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.
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: –
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
We will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of VE Day this Sunday (May 10) with an online service of music and memories of wide appeal for all, and on the website from 9.30am.
Led by Wendy Edwards, Licensed Lay Minister, the gathering includes a Gospel reading by Lance Corporal Bibbings of The Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment, Farnham; music from wartime by members of TS Swiftsure, Badshot Lea; and a thought-provoking World War II evacuation memory from Hazel Edwards, Wendy’s mother-in-law. Wendy makes comparisons between World War II and the coronavirus emergency. She draws hope, comfort and and wisdom from both these times of enormous personal and national challenge and ends the short service with prayers for peace.
Lesley Crawley reflects on the service: “It is 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe and it is fitting to remember the sacrifices made by so many people in defence of freedom. Obviously, our celebrations this year are rather different from what we might expect and perhaps the memory of those sacrifices is made all the more poignant by taking place in these difficult times. Do join us online from 9.30am on Sunday.”
The link to the service on Sunday will be here.
St George’s Church Hall will be open from Monday to Thursday this week, from 10am-noon, to receive donations for Share Farnham.
Share Farnham is a community store of free activities and equipment to help keep you busy and active and it will open this month, but first donations are needed.
The store needs clean, quality objects in good condition and working order and suggested items to donate include puzzles and board games (complete sets), books (less than three years old), musical instruments (playable condition), garden games, sheet music, craft items (eg knitting patterns, cross stitch), DVDs, toys (no soft toys), exercise equipment and cookery equipment (eg pasta makers). No electrical or petrol-powered equipment please.
Please bring your donations and place them on the table provided. Please observe all social distancing requirements.
Once there are enough donations the store will be open in two places – Farnham Maltings and Hale Community Centre. It will be open to all, and you will be able to borrow items, free of charge, for a period of three weeks.
As well as St George’s, items can be dropped this Monday to Thursday at Farnham Maltings and Hale Community Centre between 10am and noon, and at The Bear and Ragged Staff pub (48 The Street, Wrecclesham) between 2pm and 4pm.
The service of thanksgiving and prayer for the NHS and other frontline workers has been hugely welcomed and reflected the gratitude and creativity of our community as well as the importance of prayer for many of us (online searches for information about prayer have skyrocketed since the outbreak of Coronavirus began).
Our thanks to the masses of people who were involved in the service which Alan and Lesley put together: Farnham Heath End School; the Scouts; people across the community who sent in beautiful rainbows and other works; keyworkers who allowed themselves to be photographed and the pictures shown as Olivia Jasper sang Amazing Grace; church members; the Mayor of Farnham, Pat Evans; and local MP, Jeremy Hunt.
Lesley Crawley reflected on the service: “I have been bowled over by the gratitude of others for this service and I hope it is enabling others to take their thoughts and anxieties and feelings of gratitude and turn them into prayers. For me, I find prayer always helps; it always makes me feel more peaceful and bit by bit it makes me a better version of myself. In the case of a nation praying it gives us a helpful and even hopeful way of expressing our concerns and worries and also a way of focussing on the good and being grateful for that.”
We’re holding a Zoom Quiz Night on Saturday, May 2, at 7.30pm, and everyone is invited.
The Wiseman-Eggleton household (aka the Wise-Eggs) are organising the quiz and there will be a number of rounds on lots of different topics, with breaks for snacks and drinks, and you’ll need to be able to email your answers in. You can be a team on your own, or in a household, or get together over the phone with some friends. We suggest teams of no more than six.
You’ll need Zoom but it’s easy to download and use and there is information on how to do so here.
The quiz is free to join though there will be an opportunity to make donations to support the church’s work in the community.
Anyone who would like to join in should contact Stella Wiseman on 07842 761919 or news@badshotleaandhale.org and she will send a link to the quiz night nearer the time.
Is your birthday coming up or have you had a birthday in the last week? If so, let us know and we can sing happy birthday to you!
It’s a tradition at our churches to sing happy birthday near the end of a church service to anyone celebrating around the time. Now that we can’t meet physically that doesn’t mean we have to stop!
Just let Alan know if it’s your birthday around now and enjoy the birthday wishes as part of the Sunday service.
We will be holding an online church service to say thanks for and pray for the NHS, carers and other frontline workers, on Thursday, April 30, from 7pm.
The service will include readings, music and prayers, including one read by local MP and former Cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt, and another read by Cllr Pat Evans, Mayor of Farnham, along with pictures of artwork, videos and pictures of key workers.
Lesley Crawley explained the thinking behind the service: “We are living in extraordinary times, like nothing any of us have experienced before. As we navigate our way through them we want to seek God’s guidance and strength, particularly for those who are suffering and those who are working on the frontline in hospitals and care settings, and other key workers who are keeping the country going. And we want to give thanks for everyone who is working so hard across the world and in our own community.
“If anyone would like to offer us some art – especially rainbows – or photos of keyworkers, or if there are children who would like to be videoed saying a prayer, please do get in touch. Send contributions to Alan as soon as you can and certainly by the end of Sunday, April 26th.
“And do join us here on the website on Thursday 30th, from 7pm, to pray and give thanks.” The service will be available on the website from that time here.
If you need guidance for sending in your contributions, click here.
We are joining in the national efforts to make scrubs for the NHS and we need your help!
Doctors and nurses at our hospitals are running short of scrubs – the plain clothes they wear when caring for patients – so volunteers are getting out their sewing machines and making them, while others are donating material, including old duvet covers, pillowcases, sheets and tablecloths. The scrubs are then being sent to Frimley Park Hospital by representatives of the group ‘Scrub Hub – Making Scrubs for Frimley Park Hospital’.
Anne Young from the parish has made her porch in Badshot Lea the collecting point for both donated material and completed scrubs. She is also emailing out instructions and patterns to anyone who would like them. A representative of the Scrub Hub group is then picking them up on an almost daily basis.
Anne said: “People can come and pick up material from my porch – or drop it off there – and when they have made the items they need to wash them at 60 degrees, dry them and put them in a bag with the date on them, then leave them in my porch. The person who picks them up then keeps them for at least three days to ensure that there is no risk of the virus being on them, then takes them to Frimley Park.
“They can be made of any material as long as it is suitable for washing at 60 degrees and nothing has to match. I’ve heard there are doctors wearing tops with pineapples on them and trousers with meerkats! Pillowcases are particularly good for making the bags. The only thing is please don’t use elastic as they are washed so often at a high temperature that they don’t last.”
Anne will send out instructions and details of where pick up and drop off the material and scrubs to anyone who can help. To offer help, or for further information, contact Stella Wiseman and she will put you in touch with Anne.
When we look back on 2020, what will we reflect? Will it have been a strange blip in time which will have caused some people untold grief and given some a new direction, but which most will have soon forgotten as they go back to the old ways, to the system which we knew as normal? Will we be caught up in the busyness of life and all its joys and its troubles and the pandemic be like some strange dream?
Or will something have changed?
Do we want it to change?
According to one survey, 91% of us want change.
In today’s sermon, Lesley speaks about the jolt which the disciple Thomas had when he met the risen Christ. She then quotes from speaker and author Charles Eisenstein who suggests that Covid-19 is “like a rehab intervention that breaks the addictive hold of normality”. He adds: “When the crisis subsides, we might have occasion to ask whether we want to return to normal, or whether there might be something we’ve seen during this break in the routines that we want to bring into the future”.
We have made huge changes in how we do things in this lockdown. But what do we want in the future? What do we want for society? For church? What hopes do we have which are true hopes, not just some wishful thinking?
Can we have a discussion about this?
Please do comment on this blog post and on Facebook and Twitter to let us know what you think.
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 