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

Sunday Worship – 14th June

2 Comments

Hello and welcome. Below are the services, and four sermons. In addition, one of the sermons is about the shape of the church of the future. You can listen to Pamela, Simon, Bob, Maxine and Stella on that subject here. First here are the notices:

Notices

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. I have updated the Children’s Page with Jacqui Searle’s assembly.

Favourite hymns We will be including in the services a “Favourite Hymn” slot for anyone who would like to take part – if you have a favourite hymn then please video yourself explaining why it is meaningful to you and send it to Lesley or Alan.

Happy Birthday

We have two big birthdays to celebrate this week:

Sylvie is 80 today – 14th June and we are having her favourite hymn – Great is thy Faithfulness

Diana is 90 on 17th June

Happy Birthday!

Join the Lockdown Art Club

Resources

Here are the resources for adults at home this week.

Here are the resources for families at home this week.

Services

We now  have two Sunday morning services – an all-age one and a more traditional one:

All-Age:

More Traditional:

Sermons

All- Age drama from Stella: 

Lesley and Alan’s reflection with vox pops from others:

John Evan’s Friday Service Sermon

Bishop Jo’s Sermon:

 

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. I have updated the Children’s Page with Jacqui Searle’s assembly.

Favourite hymns We will be including in the services a “Favourite Hymn” slot for anyone who would like to take part – if you have a favourite hymn then please video yourself explaining why it is meaningful to you and send it to Lesley or Alan.

Happy Birthday

We have two big birthdays to celebrate this week:

Sylvie is 80 today – 14th June and we are having her favourite hymn – Great is thy Faithfulness

Diana is 90 on 17th June

Happy Birthday!

Join the Lockdown Art Club

Resources

Here are the resources for adults at home this week.

Here are the resources for families at home this week.

Services

We now  have two Sunday morning services – an all-age one and a more traditional one:

All-Age:

More Traditional:

Sermons

All- Age drama from Stella: 

Lesley and Alan’s reflection with vox pops from others:

John Evan’s Friday Service Sermon

Bishop Jo’s Sermon:

 

Coronavirus, News Releases

Interfaith friendship and facemasks

Leave a comment

We now have some cloth face masks for people in the parish, thanks to the work and generosity of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women’s Association, Lajna Ima’illah UK, in response to the health threat posed by Covid-19.

The churches and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which has its central mosque in Tilford, have been developing close links over the past year and we support each other where we can, so when Lajna UK contacted us last month to ask if we would like face masks we eagerly said yes. If you would like one, let us know.

“Our friends in Lajna UK have been so very generous in giving these masks to us,” says Lesley Crawley. “We are delighted to be continuing to build links with the Ahmadiyya Muslims who have a great heart for the community. We worship a loving God and follow many of the same values, in particular that of love for all people. Thank you again to our sisters from the local Lajna UK and we look forward to spending more time with you after lockdown.”

Ismat Sana, the Aldershot president of the Ahmaddiya Women’s Association, says: “Covid-19 is a new experience and we realised that there was a shortfall in PPE for those that needed it the most. Humanitarian work is massively important to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community as a whole and something our Women’s Association, Lajna UK, is already passionate about, so we decided to purchase materials and make PPE as a way of assisting our hardworking local community members.”

The Aldershot branch of Lajna UK will be taking part in the Farnham Flower Festival which you will be able to find on this website over the weekend of June 27-28.

If you would like a face mask would you also be willing to video yourself catching a face mask and then throwing it on to the next person? Here Stella Wiseman is caught on camera maintaining social distancing while delivering a mask to Bob Shatwell. Video yourself and send the results to revd.alan@badshotleaandhale.org. Thanks!

Art, Events, music, News Releases, St John's Church

Flower Festival goes online

1 Comment

Our Flower Festival is going online this year and you will be able to find it here on the website over the weekend of June 27-28, with the theme of A Celebration of Summer Flowers.

Last year’s inaugural Farnham Flower Festival was held at St John’s Church, and another was planned there for this year but lockdown put paid to that. Nothing daunted, we are taking the festival online and have invited the whole community to get involved – schools, community groups, churches and other faith groups, businesses, artists, craftspeople, individuals, and even two local gin companies which use flowers in their gins. Farnham Town Council is also submitting an entry to what promises to be a colourful and uplifting celebration.

We will be displaying photographs and videos of wonderful displays of flowers and floral art and craft. There will be music too and we know it is going to be a lovely weekend of colour reflecting the creative gifts of our community.

It’s not too late to get involved. If you would like to submit a picture or video of a floral display or a piece of floral art or craft, send it to us before the end of Monday, June 22. If you join our Lockdown Art Club, don’t forget the theme is flowers and we’d love your art too. Then visit us online over the weekend of June 27-28.

Pictured: Floral display from Therapies Through Nature which takes place at Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice. Therapies Through Nature is taking part in the festival.

Art, News Releases, St Mark's Church

Join the Lockdown Art Club!

7 Comments

Move over Grayson Perry – there’s a new art club in town. We are launching a Lockdown Art Club to encourage people to have a go at art and enjoy the creative process, whether or not they feel they have artistic skills.

Inspired in part by the joy and creativity evident in the Channel 4 programme Grayson’s Art Club, the Lockdown Art Club is open to everyone and will have a new theme each month. It is being run by Lesley Crawley and Dave Walker who, with his wife Helena before lockdown staged local art exhibitions and organised art activities at St Mark’s.

“The art club is a chance for people to have a go at art and then they can send us some photos of their work which we can display online,” says Lesley. “There will be a new theme each month and for June it is flowers. Maybe you’d like to draw or paint a view of flowers which you can see from your window, or perhaps a flower which represents your feelings about lockdown.

“Send pictures of your art to me (revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org) and we can put them online. We are having a flower festival online at the end of the month and we can include the June pictures in that. Then, after lockdown, Dave will hold an exhibition at St Mark’s of some favourite pieces of work from across the months.”

Everyone is invited to take part, whatever age or background, whether or not they have ever tried to create art, and Dave and Lesley are at pains to stress that the finished pieces do not have to be perfect. “There is a lot of evidence now that art is good for our mental wellbeing, and many of us have struggled with our mental health during lockdown,” says Lesley. “We really want to encourage people just to have a go, and to remember that if a piece doesn’t work out exactly as we think it should, that is OK. The imperfections represent a bit of us in that artwork.”

Anyone wanting to contribute flower art to the flower festival, which will be on the website on June 27-28, should send their pictures to Lesley by Monday, June 22. Otherwise art pictures for the club are welcome at any time.

Services

Sunday Worship – 7th June

Leave a comment

Happy Trinity Sunday! This is the day when we celebrate the doctrine of the Trinity, the three Persons of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Below are the resources for this week, the Sunday morning services and four sermons, but first the notices:

Notices

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.

I have updated the Children’s Page with an Adventurer’s Video – The Story of Joseph part 2.

Jean Probert’s funeral will be streamed online on 9th June at 2pm. Please let Lesley know if you would like to be able to watch that and she will give you the details.

Favourite hymns

On 10th June we are having a special service, members of our community including our MP and Mayor will be choosing their favourite hymns and will be saying why they love the hymns.

Then from 14th June we will be including in the services a “Favourite Hymn” slot for anyone who would like to take part – if you have a favourite hymn then please video yourself explaining why it is meaningful to you and send it to Lesley or Alan.

Happy Birthday

It is Glad’s birthday – Happy Birthday!

Resources

Here are the resources for adults at home this week.

Here are the resources for families at home this week.

Services

We now  have two Sunday morning services – an all-age one and a more traditional one:

All-Age:

More Traditional:

Sermons

All- Age from Alan:

Lesley’s reflection on Rublev’s icon of the Trinity

John Innes’s Friday Service Sermon

Bishop Andrew’s Sermon:

 

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.

I have updated the Children’s Page with an Adventurer’s Video – The Story of Joseph part 2.

Jean Probert’s funeral will be streamed online on 9th June at 2pm. Please let Lesley know if you would like to be able to watch that and she will give you the details.

Favourite hymns

On 10th June we are having a special service, members of our community including our MP and Mayor will be choosing their favourite hymns and will be saying why they love the hymns.

Then from 14th June we will be including in the services a “Favourite Hymn” slot for anyone who would like to take part – if you have a favourite hymn then please video yourself explaining why it is meaningful to you and send it to Lesley or Alan.

Happy Birthday

It is Glad’s birthday – Happy Birthday!

Resources

Here are the resources for adults at home this week.

Here are the resources for families at home this week.

Services

We now  have two Sunday morning services – an all-age one and a more traditional one:

All-Age:

More Traditional:

Sermons

All- Age from Alan:

Lesley’s reflection on Rublev’s icon of the Trinity

John Innes’s Friday Service Sermon

Bishop Andrew’s Sermon:

 

Belief, Coronavirus, Psychology

The Benefits of Meeting in Person

Leave a comment

I have heard a number of people saying how wonderful it is that life has carried on as it has, and how once this is all over (all is a long way away) we don’t need to travel as much as we can do all our meetings by Zoom (other video conferencing apps exist).

I want to challenge this. I believe that we have been able to do it so far because we are living off relationships which already exist. I know there are stories of couples dating on Zoom and then getting together, but I believe that there is a fundamental difference between meeting with someone online who you already know, and forming a new relationship in that way.

This applies to both personal relationships as well as professional ones. The personal ones are perhaps more obvious with the obvious lack of touch, but I believe the professional ones also need physical presence, at least some of the time.

For example, my daughter is returning to work next week after maternity leave, and will be working from home for the foreseeable future. She will be managing staff she has never met before, as well as those she managed before she was off. There is no doubt in her mind that the former will be much harder.

Another issue that I foresee, although one which might now be a fact of life, is the “small stuff”. Twenty years ago the company I then worked for tried out video conferencing, and it did save a significant amount of travelling. However, personally I missed the conversations that took place because I was physically with someone, conversations that weren’t worth making an effort to have, but which when we were face to face cropped up. They were the times I discovered how well our service was working – it might have been well enough not to be complained about – but there were issues which if not addressed would come back to bite us. Similarly, when visiting a site I would speak to lots of different people; video conferencing it would just be the person on the call.

So, yes, when this is over lets look to change things, but please let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater and lose the personal interaction.

Serving the Villages North of Farnham: Badshot Lea, Hale, Heath End & Weybourne