This evening’s BCP Evening Prayer
Epiphany Season Services – 24th January
Today we are celebrating the second Third of Epiphany. Below are the services. First here are the notices:
Notices
Giving
Please Give to our Ministry This church relies on donations to provide care and support to everyone in this community. Now more than ever, please consider giving generously to support our mission and ministry by clicking the button above. Thank you for your support.Lockdown Poems
We would love to hear your lockdown poems and to use them in our services. Some examples can be found here – https://badshotleaandhale.org/2021/01/14/lockdown-poems/ Please get writing and tell us how the lockdown has felt for you!Services
All-Age:
More Traditional:
The Farnham Lockdown Poetry Festival
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.
Candlemas
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.
Top picture by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash.
Christingle at St George’s
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.
Community Support
The Farnham Helpline 01252 745446 is open from 10am until 4pm for anyone who needs help because of Covid – shopping, prescriptions etc.
Also, if you need pastoral support please let a member of the clergy know. Alan and Lesley can be contacted on 01252 820537 or by emailing:
revd.alan@badshotleaandhale.org or
revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org
You can also contact the church office:
07842 761919 or admin@badshotleaandhale.org
The NHS Volunteer Responders are active and available to support with collection of shopping and other essentials in all areas. You can call them for free on 0808 196 3646.
How can you help the Foodbank? They are generally well stocked up, but are always short of certain items which they highlight on their website. They also have posters of these specific requests at food collections points: Waitrose, Nationwide, Wine rack on Ridgeway and Co-op in Rowledge.
The Hoppa Service is still running if people are in need of transport.
Hale Community Centre is staying open for reduced hours to carry on delivering the Community Fridge & Store and the Swap Shop. They are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am-12pm.
Brightwells Community Meals are running and have the capacity to accept more clients. You can get in touch with them on communitymeals@brightwellsgostry.org.
These community meals can support those living alone, or in residential facilities, and provide a freshly cooked hot meal.
Picture by Jonathan Sanchez on Unsplash.
Spring Flowers
Have you got any bulbs coming through yet? Are your snowdrops in bloom, or early daffodils proudly displaying their yellow trumpets? Or crocuses creeping out of the ground?
Send us a picture from your garden, balcony or windowsill and we will post the best online.
Send them to Stella Wiseman, news@badshotleaandhale.org
Picture above by Ales Krivec; top picture by Pascal Debrunner. Both from Unsplash.
Lent
Next month we move into Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday, this year February 17.
Lent is that six-week period leading up to Easter, a time of reflection and prayer, a time when people often ‘give up’ something – chocolate, alcohol, social media etc – as a type of self-discipline and active reflection.
It is a solemn time but also a time of looking forward, moving from the barren darkness of winter to the new life and light of spring. This winter has been particularly dark as we have faced Covid-19 and all that this has meant, but there is hope that we are on a slow journey to light.
With this in mind, our Lent observance will focus on looking forward and looking outwards, seeing how we can grow our ministry to our community.
There will be a sermon series in the three Sunday services at the churches plus the Wednesday service at St Mark’s, and in the online Sunday Morning service. This will start on February 21. The Lent groups will also be following this theme and will meet on Zoom. They will be on Tuesdays 2.30-4pm, Wednesdays 7.30-9pm and Sundays at 1.30-2.30pm, especially for families.
Please contact Alan on 01252 820537 or revd.alan@badshotleaandhale.org to tell him you are interested in coming to Lent Groups.
If you want to follow your own Lenten reflections here are suggestions of devotional reading, courses and books.
Five year plan
Where will we be in five years?
The PCC is putting together a five-year plan to help us become stronger as a parish.
There are three strands to the plan:
- Outreach – enabling our churches to be more accessible and relevant to our communities, and making sure we are engaged fully at the heart of our communities;
- Youth – ensuring we engage with young people of all ages in our communities;
- Finance – ensuring we have a strong financial base from which to minister.
Each year we will have targets to ensure we are on track and there will be groups set up to help guide these three strands. You will hear lots more about this and if you want to help out in these areas please let me know Lesley know on 01252 820537 or revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org.
Taizé – 17th January
Tonight’s Taizé service:
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 