my ministry, I need to ask myself – if I can discipline myself to stop long enough, even to ask! – these questions: –

Am I cheerful in my giving in ministry right now?

If the answer is ‘No’ or ‘Not Very’  or ‘I am downright grumpy about doing one more thing for my parish’, I need to look at the start of that sentence: ‘Each of you  should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion’.

Am I acting under compulsion, believing I have no choices?  I always have choices, even if it is just over my attitude.

Am I making thoughtful decisions about giving or just doing what I think I must do?

Is this giving coming from my abundantly grateful and Spirit- filled heart or is this coming from a depleted spiritual bank?

Am I doing this because I think that if I do not do it, no-one will?

Is this energy I am expending in ministry, energy which I can afford or is it draining an empty tank?

Do I have enough energy left for my nearest and dearest?

Am I reluctant to continue because I am exhausted, if I can be truly honest with myself?

The Old Testament also has something to say to me: Isaiah 30.15 (NIV):
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.”

Those of us (including me) who overwork, do identify with those last seven words ‘but you would have none of it’ when we are in full flow of overwork. Repenting our overworking ways is anathema to us at these times.

Rest seems the thing we must not take, forgetting entirely that God works mightily while we rest and that we are saved by faith and trust in God and not by works.

Quietness, whether of ourselves, bodily, mentally, spiritually, emotionally or quietness of our mobile ‘phones, laptops, computers, iPads, headphones or telephones seems an impossibility for us at times.

Trust. Aye, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare said. Can we trust anyone else to pick up jobs we have not done, to pray prayers we have forgotten to pray, to care for those we have not cared for?

Yes, we most assuredly, can. God, who will never leave us nor forsake us, will never leave nor forsake others either and can be trusted to do (or even to leave alone) all these things and more. God, through Christ Jesus, the Son, may decide: –

  • to do things differently
  • to do things at a different speed than I would have done them or
  • to not do anything at all  – I always forget that one

And maybe, just maybe, the outcome will be a teensy-weensy bit better than I could ever hope for or imagine.  Maybe then I will also get round to doing other things, which only I can do for myself, which I never have time for.  It’s not only God who loves a cheerful giver. I love myself much better when I am cheerful in my giving and my nearest and dearest like it better that way also.

 

Wendy Edwards, Licensed Lay Minister