Your April magazine is out now, full of information, news and views, including what is happening this Holy Week as we approach Easter. There are details about Holy Week meditations, Good Friday and Easter services and a Good Friday Walk of Witness, as well as events after Easter. Did you know we are organising a Gin Evening with local distiller Nibbs Gin? And we have a quiz evening coming up too, plus a plant sale, a Christian Aid concert and much more!
You can also read the winning poems in the Farnham Poetry Competition, hear about Open the Book, and find out what groups like the WI are doing. There is prayer and some thoughts from the Ministry Team and the Church Cat!
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.
Join us as we travel through Holy Week, which runs from Palm Sunday, April 2, to Easter Eve, April 8, with a series of services and meditations across all three churches.
Palm Sunday recalls the story of Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, welcomed as a king but riding on a humble donkey, and there will be services at all three churches – St John’s at 9.30am, St George’s at 10am and St Mark’s at 11am – with palm crosses given out.
Services and meditations in Holy Week
From Monday to Wednesday, April 3-5, there will be a series of short meditations for Holy Week each evening at St John’s at 7.30pm. These will be around 30 minutes long and will give time to reflect and pray.
On Wednesday, April 5 at noon, there will be a communion service at St Mark’s, and on Maundy Thursday, April 6 there will be communion services at St George’s and St John’s at 7.30pm, when the altar will be stripped and a vigil will be held. At St John’s there will also be foot-washing, recalling the act of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper before his death.
Maundy Thursday is so called because the name derives from the Latin world ‘mandatum’ which means ‘commandment’, and it recalls Jesus’ words at the Last Supper: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” So this is New Commandment Thursday.
Stripping the altar is an ancient custom whereby everything is removed from the altar and it reflects the way everything was stripped from Jesus on Good Friday – his clothes, his dignity, his life – and leaves the altar bare for the Good Friday liturgy the next day.
On Good Friday , April 7, there will be Good Friday Liturgy at St John’s at 9.30am. At the same time at St Mark’s there will be a craft session for children aged five to 11, from 9.30-11am, This will be followed by a service at 11am to which parents and carers are also invited, after which there will be hot cross buns for everyone.
You can also join in a Walk of Witness in central Farnham on Good Friday, by gathering in the Hart car park at 11.45am for a silent walk through central Farnham starting at noon, and ending up at St Andrew’s Church for a short service.
At 2pm there will be a ‘Good Friday Hour at the Cross‘ at St George’s, a time for prayer and reflection as we approach the time traditionally held to be the hour that Jesus died – 3pm.
On Saturday, April 8, several people from the parish are being confirmed at an Easter Eve service at Guildford Cathedral at 7.45pm. This is a special service with communion as well as baptism and confirmation, and is a lovely way to celebrate the coming of Easter. Please do join us.
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.
It’s Mothering Sunday – aka Mother’s Day – this weekend (Sunday 19th) and we will be celebrating at all three churches: St John’s, Hale (near the Six Bells roundabout) at 9.30am; St George’s, Badshot Lea (opposite the school) at 10am and St Mark’s, Alma Lane (next to Tesco) at 11am.
Come and join us as we give thanks for all those who care and protect us. Posies for all.
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.
You are invited to a ‘campfire service’ for LGBTQI+ people, friends, colleagues and supporters, at St Mary’s Church, Quarry Street, Guildford, on Wednesday, March 15, from 7.30pm. Hot chocolate and flapjacks will be offered on arrival.
The theme of a “campfire service” arose from considering how much strength we can receive when we gather together around the warmth of a fire. God is with us, in darkness and in light, when troubled and when at peace. When two or three – or more – gather together, the presence of Jesus, and the warmth of fellowship, is with us.
There will be songs and testimony, prayers and words of hope. As we draw together, we find courage not to be scared of the night. We are able to see more in the darkness because of each other’s light.
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.
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.
Service
Serving the Villages North of Farnham: Badshot Lea, Hale, Heath End & Weybourne
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 