Easter is being celebrated in the Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale in north Farnham by a series of services, reflections, a craft market, and an open-air Easter Experience and not just one but four Easter Egg hunts.
On Monday to Wednesday this week there will be meditations at St John’s, Hale, at 7.30pm.
On Maundy Thursday, April 14, there will be Holy Communion, the Stripping of the Altar, and a vigil at both St George’s Church, Badshot Lea, and St John’s Church, Hale, at 7.30pm, with foot-washing at St John’s as well.
On Good Friday, April 15, there will be a Good Friday liturgy at St John’s, at 9.30am, and a service at St Mark’s, at 11am. At 2pm at St George’s, there will be Good Friday devotions.
On Easter Sunday, April 17, we will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ at St John’s, at 9.30am; then at St George’s at 10am; and at St Mark’s, Upper Hale, at 11am, and each service will be followed by an Easter Egg hunt.
On Easter Saturday, April 16, there will be an Easter Craft Market with an Easter Egg hunt for children, at St Mark’s Church, Upper Hale, from 10am-2pm. There will be lots of stalls selling everything from knitwear to truffles, jewellery to soaps, and a trail to find Easter eggs.
And don’t forget the Easter Experience in the churchyard at St John’s, Hale, a series of interactive stations which trace the story of the last week of Jesus’ life all the way to his death on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. The Easter Experience is available at all hours of day and night until April 18.
We all have a story to tell, but it’s not always easy to talk about yourself. Sharing our stories can help us reconnect with each other in an increasingly fractured world.
That’s why Campfire is coming to north Farnham. Campfire is a unique, magical event which celebrates the untold stories of people who make up a community.
We’re looking for people to tell true stories at the event, and to come to workshop beforehand so that they’re well-equipped to contribute. No story is too small! From mundane moments to miraculous misadventures, we want to hear it all.
All you need to do is show up to our free, fun workshop. You might come with an idea of the story you could tell, but it’s totally okay if you turn up with nothing. We’ll help you find and shape your story in a warm, supportive environment. Why not come to the workshop and see what it’s all about? You’ve got nothing to lose!
The workshop will take place at St Mark’s Church on 1st April, from 7.30 to 9.30pm. The campfire event will take place in the church on 8th April at 7.30pm.
This is what others have said:
I didn’t think I had any good stories to tell, but Molly gives you interesting prompts and helps you create a structure around something from your life you didn’t think was story-worthy.
It makes you realise how interesting other people are!
Exceeded my expectations!
It will be hosted by musician Dominic Conway and poet and author Molly Naylor, with live music and cocoa. Here they are explaining more:
Molly is a poet, playwright and creative writing tutor. She has run True Stories Live, a sell-out event in Norwich where local people get up on stage tell stories, for the past five years.
Dominic is the award-winning musical director of Little Bulb Theatre who recently toured village halls with the wildly successful Mountain Music.
Three workshops, two awards ceremonies, a theatrical evening and a lot of good poetry – it all added up to a major contribution by the parish to the inaugural Farnham Literary Festival (March 5-13).
St Mark’s Church was the only north Farnham venue taking part in the festival and not only did we host events, we ran the Farnham Poetry Competition and filled the church with poets young and old with fresh voices and their own take on Farnham.
During the week there was a workshop to create your own fantasy world; a writing memories workshop (with some rather saucy poetry!) run by Right at Home care agency and the church; a crime writing workshop with Joy Kluver, author of the Detective Bernadette Noel series; a rehearsed reading by the Farnham Theatre Association of A Tale of Two Theatres (the story of the Castle and Redgrave Theatres); the awards ceremony of the Farnham Fiction Award, and the awards ceremony of the Poetry Competition.
The church buzzed all week with people of diverse ages and backgrounds who leapt at the chance to express themselves creatively. There is enormous creativity here in this community and we are hugely grateful to everyone who took part, including the poetry judges, Coral Rumble who judged the under-16s category, and Ellora Sutton who judged the adult one.
We had around 80 entries to the poetry competition and the judges found it hard to choose between them. In the end their choices were:
Under-16: First place: Farnham by Katie Parratt. Runners-up: Under a Tree by Nigarish Nabeel Nasir. Farnham by Louis West. Shortlisted: A day at Gostrey Meadow by Minha Nabeel Nasir. Farnham attraction by Harrison West. Meadow by Alina Liepsch. There is a place I know by Maria Benyon. Welcome to Farnham by Mimi Farrell. Why Farnham makes me smile by Ellie Darlow.
Adults: First place: The First One that’s Second by Elmaz Ekrem. Runners-up: Farnham Park 2021 by Rosemary Wisbey. Local Character by Andy Morse. Shortlisted: Farnham Swimming Baths by Elaine Fell. Farnham Friendship by Chandra McGowan. Swimming in April’s Cold by Chris Hunter. embedded in wood and stone by Kate Kennington Steer.
Kate Kennington Steer is a participant in Creative Response, an arts-related organisation run by professional practising artists who share their practice with vulnerable people, and members of Creative Response were also there on the poetry evening, reading from and selling their new book of poems Where Seeds Are Planted Poems Grow.
We are currently collecting in recordings of the winning poems and they will be published here shortly.
Here are a few images from the week:
Winner of the adult poetry award Elmaz Ekrem (left) with judge Ellora Sutton.Building fantasy worlds in the Build a World Workshop. Yes, even the Mayor was busy doing so!David Wylde and Chris Reeks in A Tale of Two Theatres.Coral Rumble, the judge of the under-16s poetry competition reads some of her own poetry.Neil Macdonald speaks at the writing awards, along with judge Gary Couzens.Writing crime with Joy Kluver.
Next Sunday, March 27, is Mothering Sunday and everyone is welcome at any of our services – St John’s, 9.30am; St George’s, 10am; St Mark’s, 11am.
We will be celebrating our mothers and/or others who take or have taken care of us over the years. There will be refreshments and posies for all. Contact us if you would like more details.
If you find Mothering Sunday difficult, there is a peaceful reflection called Loving Kindness at St Mark’s at 9.30am. Further details here.
Mothering Sunday can be complicated for so many different reasons: perhaps you have lost your own mother, perhaps the relationship is broken, perhaps you feel you are hopeless at being a mother – there may be a hundred more reasons why Mothering Sunday is tricky.
Why not take some time and space to reflect, to sit quietly and know that God sees you as an individual, not “just a mother” or “just a child of a mother”.
On Sunday, March 27, at 9.30am at St Mark’s, Pamela Marsham will be leading a short, mindfulness based session to help you unwind and relax into God’s love for each and every one of us.
2023: March 18, June 17, September 16 and November 18
Come to our regular Craft Market at St Mark’s. We now run this four times a year and the dates are above.
We invite local crafters to take part and we have a wide range of creative people there selling a huge array of gifts for yourself and others. There are jumpers, teddy bears, soaps and soap dishes, candles, cards, earrings, necklaces, hats and gloves, glass gifts, knitwear, pictures, pottery, sweets, notebooks, coasters, mugs to go on the coasters… and much more, with new stalls added regularly, and all of it sold to a background of live music and refreshments in the adjoining room.
This Wednesday (February 22) is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the beginning of the season which leads up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Ash Wednesday has its roots in the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting and many Christians mark the day by going to church and having a mark of ashes placed on their foreheads. Here in the parish there will be a service of ashing at St Mark’s at noon, and at St John’s at 7.30pm.
The ash is made by burning palm crosses, like the ones we use at the Palm Sunday services each year, and you can receive the mark with the words:
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.”
It is a solemn reminder of our calling to follow Christ and be his body here on earth.
As we head towards Lent we invite you to be tempted by some pancakes in our Pancakes and Temptation services on February 27 at St George’s, Badshot Lea, at 10am, and St Mark’s, Upper Hale, at 11am.
On the Sunday before Shrove Tuesday – the day before Lent – we like to make pancakes in church and think about the season ahead of us. It’s a sociable occasion but with a message. We celebrate with pancakes, but the Lenten season ahead of us is one when we reflect and prepare for Easter and the service will draw attention to this too.
This Lent we are looking at the theme of forgiveness. Further details are available here.
St Mark’s, which was given Grade II listed status by English Heritage in December 2021, was entered for the awards following the restoration of the ‘Kitty Milroy murals’, painted by local artist Eleanor Catherine Wallace Milroy, known as Kitty, between 1911 and 1920.
The Surrey Heritage Awards were established by the Surrey Historic Buildings Trust to recognise ‘Best Practice’ in historic building conservation in Surrey, and the murals have played an important part in the conservation of St Mark’s, a Victorian church built by local people in the 1880s and still a vibrant part of community life. The murals are now recognised as being of both local and national importance, particularly as examples of the development of mural art and the recognition of women’s painting in the 20th century.
Making the announcement, Surrey Historic Buildings Trust described St Mark’s as: “A late-Victorian church … noted for its stunning wall murals painted by local artist Kitty Milroy, a graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art. These murals had deteriorated and faded after a century’s accumulation of dirt, so the local community rallied round to raise the funds for a major project to clean, repair and restore the murals to their former glory.”
Andy Smith, Director of Surrey Historic Buildings Trust, added: “The restoration of Kitty Milroy’s amazing murals at St Mark’s has been one of the most interesting projects the Surrey Historic Buildings Trust has been involved with in recent years, and I was delighted to hear that the project had been shortlisted for the Surrey Heritage Awards 2022. It was also wonderful to learn just a few weeks ago that the church had been given Grade II listed status. Hopefully this will generate greater interest in Kitty Milroy’s work, and in early-twentieth-century artwork of this kind.
“We are fortunate here in Surrey to have a number of churches with beautiful and intriguing wall paintings, including rare survivals from the medieval period, but the Milroy murals, dating from the period just before the First World War, are especially striking and thought-provoking. St Mark’s Church is very fortunate to have these extraordinary paintings and I hope more people will visit the church to view them.”
The murals were restored in 2021 by wall painting conservationists Stephen Rickerby and Lisa Shekede who described them as “stunning” and called Kitty a “major, but unrecognised, artist”.
Lesley Crawley said: “We are utterly delighted that St Mark’s has been shortlisted for an award. It is testament to the love and care that has been poured into the church over many years – from when it was built by the villagers in the 1880s; through the installation of the Edwardian organ, affectionately known as Emily; and the painting of the beautiful Kitty Milroy murals in the early 20th century; and right through to the present day with the restoration of those murals.
“There is not just local history here but a real sense of a warm community building, cherished and used by the village where it has stood for almost 140 years, and where people can come to seek God and find welcome.”
A team of judges will visit St Mark’s on March 3 and the results will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held on March 30 at Brooklands Museum in Weybridge.
St Mark’s is open on Sundays at 11am and Wednesdays at 12pm for services. It is also open on the third Saturday of the month for a craft market, 10am-2pm. The next one is February 19.
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 