All posts by Administrator

Ascension Day, Bible, Children and Youth, News Releases

Look up to the sky for Ascension Day

Leave a comment

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

1 Comment

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

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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

Leave a comment

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

Coronavirus, Services

VE Day Service online

Leave a comment

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.

 

 

 

Coronavirus, St George's Church

Donate to Share Farnham at St George’s

Leave a comment

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.

 

 

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood, Canva

 

Art, Children and Youth, Coronavirus, Schools

Thanks and reflection

Leave a comment

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.”

Coronavirus, Events, News Releases

Join the Quiz Night!

Leave a comment

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.