Welcome to Advent – the beginning of the Church’s year and the last month of 2025.
And that means Christmas! Inside the magazine you will find news of all our Christmas services and other events, including our Christmas Tree Festival on December 5-7, and of course carol services and outdoor carol singing and Christmas services. It is a most wonderful time of the year, because it celebrates God in human form, God ever with us.
You’ll find other news such as the start of Bubble Church, and our regular contributors too – Hive Helpers, still busy in the winter months; The Badshot Leader with its eclectic and fascinating mix of current events and history; the Church Dog and the Church Cat. There’s prayer, reflection, news and plenty more.
As we move towards Christmas we celebrate with carols sung both in church and outside, and on Christmas Eve we hold crib services at all three churches (two crib services at St George’s!) and then Midnight Mass beginning at 11.30pm in St George’s and St John’s.
We then celebrate the wonderful news of the incarnation of God on Christmas morning in all three churches.
Here are the special services in December:
Carols
Sunday, December 8th, 6pm at St John’s. Sunday, December 15th, 6pm at St George’s. Friday, December 20th, 6pm at Hale Chapels (cemetery, Alma Lane), followed by refreshments at St Mark’s. Monday, December 23rd, 6pm around the tree at St George’s.
Crib Services
All Tuesday, December 24th. Come dressed as your favourite Nativity character.
3pm: St John’s. 3pm: St George’s especially for toddlers. 5pm: St Mark’s. 5.30pm: St George’s.
Midnight Mass
Tuesday, December 24th, 11.30pm, at St John’s and St George’s.
Christmas morning
9.30am, St John’s. 10am, St George’s. 11am, St Mark’s.
We are just about to enter Advent, a time of awaiting the coming of God in human form, a time of longing for something better, the promise of a new start.
This is often forgotten in the rush towards Christmas, in the frantic shopping and worrying about how we are going to afford the presents we feel our families deserve, or the feast we believe we should spread on our tables. We are caught up, too, in the excitement of sparkling lights, carols sung, mulled wine and mince pies consumed, and the annual game of Whammagedon.
If that is how you feel and you don’t like it, pause for a moment, switch off the radio (you may be about to hear Wham’s Last Christmas in any case, especially if you click on the link I’ve just added!) and reflect on Advent.
Advent is the beginning of the Church’s year and is a time of preparing for the coming of Christ. It starts four Sundays before Christmas which, this year, is December 1 and, as it takes place at the darkest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, reminds us of the need for light. Each Sunday in many churches a different candle is lit, with varying understandings of what each one represents, depending on tradition (anything from the Patriarchs to hope to prophecy) but all pointing to one thing, the coming of Christ, the manifestation of God’s extraordinary, redeeming, overwhelming love.
It also points to the margins of our society, because the Gospels tell of God coming into the world in human form as a refugee, a member of an oppressed culture, not someone most of us would welcome or worship. God is there at the margins as well as in the respectable places of the world. And God holds out hope and love to all.
We are approaching the end of Advent and the time is drawing near when we will greet God in human form – Jesus, born into poverty in an occupied land, part of a family forced to flee as refugees into another country, a baby who grew up to offer us the light of God’s love then, now and through all time.
Craig Nobbs, Licensed Lay Minister in the parish, has created a series of Advent Reflections which you can listen to here.
The December and January magazine is out now, bringing you up-to-date with news and events in the parish, plus seasonal reflections and prayer, sources of help over the winter, and information on local groups and businesses.
There is a list of services over Christmas – please do join us – the background to Epiphany, Christingles, a Snowman Drive, events and lots more. Click on the link to download it below.
And don’t forget to let us have your news and articles. This is your magazine!
Wishing you a joyful Christmas and a blessed 2023.
Family service, with carols, for all ages – December 4th, 4pm
Come to our family service on Sunday, December 4th at 4pm at St John’s, and help us create an Advent wreath, and sing Christmas carols.
All ages are welcome at the service – not just families with children – and we need your help to create the wreath. There will be carols and prayers and it will be followed by sandwiches and cakes (see the picture below…)
This Advent, Craig Nobbs, an LLM in the parish, is running a series of Advent Reflections, starting with a Quiet Morning on Saturday, November 26th, from 9am until noon in the Sumner Room at St John’s, and continuing with drop-in sessions at St George’s on Thursdays in Advent from 6.30-8pm.
The Quiet Morning will start with a short act of morning prayer, followed by two or three short readings and reflections, plus time to stop and listen. You can slip in and out quietly if you can’t be there for the whole time.
On the Thursday evenings Craig will be in St George’s Church from 6.30-8pm and will offer an Advent Quiet Time interspersed with prayers and readings every 15 minutes or so. This makes it possible to come even if for a short time, and leave when you wish.
Craig says: “It’s healthy to take time out to stop and think about what Advent might reveal to us as individuals and potentially, as a church. Advent can be about listening and waiting for God to show something of himself to us, however brief. So, how do we wait for God? I’m providing some opportunities to help you take time out and hopefully rediscover how we begin to do so in what are busy times.”
Join us this Sunday (December 6), in church or online, for a Christingle service.
Christingles are a tradition where 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. The word comes from the German word ‘Christkindl’, meaning ‘Little Christ Child’. You can find out more here.
The Christingle service in church will be at St Mark’s, Alma Lane, at 11am.
If you can’t come to the service, you can join in our online Christingle service which will be here at 10.30am, and if you want to make a Christingle, you will need an orange, red tape or ribbon, four cocktail sticks, some dried fruit or sweets, a piece of silver foil and a candle. You might also find a knife and a wooden spoon useful.
Every day the members of the Nativity story are making their way around the parish, through Badshot Lea, Weybourne, Heath End, Hale and back again. Where are they?
Day 25:
The friends arrive at their final destination. Tired, a little footsore but happy, they gather round and give thanks for the whole reason that they undertook the journey – the birth of the baby Jesus.
Mary leads them in singing Joy to the World, and the baby Jesus smiles.
Day 24:
The shepherds take the sheep off for some extra grazing. Shepherd 2: “Look girls! A place to call home.” Sheep: “Baaaaa!” Some of them even do a little skip for joy as if they were young lambs again. Life is good, life is hopeful.
Day 23:
Even Mary is tempted to ask ‘are we nearly there yet?” but like women the world over she just gets on with it. Sometimes she wonders if that is a good thing to do and resolves to chat to her cousin Elizabeth about it, once both their children are older. In the meantime they seek refuge in the grounds of a large house with a smiling man and woman. There are also three young men there. They are quite noisy. Mary suspects that the men she is travelling with were once like that. She suspects her son will be too. She smiles.
Day 22:
The friends arrive at a large building which looks like it has an interesting history. Shepherd 2: “My grandparents used to pick hops and dry them in a place like this.” King 1: “Hold on. I’ll have a look on my phone. See what I can find out.” Mary: “Do you use the sat nav on that? Only, you said you navigated by the stars.” King 2: “He was give a phone for his birthday and insisted on trying it out.”
Day 21:
The friends have been travelling for three weeks now and it has been a long way on little feet. Thankfully there are local shops to help them on their way. Mary: “Doughnuts! I want doughnuts.” Joseph: “Do you think they are nutritio…” Catches sight of Mary’s expression… “Of course darling.”
Day 20:
Shepherd 2: “What are all those pretty red flowers over there?” Sheep: “Flowers? Where? Let us at them.”
Day 19:
Another day on the road, another need to stop for refreshments.
Shepherd 1: “Are the pubs still open then?” Mary: “Yes, we’ve just scraped into Tier 2.” Joseph: “Well that’s a miracle!”
Day 18:
King 4: “Are we nearly there yet?” Mary: “Not far. Let’s play a game to keep our spirits up. I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…. C.” King 2: “Cow!” Shepherd 2: “I’ve told you before – they are sheep.” King 2: “Of course, sorry, um camel?”
Day 17:
The friends come across a big house. King 1: “Just like my place back at home.” King 2: “He wishes, he’s got a semi in North Camp.” Shepherd 2: “I thought you lot came from the East.” King 1: “Well, it’s a little bit to the east…”
Day 16:
Joseph: “Are you sure that this is the right way in?” Shepherd 1: “It’s all about social distancing – you can’t go in the same way as you go out.” Joseph: “Yes, but the window…?” Sheep: “Flowers. Yum!”
Day 15:
Mary: “That looks like a lovely school for when he’s finished at that first little school down the road.”
Joseph sighs but then he catches sight of Mary’s expression.
Joseph: “Ok, OK, make a note of the telephone number and I’ll give them a call.” (Mutters under breath: “But he’s only a baby!”)
Day 14:
The friends stop off for a rest again. The Kings are rather keen on the idea of the café but the Shepherds have spotted the word ‘pets’ and wonder if there is any hay available for the sheep.
Baby Jesus likes the idea of small pets like rabbits.
Day 13:
Mary: “Come on boys, all together now… ‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed…’
Day 12:
The friends spot a local watering hole. Mary has to explain to them that they will need a substantial meal if they want a drink too.
She adds: “And I definitely need a substantial meal and a nice glass of water. I’ve got to keep the little one fed.”
Day 11:
Shepherd 1: “Did anyone remember to bring a football? That’s a great field over there.”
Small pause while everyone looks.
Then:
King 3: “Hey! That’s my hat! It’s pure silk! Gerroff!”
Day 10:
Joseph: “There’s only one top lady for me – that’s you Mary.” Mary: “You daft old softie!”
Day 9:
Mary: “I wonder if our little lad would like to go to that lovely looking school over there?” Joseph (thinks): “He’s just a baby, surely he’ll never be big enough to go to school.”
Day 8:
Time for a drop of refreshment. Shepherd 1: “Do you think they serve Shepherd’s Neame?”
Day 7:
After a week on the road the friends are wondering whether it would be sensible to catch a train. King 2: “Has anyone got a friends and family railcard?” Shepherd 1: “Do you think the sheep will be allowed?” Mary: “Will you lot stop talking and let me check the timetable.”
Day 6:
The Knitivity friends are grateful for something to rest on after a day’s walk. Joseph: “I must make a note of this in my log book. Boom! Boom!” The shepherds and kings all laugh. Mary: “Men, eh!”
Day 5:
Summoned by bells – the Knitivity characters stop for a rest somewhere in Hale.
Day 4:
Watch out! There’s a Knitivity about. Please drive slowly.
Day 3:
King 1: “Do you think the Co-Op sells camel food?”
Shepherd 2: “I don’t know but at least you are already wearing masks to go in there and ask”.
Day 2:
Sing all together now:
On the second day of Advent the shepherds said ‘oh dear, I think we are low on petrol’ .
Day 1:
King 2: “It’s warm and dry in here but it might be cold and wet out there.”
Mary: “I know but we have an important journey to go on. Be brave brother.”
Serving the Villages North of Farnham: Badshot Lea, Hale, Heath End & Weybourne
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 