Below are the services and four sermons. First here are the notices:
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.
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.
Tonight’s Taizé service:
Below are the services, and three sermons and some beautiful intercessions. First here are the notices:
We are really so very sad to say goodbye to John and Sue Innes, we wish them all the very best in their new adventure. There is a video here with some of our good wishes to them both, as well as John’s favourite hymns and a presentation of their leaving gifts.
The services are happening in real life now – remember to ring up your friends and let them know! They might love to come along.
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.
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.
Families are returning to church for baptisms in the parish after months of delay thanks to Covid-19. The first baptism in the parish took place on Sunday, August 23, when little Archie Higginson (pictured with his parents above) was baptized at St John’s, and this is being followed this month by the baptism of two sisters, one of whom was born in lockdown, and a further one booked for October.
The baptisms all take place in the main Sunday services and there are strict rules on hygiene, social distancing and wearing masks but this didn’t detract from one-year-old Archie’s baptism. “It all went well,” said Archie’s mother Nola. “It was a bit strange wearing face masks but it felt like a proper baptism and we felt welcomed into the church.” She also sought to allay other families’ fears about not being able to invite family and friends to the service. “We were able to invite everyone we wanted to and Archie enjoyed it too. I thought he’d wriggle more as he doesn’t like being still but he was fine.”
On September 27 we will welcome little Isabella and Eden Argenti. Two-year-old Isabella was to have been baptized in May but now her baby sister Eden, who was born in June, will be baptized at the same time. Isabella and Eden’s mother Rose, who is one of the regular readers in our online all-age service, said: “We were so happy to hear when the churches were able to reopen, and after welcoming our second daughter during lockdown, we are very much looking forward to having both our girls now baptized together at St John’s this month and welcoming them into the church.”
Lesley Crawley baptized Archie and will baptize the sisters. She said: “We are so pleased to be able to hold baptisms in the services again. Obviously, there are differences because of Covid restrictions but these don’t detract from what is a very special and joyous occasion of welcoming someone into the church and beginning their new life as part of the Christian community.”
Adults as well as children can be baptized and baptisms take place in the main service as baptism symbolises the entry of a person into the life and family of the church. The services all have anti-Covid measures put in place.
To enquire about baptisms, please contact Stella Wiseman on 07842761919.
Pictured top are Nola and Matthew Higginson with Archie.
Here is the evening prayer service, thanks to Lesley Shatwell:
Below are the services, and four sermons. First here are the notices:
John and Sue have been worshipping in the parish with us for 20 years and John has been on the ministry team as a retired priest, blessing us with his sermons, study groups and leading services. Sadly, this is their last Sunday in the parish as they need to move to a house that is more suitable. John is preaching on the online more traditional service today, he has also chosen his favourite hymns – Now Thank We All Our God and St Patrick’s Breastplate. We can’t give them the send off we would like to but hopefully they will come back for a proper send off when we are free to gather. Thank-you so much John and Sue for all you have done for us in the parish, we will miss you so much.
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 evening’s BCP Evening Prayer
Below are the services, and four sermons. First here are the notices:
The services are happening in real life now – remember to ring up your friends and let them know! They might love to come along.
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.
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 