News and thoughts from St Barnabas.
TOTS (Together on Tuesdays) has been suspended until Tuesday 1st March at the earliest due to the infection risks in the confined space of the Honeycomb.
Morning Prayer on Facebook will take a break after Christmas Eve.
It will return on Tuesday, 3rd January 2022.
Masks must now be worn inside our church buildings unless you are exempt or consuming food or drink.
This is particularly important with new variants of Covid in circulation, and vital for keeping each other safe at busy Christmas services.
We are using individual cups for communion, and keep our building well ventilated with doors open during services, so it can become cold. Please dress warmly!
We ask that everyone respect each other’s viewpoints on this as we want as many people as possible to feel comfortable coming to our services.
We urgently need members of both St Barnabas and St Mary’s to encourage each other by meeting weekly at 4pm on a Thursday at St Barnabas.
We hold each other in prayer at this time, giving God quiet and space to speak as we seek to allow the Holy Spirit inspire, guide and direct us as we seek to join in his Kingdom-building work in our communities.
Please come and join us, as we call upon the Lord.
This week we will be remembering the fallen of both World Wars and all conflicts since, the family and friends of those affected, and those who continue to serve us and others sacrificially in many walks of life around the world.
Services of Remembrance will take place in both churches in the Benefice at 10am on Sunday 14th November 2021, followed by Acts of Remembrance outside those churches at 10.50am as we gather as communities to pay our respects.
You are welcome to come and join us at either church, or follow the appropriate service online via YouTube. If you would like more information please contact Rev'd Rachel.
Many of us have had close relatives and friends die over the last couple of years. In many cases it hasn't been possible to attend funerals and we may have found grieving difficult because of difficulties we've been faced with. Our memories of those we have lost will always be with us, but it can sometimes be helpful to take part in a special act of remembrance together with others; a special time to recall those we have lost and give thanks for their lives.
This year we are offering two opportunities to share in a special service of thanksgiving for our loved ones.
The first is at St. Mary’s Eversley on Sunday 31st October at 4pm.
The second is at St. Barnabas Darby Green on Sunday 7th November at 4pm.
Wherever you, or your loved ones, live you are welcome at either service. As we continue to try and keep each other as safe as possible, we are encouraging social distancing and asking people to continue to wear face-masks (unless you are medically unable to). The church will be well ventilated, so please wrap up warm.
If you wish your loved ones and friends to be mentioned by name at the service you wish to attend, please contact me (Rev'd Rachel - see below). We hope you will be able to join us.
On Wednesday 27th October at 7.30pm, Abby Roper from St Barnabas is giving a talk for Yateley Society on the history of St Barnabas Church.
We have agreed to host them in the church and they would love people from the congregations to come along to join them for the evening.
Please come along if you can!
Come and share your craft skills and enjoy each other's company as we creatively connect with our communities. A chance to relax and refresh yourself, remember old skills, re-use them and anything else we can think of, as we seek to create things of use to the wider the community. These mornings will normally take place on the second Thursday of each month at Rev'd Rachel's home with refreshments. All are welcome. Please contact her for address details.
We are looking to start a new initiative with Charles Kingsley School, which we will also hopefully be rolling out with our link schools in Darby Green soon:
Twice a week – on a Tuesday and a Friday – a small group of volunteers from the church will hang around the school playground wearing church clothing from shortly before to just after school pickup time to engage the parents and children in conversation.
During the pandemic, and even before, many parents will come to the school gate at pick up time needing to talk to someone about things which are happening in their lives. Often these conversations have ended up with parents talking to teachers.
The idea of the Playground Pastors would be to offer a listening ear and a friendly face for people to come and talk to about whatever is going on. The conversations may be mundane to begin with, but as people get to know us they will feel able to share more important things.
Anyone who can listen. We aren’t looking for people who are especially skilled or trained in either pastoral care or evangelism – instead we’d love a few people who would be willing to be available to people and engage people in conversation. Primarily this is for the parents rather than the children, but inevitably they will engage with you too.
Ideally we would love to get 6-12 people who would be willing to do either once a week or once a fortnight. The time commitment is only from 2.30 – 3.30pm on either a Tuesday or a Friday and we would offer some basic training beforehand. We would like to start in November if possible.
If you want to know more, or think you could get involved please contact me.
Thank you to everyone who came to support this last week.
We were able to raise £100 for MacMillan and everyone had a lovely time.
Thanks to Cheryl, Pat and Jackie for helping to make this happen and all who came along to support it.