Church Blog
News, Updates, Thoughts

For the next four weeks we will once again be joining in with generous June.

This is an opportunity for each of us to reflect on God’s generosity to us, and our own response both in terms of the time, talents and money that we give back to God, and also our attitudes to those around us. We will very helpfully be led in our thoughts with sermons both by live visiting speakers in some cases, and in talks pre-recorded by our Bishop’s David and Debbie. As we engage with generous June once more, we will be inviting everyone to review our giving to church once more and look at what God is calling us to give.

Thank you to all who have already signed up to help.

We are planning a Jubilee Community afternoon on the green outside the Frogmore Social Hall from 12 -3pm on Saturday 4th June. People are encouraged to bring their own picnic but as part of this we would love to serve free tea and coffee alongside scones, cream and jam. There will also be a photo display of previous jubilees, activities for children / adults including a decorate a crown competition and various activities including a magician, plate smash, traditional children's races and other activities.  We would love some people to help with the following if you could:

• Help to serve up tea / Coffee and cream teas from 12 - 3 or a part thereof.
• Help to set up / prep food from 10 - 12 and then to pack down from 3- 4pm
• Help to supervise a craft activity for a part of the afternoon.
• People to come along and support the event with their families.
• People to help package clotted cream into small tubs on Friday 3rd at 10am at St Barnabas

Thanks in advance for your help!

Could you spare an hour or two a month to help at the Darby Green Foodbank, part of Hart Foodbank?

We need help to deliver food parcels to clients. This would happen on a Monday or Thursday between 1:30pm and 3:00pm. We also need help collecting supplies from our central store in Fleet for our foodbank in Darby Green. Again, this would be Monday or Thursday 1:30-3:00pm.

In both cases you will need access to a car and be physically able to carry heavy bags and trays of food. Petrol expenses can be claimed.

If you can help or would like more information, please contact me.

We have been invited by Frogmore Infants to return to doing ‘Open the Book’ Collective Worship’s from after half term.

Thank you to those who have asked me recently about restarting this ministry and to those who have volunteered.  We will be looking at:

• Thursday 16th June
• Thursday 30th June
• Thursday 14th July

at 1.45pm.

If you would be willing to be involved in this ministry, I’m going to suggest we meet on Thursday 9th June at 2.30pm to rehearse the three assemblies and work out what equipment we will need.

Please join us for our Easter Services:

Thursday 14th April

7pm Maundy Thursday Holy Communion at St Peter's Church, Yateley

Friday 15th April

10am Good Friday Family Worship at St Barnabas Church and on YouTube

Sunday 17th April

10am Easter Family Communion at St Barnabas Church and on YouTube

Our giant map of the parish of St Barnabas will soon be complete.

Jane Hughes has also given me a list of the roads in the parish of Eversley and at church on Sunday we will soon have this available to sign up on whilst we make a similar map for Eversley.

 We would love you to commit to praying every week for two streets in the parish(es).   If you live in the parish(es), one of these is your own.  The other is another which no one else has yet committed to praying for.  If you don't live in the parish, then we'd ask you to commit to 2 streets which no one else is praying for. 

If you are fit enough, perhaps you could go and visit the street you are committing to pray for, and prayer walk it. But if not then the act of praying from home for the people, buildings and communities represented by that street is a key indicator to God that we are serious about asking him to bless every person in our area with his love.

Praying for each street once a week or more frequently will also, we pray, open up opportunities in these areas for God to act.  Everyone can do this, so please do sign up when the sheets appear at the beginning of March and we will give you something to help remind you of your commitment to pray.

Alongside praying for our community, we also want to ask you to commit to praying for our Churches.

 Did you know that there are 10,080 minutes in a week?  I'm asking you to commit 10 of them (or 0.1%!) to pray specifically for your church.  Both of our churches face huge pressures at the moment and we need God to guide us and to step in with his resources to help us.  Regular committed prayer for our churches for 10 minutes each week is a way that every single person, regardless of physical ability, can help. 

Often people have said they don’t know what to pray for so we will commit to send out a short list each month of the particular things or areas that we would value prayer for over the next few weeks.  You do’t have to follow or take any notice of this list, but it is there to help guide your prayers if you wish.  Wherever possible we will let you know how and when God answers our prayers and the signs of hope we see.  Everyone can do this, so please do sign up in church this Sunday or if you can’t be there in person, drop us an email and we will give you something to help remind you of your commitment to pray and the first areas to pray for.

We have shared in prayer for the people of Ukraine on several occasions this week, including at our Ash Wednesday Services. Whilst we continue to pray for the situation, several people have asked about practical ways in which we can help, so we share the following for you to prayerfully consider:

One of the best and safest ways to donate is via the Disasters Emergency Committee have launched an appeal https://www.dec.org.uk or https://www.redcross.org.uk/ who are part of DEC. These are organisations who are well equipped to provide targeted assistance by ‘professionals’ at the places it is most needed, responding to need swiftly as the situation changes.

It is possible to donate physical items, but there is a very specific list of needs that Yateley Town Council are equipped to receive at the former Red Cross Hut, off Monteagle Lane, GU46 6LU. They also need volunteers to help receive and sort donations – if you can help with this please contact office@yateley-tc.gov.uk.

The donation point will be open Tuesday 15^th – Thursday 17^th March 4-7pm, and Friday 18th March 9am-1pm.

They will ONLY be able to accept the following:

• Pushchairs
• Torches
• Dried and canned food
• Batteries
• Nappies, nappy sacks, and wipes
• Baby products
• Baby food products (including toddler food)
• Special diet food (e.g. lactose and gluten free)
• Thermos flasks/insulated cups
• Sanitary products
• Medical supplies

Two years ago this week, our churches began to respond for the first time to the Coronavirus pandemic and I wrote to each of you about some changes to the way we were going to have to operate for the (near!) future.

 Two years later, and after all we have endured, and all we see in the news today, I wanted to write to you again.  We may not quite be back to normal yet – whatever that might mean – but this week saw a number of things restarting, and I wanted to mark this moment with a thankyou.  A couple of times this week I have been reminded of the need for us to be thankful, even, and perhaps especially, when things seem tough or bleak. I have also been reminded that we should express that gratitude to those around us, often and earnestly. So I want to take a moment today to say thank you to you all. 

Thank you to all of you who have helped us to keep our churches going over the last two years.  Whether in practical, financial or spiritual ways I am aware of how much time, money and prayer has gone into our church life.  Turning up on a Sunday, whether in person, or online is a huge encouragement to us and to one another so thank you to all of you who have taken the time to come, in person or virtually and shared with us. Thank you to everyone on this newsletter chain for praying for the things which are happening.  Thank you to our prayer chain pray-ers for keeping those of us in need in their prayers and indeed for all of you praying for me too.  Thank you for those of you who have gone on rotas and agreed to support us in so many ways.  Thank you to those who have joined us recently, and those who have been part of our communities for many years.  Thank you everyone for your continued support.

May God bless you all

Whilst the legal requirement that facemasks be worn in all church services has been dropped by government, we are still very keen to continue keeping everyone as safe and well as possible.

Singing still increases transmission risk, so in line with other churches and venues both locally and nationally we are continuing to ask congregations to remain masked particularly when singing please.

We will continue to use individual cups for Holy Communion, have hand gel available, and keep the churches well ventilated.

Please continue to dress warmly!