The parish runs the Farnham Poetry Competition on behalf of the Farnham Literary Festival. The entries are now all in and the winners will be announced at the awards evening and open mic on Saturday, March 15th, at St Mark’s Church, starting at 5pm. Coral Rumble and Linda Daruvala, the two judges will present prizes and also read from their own works.
The 16s-and-under awards will be presented first, and young people will have a chance to share their poetry if they wish. Then there will be an interval so that if any of the families need to go home, they can. The over-16s awards will be presented after the interval, and there will be an open mic.
All welcome to attend, to hear the poetry and to join in the open mic.
There is a contemplative prayer group meeting in the parish every Wednesday at St Mark’s Church from 3-4pm.
Contemplative/centering prayer is a silent form of prayer which can take place alone or in a group. The person or people praying remain silent and usually repeat in the mind a word or phrase such as ‘Maranatha’, an Aramaic word which means ‘our Lord, come’, or ‘our Lord has come’, depending on where the emphasis is placed. Some people prefer to use an image rather than a word.
The idea is that the word or image centres the mind and encourages it not to wander or flit from thought to thought, as human minds usually do, but instead just to be as we are in front of God. We don’t ask anything of God, we simply are there.
On Wednesday afternoons a group of us sit together in St Mark’s and spend 20 minutes in this form of silent prayer. We then drink tea, eat biscuits and chat.
It is a time of peace and stillness and highly recommended in this furiously busy world.
Calling all poets – beginners, experts and those who dabble from time to time. Get writing because the Farnham Poetry Competition is back again.
The competition, now in its fifth year (we started with a lockdown poetry competition in 2020), is run by the parish as part of the Farnham Literary Festival which takes place from March 6-16.
The 2025 poetry competition has the theme of Unity/Being Together and entrants are asked to write a poem about what unites people or what they wish would unite people, or what it means to be together.
There are four age categories this year: up to age seven, eights to 11s, 12s to16s, and over 16s. Poems should be sent to poetry@badshotleaandhale.org or to St Mark’s Church and Community Centre, Alma Lane, Farnham, GU9 0LT to arrive by 5pm on Monday, February 24. Please include your name separately from your entry and, if entering the 16 and younger categories, add your age to the bottom of your poem.
The children’s poetry competition is being judged by popular children’s poet and author Coral Rumble and the adult one by poet Linda Daruvala.
The competition is free to enter and there will be prizes for the first prize-winners and runners-up in all the categories. The winners will be announced at the poetry final evening on Saturday, March 15, at St Mark’s Church, Upper Hale, at 5pm, when there will also be an open mic for anyone to share their poetry, and the two judges will also perform their work.
Entries should include name, contact details and age if entering the 16 and under categories, but the name should not be written on the actual poem. There will be winners and runners-up in all categories and these will be announced at the awards ceremony and open mic on March 15.
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.
On Thursday evening (All Hallows Eve, aka Hallowe’en) we are taking part in the Farnham Lantern Festival which Farnham Townn Council is putting on to mark the end of Farnham Craft Month. We’ve been making lanterns but we weren’t expecting anything as amazing as this one made by Jacqui Searle. St Mark’s Church as you have never seen it before.
The Lantern Festival will begin with music, food and a bar in Gostrey Meadow from 5pm. Anyone with a lantern is asked to be there by 6pm and the procession will start at 6.30pm and go to St Andrew’s Church, where the lanterns will be displayed as a large-scale communal craft endeavour.
If you have lost a close friend or family member and would like an opportunity to remember them and light a candle for them, we are holding ‘All Souls’ services’ this weekend. These simple services of music, prayer and reflection will take place as follows:
St John’s, Hale (near the Six Bells roundabout) on Saturday, November 2 at 4pm; St Mark’s, Upper Hale (next to Tesco Express) on Sunday, November 3 at 11am; and St George’s, Badshot Lea (opposite the school) on Sunday, November 3 at 5.30pm.
During the services you will have the opportunity to light a candle in memory of the person or people you have lost.
If you would like any support following the death of a loved one, please contact Rev’d Stella Wiseman, 07842761919.
The poetry evening which was postponed in June has been rearranged for Thursday, October 3rd at St Mark’s, starting at 7.30pm.
There will be an open mic and a chance to chat about poetry. Refreshments will be served or bring your own.
Whether you are a budding poet or a practiced professional, or you just like to listen to poetry, come and join us at St Mark’s for a friendly, inclusive evening. There will be no pressure to read anything out, but you will be welcome to if you wish.
Admission is free but donations will be welcome. To find out more, contact poetry@badshotleaandhale.org or call 07842761919.
It’s time to bring your dogs, cats (maybe not), guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, geckos, pet spiders, snakes, stick insects and any other animals you have living at home to church for our annual pet services. Pets are a wonderful blessing to many of us and can help our mental and physical health. So let’s give thanks for them in all their shapes and sizes and bring them for a blessing at St John’s and St Mark’s on October 6th at 9.30am and 11am respectively. If your pet is too large or too nervous to come to church, you can bring a picture of them instead. And if you don’t have a pet, why not bring a favourite soft toy instead? Or dress up as an animal? After all, all God’s creatures got a place in the choir!
We’re delighted to report that our new Clothing Giveaway, which takes place every Monday morning at St Mark’s, has got off to an excellent start. Every Monday we open the doors to the church at 9am for people who would like to select some clothes for them and/or their families, totally free of charge. We also serve coffee, tea, squash, cake or similar in a café in the Community Centre part of the church, again free of charge.
The Clothing Giveaway is not just for people who are struggling financially, but for anyone, regardless of economic status. We want to encourage people not to spend so much on new clothes but instead to fill their wardrobes with good-quality second-hand clothing. We are also trying to encourage recycling so that old clothes do not end up in landfill (at the moment around 350,000 tonnes, that’s around £140 million worth of used but still wearable clothing, goes to landfill in the UK every year).
We take donations of old, goodquality clothes, shoes and baby equipment and are always happy to welcome volunteers to sort out the clothes. We usually sort on a Sunday afternoon. The Clothing Giveaway is being run in conjunction with the Hale Community Centre and is open at St Mark’s on Monday mornings 9-11am. Please look out your old, goodquality clothes and shoes for children and adults. You can bring them to church (in bags/boxes please) or bring them to St Mark’s on a Monday morning, or let Stella Wiseman know if you need them to be picked up: revd.stella@badshotleaandhale.org or calling 07842761919.
Celebrate harvest with us in all three churches on September 22nd. At St John’s the service is at 9.30am, St George’s 10am and St Mark’s 11am.
St Mark’s we will include our normal Apple Day celebrations in the service and eat apple pie and other apple snacks after the service.
We are collecting tins and packets for Farnham Foodbank. The Foodbank especially wants tinned soup, instant mash, tinned rice pudding and custard, tinned potatoes, UHT juice.
Serving the Villages North of Farnham: Badshot Lea, Hale, Heath End & Weybourne
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 