Our new Family Service – known as Seekers – will celebrate Harvest this Sunday (October 2nd) at 4pm at St John’s Church.
Come and join a relaxed service all about Harvest and God’s great love for us and our world. This will be followed by sandwiches and cake.
Please bring donations of tins and packets for the Food Bank.
Because of The Queen’s death we have postponed our Harvest Festival services from Sunday, September 18th to Sunday, October 9th.
On October 9th there will be services at all three churches – 9.30am at St John’s, 10am at St George’s and 10am at St Mark’s where the celebrations will start with Apple Day (apple-pressing, apple snacks, apple juice and apple-y music) followed by the Harvest Service at around 11am.
There will be collections of non-perishable food for the local Foodbank so please think of this when you are shopping.
On Saturday, October 1, there will be a Harvest Supper at St George’s for the whole parish, with supper, entertainment and a raffle, starting at 6pm. Bring your own alcohol but soft drinks will be provided. Tickets are £10 adult; £5 child (under 16).
It’s always a great evening and if you fancy taking part in the entertainment, let Kris Lawrence know by emailing her at warden.stgeorges@badshotleaandhale.org. Tickets will be available in church or from Kris at the above email address, or call Stella Wiseman on 07842 761919.
At the Harvest Supper we will be auctioning these two lovely Nativity sets, made by Michelle Chapman’s father. There is a three-piece set (four pieces if the manger and baby are separated) and a 12-piece set (13 if manger and baby are separated) All money raised will go to church funds.
Top picture by Lena Volkova on Unsplash
We will be celebrating Harvest this Sunday (October 9th) at all three churches (9.30am St John’s, 10am St George’s and 10am St Mark’s, please note the earlier start to include Apple Day) with collections of non-perishable food for Farnham Foodbank and a special Apple Day at St Mark’s too!
At St Mark’s, where there is a community orchard, there will be apple-pressing, apple pie, apple juice and apple-y music.
Harvest is a reminder of all the good things that the earth provides but it also highlights the inequality in the world and this year in particular we know many, many people are facing a financial crisis greater than we have seen for decades.
Rev’d Lesley Crawley says: “Harvest is a time when we not only celebrate the gifts of God’s earth, but think of others who are struggling to feed themselves and their families. This is a growing reality in Britain today, even though we are one of the most economically developed countries in the world. Obviously we want to give to help alleviate this need, but the church is also there to challenge and ask questions about why this should be the case and what we can do about it.”
The Foodbank is currently in need of tinned ham or minced beef; tinned carrots or peas; tinned or packet custard; UHT milk and UHT fruit juice.
Come and celebrate the fruits of the earth and share with others at our harvest festivals on Sunday, September 26.
The services are at St John’s, Hale, at 9.30am, St George’s, Badshot Lea, at 10am, and St Mark’s, Upper Hale, at 11am. There will also be an online service here on the website and on Facebook available from 10am.
Please bring non-perishable food to church to share with Farnham Foodbank. Currently the Foodbank is in desperate need of tinned hot dog sausages, tinned stewed steak, tinned minced beef and fruit jam.
Rev’d Lesley Crawley says: “Harvest is a time when we not only celebrate the gifts of God’s earth, but think of others who are struggling to feed themselves and their families. This is a growing reality in Britain today, even though we are one of the most economically developed countries in the world. Obviously we want to give to help alleviate this need, but the church is also there to challenge and ask questions about why this should be the case and what we can do about it.”
Photo by Elaine Casap.
Our September magazine has just been published full of plenty to read and discover for this coming month.
We kick off with the Autumn Fayre (on Saturday, September 4, at St John’s Church, 12-4pm) then take a look at our new monthly craft market, get ready for Harvest, meet our new Youth Minister, have a think about Living in Love and Faith, and look forward to the Confirmation service on September 19. There’s a message from Anne Young in Cornwall, a huge thank-you to Wendy Edwards who is retiring, some thoughts on the changes ahead from the Church Cat and lots more, including local businesses who advertise and support us in our work.
To read all about it, download your copy below, or if you would prefer a printed version email the editor, Stella Wiseman.
Everyone is welcome to celebrate Harvest with us this Sunday (October 4) – online and/or in church.
Our Harvest Festival services go online from 9am on Sunday; both a formal and an informal one, with the Mayor of Farnham taking part.
There will also be services in church at 9.30am in St John’s, Lower Hale; 10am in St George’s, Badshot Lea; and 11am in St Mark’s, Upper Hale. The churches will be decorated for the festival and there will be a collection of donated food in each. This will be given to Farnham Foodbank.
The Foodbank welcomes all donations but at the moment has a large stock of tea, breakfast cereal, baked beans, long-life milk and long-life juice so would prefer other items such as tinned vegetables, tinned fish and meat, rice, pasta, puddings and the like.
Come and join us in this celebration.
Pictured top is St George’s ready for Harvest.
What are you thankful for? Can you tell us?
This year, Harvest Festival will still go ahead but will be celebrated in a slightly different way. We can’t have a Harvest Supper or an Apple Day with apple pressing and apple pancakes, but we can still celebrate in church and also online.
As part of the online celebrations we would like you to take a video of something you are thankful for, whether it is the fruit in your garden, the beautiful world around us, a pet, something you have learned, a gift you have received, anything that you feel blesses you and for which you would like to give thanks. Send your video to Alan by September 18. If it is a large video, you can use Filemail.com to send it.
On October 4 there will be Harvest services online here as well as physical ones in the churches too – in St John’s at 9.30am, St George’s at 10am and St Mark’s at 11am. We will be collecting packet and tinned goods for the Farnham Foodbank. The Foodbank welcomes all donations but at the moment has a large stock of tea, breakfast cereal, baked beans, long-life milk and long-life juice so would prefer other items such as tinned vegetables, tinned fish and meat, rice, pasta, puddings and the like.
Please bring your donations to any of the churches. They will be left for three days to ensure that there is no risk of Covid contamination and then will be passed on to the Foodbank.
Picture by Priscilla du Preez on Unsplash.
Politics and faith meet in the parish this month as we celebrate the Season of Creation, with contributions from local MP Jeremy Hunt; Cllr Penny Marriott, Mayor of Waverley; Rt Rev’d Andrew Watson, Bishop of Guildford; and, for Harvest Festival on October 4, the Mayor of Farnham, Cllr Pat Evans.
The Season of Creation is an international, ecumenical season which runs from September 1-October 4 each year. During this time people are encouraged to focus on prayer and action to protect the planet, and we are joining in with services in the churches and here online each Sunday. The online services will feature guest contributors including the Bishop of Guildford who will preach this Sunday, September 6, on what is known as Climate Sunday, when the focus will be on the challenge of climate change. He will be joined by Cllr Penny Marriott, who will give a Bible reading and Jeremy Hunt, MP, who will read a prayer known as the Collect.
Other guests over the next few weeks include Ruth Valerio, environmentalist, theologian, social activist and author, who launched the Eco Church scheme; Ben Niblett, campaigner on poverty, injustice, climate change and fair trade who works for the Christian charity Tearfund; and the Mayor of Farnham, Cllr Pat Evans, who is passionate about local community issues.
The Season of Creation will challenge everyone to do something to help tackle the environmental crisis that is threatening the Earth. Lesley Crawley comments: “The Season of Creation helps us focus on the world we live in and our duty to care for the environment. The way we are living is causing damage to the planet and all that lives on it – humans, other animals, plants, all living things – and we are calling on everyone to take action in whatever way we all can to stop the damage and begin restoration of our world. We would like everyone to make a pledge, however small, to do something positive, whether it is walking rather than driving where possible, cutting down on the amount of meat we are eating, looking at how our clothes are manufactured and how many we buy and then throw out.
“Please join us in person at our churches or online where we will be thinking about what we can do in the Season of Creation and long term. We are delighted that the Bishop of Guildford, the Mayor of Waverley Penny Marriott, Farnham’s mayor Pat Evans, and our local MP Jeremy Hunt are among those contributing to our online services and we continue to call for action from all areas of society.”
Everyone is welcome in the churches which have had Covid-19 precautions put in place.
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” (Matthew 25, v. 35).
It feels like a dark and anxious time at the moment with deep divisions in the country and real fears for the future, especially for those already on the edges of society. However, from time to time something happens which shines a light into the darkness.
Such a light was shone when, on Friday, October 11, some unexpected visitors turned up at St Mark’s. Five pupils and a member of staff from Edgeborough School arrived, unannounced, in a van stuffed with bags and bags of food for the Farnham Foodbank. They had collected the food as part of their Harvest Festival celebrations and had given with huge generosity.
The six of them unloaded the van, piled the food high, stopped for a brief photo, and disappeared again, leaving behind more than 220kg of food. We didn’t even know their names and they won’t know the names of the people who receive their gifts. It was a real moment of unexpected light and sharing between strangers. Thank you!
It shouldn’t be the case in 21st-century Britain that people have to rely on foodbanks but that is a reality for increasing numbers of families. Between April 2018 and March 2019, for instance, the Trussell Trust’s foodbank network, with which the Farnham foodbank is associated, distributed 1.6 million three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, a 19 per cent increase on the previous year. More than half a million of these went to children. The Farnham Foodbank itself gave 1,499 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis last year.
We are all vulnerable to crisis, none of us intend to be. But sometimes, like Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire, we find ourselves depending on ‘the kindness of strangers’. And when Jesus was challenged in Matthew 25 to answer “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?” he replied: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
A heartfelt thanks to Edgeborough School and all those who donate to Farnham Foodbank.
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 