Come join us for the November Craft Market this Saturday, to get your hands on some beautiful homemade crafts and support your local community.
This month only our craft market will be visited by none other than Santa! So please come along and get into the Christmas spirit with us.
Its free entry and starts from 10am – 2pm Saturday, 18th November at St. Mark’s Church, Alma Lane, Upper Hale
Here are some examples of the crafts are wonderful stalls make:
Remembrance Sunday is on November 12th this year and there will be services at each of the churches in the Parish – 9.30am at St John’s and 10am at St George’s. There will be an Act of Remembrance at the Hale War Memorial at 10.45am, where there will be a two-minute silence at 11am. Councillors Tony Fairclough and Sally Dickson will be attending to lay a wreath on behalf of Farnham Town Council. This will be followed by a service at St Mark’s itself.
There will also be an Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial in Badshot Lea following the St George’s service which Councillors Mark Merryweather and Chris Jackman will be attending. Anyone wishing to attend that who has not been at the service is asked to arrive for around 10.50am.
There will also be an Act of Remembrance at Weybourne Village Hall at 4pm which Councillor Matthew Brown will be attending. This will be followed by tea in the hall.
The November parish magazine is now out with the usual mix of news and what is on, plus prayer and reflection and a poem this time. Please do have a read and send us your own comments, poems and reflections, and share the magazine with friends and family too.
Don’t forget our wonderful advertisers as well. If you use their services, please let them know that you saw their advert in our magazine.
To send us a comment, article, piece of news, reflection or poem, click here.
To download the magazine, click on the button below:
Kitty Milroy, the artist responsible for the murals in St Mark’s Church, has been commemorated with a plaque on the ‘Famous Names of Farnham’ wall in Farnham’s town centre.
The plaque was unveiled on September 21st by Cllr Alan Earwaker, Mayor of Farnham; Nick Seversway, who led the work in organising the restoration of the murals and who is an expert on Kitty Milroy; and Rev’d Lesley Crawley.
The plaque now takes its place on Farnham’s ‘wall of fame’, in South Street, celebrating local luminaries, including writer and politician William Cobbett, racing driver Mike Hawthorn and cricketer Graham Thorpe.
Kitty Milroy (pictured below) was born Eleanor Catherine Milroy in 1885 in Newnham, Hampshire, but lived almost all her life in the Farnham area. From 1906 onwards, she enrolled in the Slade School of Art — a renowned centre for innovation in mural art — which had recently opened its doors to female students, and between 1911 and 1920 she created the murals in St Mark’s. between 1911 and 1920. They represent local scenes and Biblical passages and the figures in them were modelled by locals at the time. In 2021 they were restored by conservators Rickerby and Shekede.
Further information is available here.
Pictured clockwise from top left: Kitty Milroy; members of the parish Arts and Crafts committee at the unveiling – from left: Chriss Green, Nick Seversway, Bob Shatwell, Jean Sanders, Lesley Crawley and Alan Crawley; Kitty’s plaque; apple tree from Kitty’s murals; figures from Kitty’s murals.
Pictured top: the unveiling of the plaque.
If you go down to church this Sunday (October 1st), be prepared for a surprise. Along with the singing there will be barking, maybe a little squawking and squeaking, and even some slithering when we hold a pet service at each of the churches.
Pets of all shapes and sizes will be welcomed to St John’s at 9.30am, St George’s at 10am and St Mark’s at 11am, for a service to celebrate our pets and ask for God’s blessing on them. Anyone who doesn’t want to bring their pet but still wants to celebrate them and have them blessed is encouraged to bring a photo of the pet. Children are welcome to bring toy pets and come dressed as animals too.
We are holding the service on the first Sunday of October as it is close to the feast day of St Francis of Assisi which is on October 4th. St Francis was known for his love of and care for animals and is often depicted with them. Our pets bring us great joy and are part of God’s creation so we want to celebrate them and give thanks for everything they give us. For many people having a pet is an enormous comfort and can help our mental health by reducing stress and anxiety. They can also be great companions especially to people who are on their own.
The services will be chaotic and great fun, so please come along! However, there will also be an earlier communion service at St George’s at 9am for people who prefer their worship without animal accompaniment!
Join us for a series on different types of prayer on Wednesday evenings at St Mark’s, Upper Hale, at 7.30pm.
Over the next five weeks we will be exploring prayer in the following ways:
September 27th – The Power of Music – led by Lesley Shatwell (see picture below)
October 4th – Centering Prayer – led by Margaret Bowers
October 11th – Labyrinth – led by Michelle Chapman
October 18th – Mindfulness – led by Suzette Jones
October 25th – Daily Prayer – led by Lesley Crawley
All welcome. Contact Rev’d Stella Wiseman for further details.
On September 24th, celebrate the good gifts of the earth at our Harvest Festival services, held at all three churches. You can then also join us at the Harvest Supper, held at St George’s on the evening of September 29th.
There have long been celebrations around the time that crops are harvested each year, but the harvest festival that we know today probably dates from Victorian days. The first one is said have been the brainchild of the Rev’d Robert Hawker, priest of a church at Morwenstow in Cornwall, who in 1843 invited people to a thanksgiving service for the harvest.
The modern harvest festival is a time to give thanks to God for the gifts the earth provides and it is also an opportunity to share food, particularly with people who do not have enough. That is why the parish collects tinned and dried food for Farnham’s Foodbank.
The services will be at 9.30am at St John’s, Hale, 10am at St George’s, Badshot Lea, and at 10am at St Mark’s, Upper Hale, where we will first celebrate Apple Day with apple-y music, apple snacks and apple pressing. The harvest service will be at 11am at St Mark’s.
The Foodbank is currently in need of tinned fruit, UHT puddings, tinned meat and chocolate treats and these can be offered at the altar during the service and will then be passed on to the Foodbank.
On September 29th we will celebrate again with a Harvest Supper at St George’s from 6pm. It’s a fun evening for the whole parish with a meal, entertainment and a raffle. Tickets are available at each of the churches; Adults £10, children (under 16) £5, or by calling 07842761919 or emailing news@badshotleaandhale.org. If you can offer to be part of the entertainment, please let Kris know: warden.stgeorges@badshotleaandhale.org.
Entertainment time at last year’s Harvest Supper.
Pictured top – Harvest by Erik-Jan Leusink on Unsplash
I recently heard a talk by the Reverend Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and he talked in a very practical way about funding church ministry. There have been various models over the centuries:
The Benefactor – often the Lord of the Manor would upkeep the church and pay for all that was needed. Very handy if you can find yourself a benefactor, but on the other hand perhaps one person could have too much sway – I guess everything, including the vicar’s sermons might have to please the benefactor.
Stewardship – the way that free churches have always organised themselves. If there are 10 people in a church and they give 10 percent of their gross income then they can afford a minister. That is fine for a house church where people meet in houses, but to get a building then a few more people need to give 10 per cent of their gross income! Anglican churches encourage Stewardship too, but rarely can people afford to give quite as much as that, or perhaps there is a different culture around giving amongst Anglicans – the Church of England recommends five per cent of our gross income.
Again, it is very handy to fund the church this way, but perhaps there is an issue that it only involves the church congregation. After all, as Anglicans, everyone in the village is part of the church. Everyone has access to the church building for services – baptisms, weddings and funerals, and for prayer; everyone is part of the ‘cure of souls’ that the vicar promises to look after. Perhaps, therefore, everyone in the village can have a hand in funding the local church. Stewardship alone might be rather inward-looking.
Social enterprise – this involves the community. It can be aspirational, for instance employing only the homeless, but at the heart of every social enterprise is the need to make money. Churches do various things – run preschools, offer themselves as concert venues, sell merchandise, and run cafés. In our case, we hire our churches out as venues for parties, meetings and clubs. Social Enterprise makes the church a seven days a week building, increases by a factor of 10 how many people come through the doors, and brings us into conversation with a huge range of people.
Who are we in conversation and partnership with? Well, lots of people, we can’t list them all but here are some examples:
We have particularly strong links with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association and now have an interfaith women’s group with them. Stella has been asked to speak at their Itfars (the fast-breaking evening meal which Muslims have during Ramadan) and they are keen to help where they can with community initiatives, eg the Warm Hub. They have joined in our flower festivals, craft markets and the poetry festival. We get a lot of bookings from them at both St Mark’s and St George’s.
The Syro-Malabar Church hire St George’s every week to teach Kerala dancing and took part in our concert for Christian Aid.
Magikats teach students at St George’s every Tuesday and kindly donated £100 for Father Christmas presents at the craft market.
Florescence is a small floristry business at St Mark’s and has sponsored the flower festival.
Alder Valley Brass Band have hired St John’s and St Mark’s and have played at some of our events.
The Badshot Lea Ladies Group brings people from the village into St George’s who might not otherwise feel part of the church.
Baby Ballet have been regular hirers at St George’s for several years and have danced at our parish fete.
Honryu Martial Arts has just started hiring St Mark’s and the leader is keen to help support the church’s work with young people (he’s a counsellor and uses martial arts to support people with behavioural problems).
Luke from Guildford Tai Chi, who books St Mark’s on a Wednesday, took part in the embodied worship series, giving us a free session.
Stella has worked with Right at Home on some memory workshops at their Sunflower Café (for people with dementia) and they have booked St Mark’s and St George’s for various activities. We have a great relationship with them and look forward to more partnership working.
Several groups have donated raffle prizes.
The relationship with the Badshot Lea Working Men’s Club (WMC)is now excellent and we help each other out with parking. They often pay to use our car park. There is a group of older people (mostly in their 80s+) who meet at the club who are very grateful for the car park. Several of them came to the Jubilee tea party last year. Stella has been asked to baptise the son of one of the women who works at the WMC.
In addition to all this, I strongly believe that God gives us everything we need. For years we scratched our heads, wondering how to pay our way, and thanks to God’s mercy, our buildings, members of our congregation within them and Stella running our Social Enterprise, we now can pay our way. We need to do ministry and fund ministry. Hiring our buildings is a mixture of both.
More than anything, our community must experience the church as a blessing. Our hospitality is a reflection of the hospitality of the God we serve. Not long ago, Stella received this email:
I wanted to extend my sincerest gratitude for providing your hall as the venue for my baby’s first birthday party. The event was a great success, and we couldn’t have asked for a better place to celebrate this special day.
Your hall’s facilities and ambience were perfect for the occasion, and our guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Your assistance and support throughout the process made the planning much easier, and I truly appreciate your kind cooperation.
Once again, thank you for making my baby’s first birthday party memorable. We are grateful for your generosity and hospitality.
The community are blessing us through this ministry; not just with their money, but with their gifts such as music and dancing, allowing us to share in their ministries and their communities, giving to us out of their expertise. Hopefully, we can offer more than our space; we offer our hospitality, and our faith. For everyone in our villages, we have space that can honour you for us, every relationship is a taste of Christ.
Rev’d Lesley Crawley
Pictured top is St Mark’s Church set up for a party
Thanks to a huge effort. a lot of generous people and extremely hard work by Bob Shatwell, St Mark’s has a new carpet (pictured above with members of the St Mark’s congregation).
The majority of the funds raised was from the Craft Market which runs at St Mark’s on the third Saturday of March, June, September and November (the next one is on 16th so come and see the carpet as well as all the crafts!). Since the market started in 2021, it has raised £3,852.50 from craft stalls and £2,005.57 from selling refreshments, in large part thanks to Jean Sanders, Chriss Green, Elaine Fell and the team, along with musicians Bob and Lesley Shatwell, Roger Sanders and friends who keep everyone entertained during the market.
Well done to everyone involved and a massive thank you! The carpet enhances the building and sets off the Kitty Milroy murals nicely.
The carpet replaces an aisle carpet which became a trip hazard and had to be taken up, and one in the nave in front of the altar which was threadbare and dirty. The new one not only looks hugely better but feels it too, so much so that one of the church’s regular hirers who runs music classes for pre-school children said: “It’s so comfortable to sit on we nearly fell asleep on it!”
It’s our autumn Craft Market on Saturday, September 16th at St Mark’s Church, Upper Hale, from 10am to 2pm.
Come and browse and buy lovely homemade gifts, meet your friends in the café for coffee, cakes, and filled rolls, listen to love music, and know you are supporting local businesses and the church.
Among the stalls will be Whimsy and Joyful selling plastic-free handmade knitted Alice bands from 100% wool; clocks created from CDs by DNWFoto; Linda’s Crafting Creations selling upcycled gifts; cards from Julie Owen; Knitty Nora’s handknits; and pretty bracelets from Charlotte Barnard.
Come and have a relaxing couple of hours. You could even shop early for Christmas!
Clockwise from top left: bracelets by Charlotte Barnard, Alice bands from Whimsy and Joyful, tea cosy by Knitty Nora and clocks by DMWFoto.
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 