Category Archives: support

gifts, support

Generosity – Day 1

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A good person produces good from the good treasure of his heart…because the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. 

Luke 6:45

REFLECTION

On the Day of Pentecost, one minute Jesus’s followers were inside four walls waiting for the unknown – uncertain and timorous; the next they were tumbling into the street, praise to God pouring out of them as the Holy Spirit had been poured into them. Onlookers, unbelievers and the religious alike were stopped in their tracks. The church was born and was on the move! From their ‘holy huddle’ to impacting a city, a nation and the world. 

When God fills our lives, we just can’t contain it. His goodness and love are so abundant that we are literally flooded out! And that leaking of love is designed to touch the lives of the world around us, in turn arresting others with God’s amazing love. Here in Cornwall, the beauty of our landscape often speaks for itself and holds our gaze but we also want our words and subsequently our actions to be a reflection of the grace and beauty of our Lord Jesus, drawing attention to Him. Has God filled your heart with good treasure? Then God expects it to overflow to others through your words, impressing them not with your own wisdom but with His power.

Jenny Wreford, Generous Giving Advisor, Truro Diocese

ACTIVITY

Are your words full of grace and kindness, truth and hope? Ask God to fill you afresh. Then pick up the phone to a hurting friend or greet a lonely neighbour and bless them today with life giving, Christ centred words.

gifts, Giving and Fundraising, support

Generosity

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Every day this week we will be considering generosity.

Generosity is at the heart of our faith. We believe in a generous God and our own generosity is a testament and hallmark of our faith in action. Every day we see generosity in our churches and Christian communities, reflecting the generous God we believe in.

Each day there will be materials to help us think about generosity.

There are more details here:

The following links will be available from 7am each day, with the bonus material available from 2pm on October 17. You can also watch our online services by clicking here.

Day one, October 10: Looking outwards to share God’s love

Day two, October 11: Friendship and a foot up

Day three, October 12: Taking generosity beyond the church walls

Day four, October 13: A helping hand not a handout

Day five, October 14: Generosity that grows

Day six, October 15: A generous youth for a generous world tomorrow

Day seven, October 16: Finding the individual in the crisis

Day eight, October 17: Helping yourself can help others

Bonus material and an online service

Picture: Lina Trochez on Unsplash

support

Situations Vacant

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There are lots of roles that you can help with at church – please do get involved. Email revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org to find out more:

Safeguarding Officer

Role description: Take responsibility for Safeguarding in the Parish and keep the databases up to date.  Give advice on what level of safeguarding is required and ensure people have appropriate training and DBSing.

Person description: Pastoral and able to keep confidences; able to manage the databases

Hours: Ad-hoc – discuss with Jo for more information

Reports to: Alan

Magazine editor

Role description: Putting together the parish magazine each month, asking for contributions, laying out the pages.

Person description: Computer literate with an eye for laying out the magazine and an understanding of what the readers will want in their magazine

Hours: 16 per month

Reports to: Stella

Magazine Advertising Manager

Role description: Take responsibility for finding new advertisers, invoicing and chasing payments, informing editor which adverts should be in which issue.

Person description: Organised, entrepreneurial

Hours: Very variable, most adverts fall due at the same time (around May) and pay annually

Reports to: Magazine Editor

Insurance Co-ordinator

Role description: Take responsibility managing our insurers.

Person description: Organised

Hours: Ad-hoc, significant at renewal (we often renew for more than 1 year), less when negotiating claims

Reports to: Treasurer

Prayer Co-ordinator

Role description: Take responsibility for prayer requests and keep the database up to date.

Person description: Pastoral and able to keep confidences

Hours: Ad-hoc, no more than 1 per week

Reports to: Lesley

Social Media Lead

Role description: Running our Instagram account and Twitter account

Person description: Understands social media and contemporary online culture.

Hours: 30 mins per day

Reports to: Stella

Social Media Team Member

Role description: Sharing, liking and commenting on our social media posts

Person description: Just needs to be on a social media platform

Hours: virtually nil

Reports to: Stella

Notice Board Officer

Role description: Collect items to put on the boards and pin them up once a week

Person description: Able to collect the posters etc and get round the three churches, a good eye to ensure the boards look attractive

Hours: 2 hours per week

Reports to: Stella 

Open the Book Helper

Role description: Help with reading stories and acting them out in schools – all scripted and lots of fun

Person description: Good with children and able be part of a team

Hours: 2-4 hours per week term time

Reports to: Margaret E

Pastoral Support

Role description: Calling people to check they are ok, visiting when that is allowed

Person description: Empathetic, non-judgemental, good at listening, loves people

Hours: Depends on agreement

Reports to: Lesley

Vergers for Occasional Offices

Role description: Available occasionally during the day and on Saturdays to help at Funerals and Weddings – able to work the CD player and put out the microphones and welcome people

Person description: Good with technology and welcoming

Hours: Ad hoc – you will be part of a team of people called upon occasionally

Reports to: Lesley

Help making St Mark’s PowerPoints

Role description: To make PowerPoints for St Mark’s services using tools made available

Person description: Good computer skills and access to a relatively powerful computer and good internet connection

Number of hours: depends on agreement

Reports to: Alan

Help making online services

Role description: To make whole video services or parts of video services as agreed

Person description: Good computer skills and access to a relatively powerful computer and good internet connection

Number of hours: depends on agreement

Reports to: Alan

Church roles

Safeguarding Validator

Role description: Check documents that prove identity for people in “your” church.

Person description: Pastoral and able to keep confidences

Hours: Ad-hoc, no more than 1 per week and nothing most weeks

Reports to: Safeguarding Officer

Grounds officer at each of the churches

Role description: For each church we need someone to help with the grounds. Able to organise teams to help occasionally. At each of the churches we do have great people who are already doing gardening, but there are sometimes additional maintenance works that needs a team

Person description: Enjoys gardening and grounds maintenance

Hours: Depends on agreement

Reports to: Warden

Maintenance officer at each of the churches

Role description: Repair things that can be repaired and call in contractors when necessary. Check fabric monthly.

Person description: Good at DIY. Ideally it would be good to have electrician, construction or plumbing experience

Hours: 2 hours per week per church

Reports to: Warden

Cleaning at each of the churches

Role description: Clean the church and other rooms

Person description: Good at cleaning

Hours: 1.5 hours per week per church, 2 hours at St George’s

Reports to: Warden

On Call Key Holders for each of the churches

Role description: Holds keys to the church and is able to open up the church at short notice

Person description: Able to be contacted at short notice during the day or evening

Hours: very infrequent occurrence

Reports to: Warden 

St John’s Church

Opening and closing the church

Role description: Opens and closes the church on a rota

Person description: Able to get to the church and open or close it

Hours: depends on how often they are on the rota

Reports to: Warden

Sidespeople

Role description:  This would be on a rota.  Welcome people to the church and  ensure they have the right books,  Take the collection, count the collection.   Collect up the books after the service and make sure they are put back in the right place and that the church is tidy.  If there are parents with young children tell them about the colouring table. 

Person description:  Friendly, good at putting people at ease and reliable.

Hours:  2 per month

Reports to:  Warden

Baptism and Weddings Link

Role description: Links with families who are having weddings and baptisms – attend the preparation sessions and rehearsals were possible and is a friendly face on the day. Invites families to services and events that they might enjoy

Person description: Friendly and good at putting people at ease and relating to families

Hours: 1 hour per week

Reports to: Lesley

Coffee lead

Role description: Make sure there are people to serve coffee each week and that we have the right supplies

Person description: Friendly and welcoming and able to fill in an online spreadsheet

Hours: Very few – the rota should run without too much intervention

Reports to: Warden

St George’s Church

Welcomers

Role description: Put out chairs and welcome people as they arrive.

Person description: Fit and able to move chairs, friendly and welcoming

Hours: 2 per month

Reports to: Warden

Mowers

Role description: Mow the lawn at St George’s from the spring

Person description: Able to use the electric mower

Hours: 3 per month

Reports to: Warden

Intercessors

Role description: Prepare prayers for the Sunday Service and pray them during the service

Person description: Able to lead prayers

Hours: 1 per month

Reports to: Warden

Servers

Role description: Prepare everything for communion and assist the priest during the service

Person description: Willing to help during the service

Hours: 1 per month

Reports to: Warden

Justice, safeguarding, support

Church asks victims and survivors to speak

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Are you a survivor or victim of church-related abuse? Could you help the Diocese of Guildford to learn from the past and protect the future?

The Diocese of Guildford is currently reviewing all its records, across all 162 parishes, to ensure that all safeguarding concerns and allegations have been identified, reported, and appropriately actioned. Critical to this, is the voice of survivors and victims. The Diocese of Guildford wants to listen to and to learn from your experiences and ensure that your voices are heard throughout this review process.

Coming forward

Anybody who would like to give information or make disclosures about church-related abuse is asked to contact Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor, Jackie Broadfoot (jackie.broadfoot@cofeguildford.org.uk or 07918 559387).

Support is available

The Diocese recognises that coming forward may be extremely difficult and dedicated support has been set up for you. Two confidential listening services have been set up, for those people who have experienced church related abuse but who might want to talk through their experiences and feelings before taking any next step. To find out more about the support available visit www.dioceseofguildford.or.uk/about/safeguarding/past-cases-review-2-(pcr2)

Building the safest community we can

Bishop Andrew, Bishop of Guildford, said: “It is important we do everything we can to make our churches the safest places they can be. Safe means different things to different people but this review will help us to ensure that the concerns reported to our churches have been dealt with properly, and the care taken and the support given is of the high quality that people rightly deserve. We have learnt from a previous review that that survivors and victims’ voices are critical, and I would urge you to come forward.”

gifts, support

Refugee donations

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With the Afghanistan refugee crisis escalating, many Afghans have fled their homes with few possessions and some of them are seeking refuge in this country. Farnham Help for Refugees is collecting donations to be distributed to refugees in and around London, and, thanks to an already overwhelming response, is now asking for just toiletries, men’s clothes and mobile phones.

If you can help, please bring donations to any of the church services – Sundays, St John’s at 9.30am, St George’s at 10am and St Mark’s at 11am; or Wednesdays, St Mark’s at 12pm, or drop them off at St John’s which is open during the day. There will be boxes available in each church. If you can’t come to the services but want to give, please call the administrator on 07842761919 or email admin@badshotleaandhale.org.

There will be a specific collection day later in the year; we will let you know when.

Thank you for your help.

Picture by Maria Teneva on Unsplash.

Bible, Pastoral Care, Prayer, support

In Praise of Home Groups

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What the heck is a ‘Home Group’?

Turn the clock back a good few years and my only idea was it was it definitely wasn’t something for me. Surely a ‘Home Group’ (aka, Bible Study, small group, study group, cell church – even Lent Group) was full of very holy, serious people, who actually knew where things were in the Bible and had been going to Church for ever, prayed regularly and knew all the answers and who would tell me I just had to ‘Have Faith’. Without doubt they would find out I was a fraud and only went to church because it was a good place to take my kids on wet Sunday mornings. There was no way I was going join any ‘small group’.

So what changed? I now enthuse about small groups any chance I have. I even lead one.

First, let me dismiss all of that absolute rubbish about the perception of what a ‘Home Group’ consists of. I have never been to one which was full of ‘serious’ people. Honestly, we spend a lot of time laughing. Not everyone prays regularly, not everyone believes everything, or even the same things. There are people in groups who are very new to church and some who have been going to church all of their lives but still have questions. Even in the early days no-one accused me of being a fraud and never did they dismiss my questions.

I’ve now been to lots of groups over the years. Weirdly they are all different – probably because they have consisted of different people and had different themes. I’ve loved some, felt challenged by others, but every time I have met and become closer to the people in that group. The only similarity is that they all consisted of people who are trying to get closer to God.

When I started to go to church I didn’t really get to know people. I didn’t know everyone’s name, I didn’t know where people lived or much about their lives. It was a long time until I felt that I wasn’t a visitor. I think it was belonging to groups that changed that.

I had been on the PCC for a while before I ever ventured into a ‘Home Group’. I was a busy mum with a full-time job and time was very precious. Then the PCC had a visiting speaker and an initiative called ‘Forward with God’ was launched. PCC members were ‘encouraged’ to go to one of the groups which were set up to follow the course.

I found I enjoyed it and got to know the people involved and was sad when the course ended. I think that there were about six groups and at the end of the course only one continued – not the one to which I had been going. I found I really missed it so I took a deep breath and joined the one that was continuing – and I can honestly say it was one of the best things I ever did.

To me being in a small group is church. Groups are inclusive, welcoming and eager to grow. Somehow, belonging makes you want to do more for God and become closer to the person you are intended to be. The people in the group form relationships because we share our thoughts and learn together. Over the years, my faith has grown and my relationship with God has deepened.

Through home groups, I have made real friends – people I can rely on, people I trust absolutely, people who help out, people I can cry with and have lots of laughs with; they are my ‘go to people’ and yet they are always so welcoming to anyone new.

At the moment, groups are continuing on Zoom. I really look forward to when we can gather again in person. We’ll advertise when that is happening. Why not give it a try?

Maxine Everitt

Children and Youth, Church Buildings, Giving and Fundraising, St John's Church, support

We’re Crowdfunding for our new Youth Hub

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We are crowdfunding to raise money for our new Youth Hub at the St John’s which will be every day after school for 11-16 year olds. Check out www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/st-johns-project to find out what you can get for your money and what we will be doing with it.

The Youth Hub

The hub will be open to all young people and we will be working in partnership with Relational Hub, a national charity which is helping young people thrive. Relational Hub is a proven model of youth and community work, with over a decade of supporting young people.

The Youth Hub will be based on these four principles:

Radical Hospitality – the way you welcome young people;

Everyday Youth Work – daily, consistent drop-in;

Support and Opportunities – developing skills and co-producing projects;

Sustainable Approach – having a long term approach, fundraising and enterprise strategy.

The link to find out more is here: www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/st-johns-project

Events, Inclusion, magazine, outreach, Pastoral Care, Prayer, Social Events, St George's Church, St John's Church, St Mark's Church, support

The May magazine is here

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Our May magazine is out now, a bumper edition this month with information about the elections for Surrey County Council members and the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner. Please read their statements and please vote; if we don’t bother to have a say we can hardly complain about the people who are elected.

There is information too about events going on this month including our Farnham Flower Festival (online again, of course) which is being sponsored by our favourite florist Florescence, and plans for the fete in July. Please get involved in both. There is news about new rooms to hire, an article on grief, information about taking part in Christian Aid Week and much more, plus, of course, lots of great adverts with services, offers and classes.

Download it here:

May 21Download
Prayer, Services, St George's Church, St John's Church, St Mark's Church, support

Prince Philip 1921-2021

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Our sincere condolences and prayers are with Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family, as they mourn the loss of His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh.

There will be services at all the churches this Sunday: 9.30am at St John’s, Hale Road; 10am at St George’s, Badshot Lea; and 11am at St Mark’s, Alma Lane.

There will be an opportunity to light a candle and tie a black ribbon in the churchyard afterwards.

The churches will also be open next week for private prayer and lighting candles.

Because of Covid-19 we are unable to have a physical Book of Condolence but if you wish to sign one, there is an online one here: https://www.churchofengland.org/remembering-his-royal-highness-prince-philip

You can also do so by scanning the QR code here:

If you need support or further information, contact admin@badshotleaandhale.org or call 07842761919.

Picture of Prince Philip copyright: The Press Association

Children and Youth, Health and Wholeness, Pastoral Care, support

Children’s Mental Health Week

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This week is Children’s Mental Health Week and it can’t come soon enough. All around us young people are struggling – lockdown, home-schooling, missing friends and family, anxiety, exam pressure, no space of their own. Some have added pressures – they may have parents or siblings working on the frontline, they may have lost someone during the pandemic, be ill or have a friend or family member who is ill. Some are living in homes where they do not feel safe.

There are lots of resources to help, particularly on the website www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/ This year the theme is Express Yourself. Finding creative ways of expression can be a huge boost to mental health. Art, craft, music, poetry, photography and drama are great ways of expressing our feelings and can make us feel better. There are ideas on the mental health week website, and some  free virtual sessions led by experts and familiar faces across acting, art, content creation, dance and writing. 

We are running a lockdown poetry festival so why not have a go at expressing your feelings in poetry – and encourage your children to do too.

If you need further help there are people out there to offer it. Don’t struggle on your own. Childline can be a great source of support for young people – 0800 1111 – and we have a list of numbers in the poster below.

Please do feel free to contact the clergy – revd.alan@badshotleaandhale.org
revd.lesley@badshotleaandhale.org
01252 820537.

And in an emergency, call 999.