Church Blog
News, Updates, Thoughts

The leadership teams of St. Mary's and St. Barnabas are working with Rt Rev'd David Williams, Bishop of Basingstoke to appoint a new full time clergy person to serve the two parishes.

Bishop David met recently with both PCCs and explained that he and the Diocese are lifting the Suspension of Presentation in the Benefice that has meant that our last two stipendiary clergy have been appointed Priest-in-Charge. This means that the next appointment to our Benefice will be for a Vicar, although the term makes no material changes to the nature of the post. We are told that formal notice of this change will come from Diocese soon.

Bishop David also agreed that if we progress swiftly with the work of writing the Parish Profile and Person Specification required to advertise our vacant post, the Diocese will not immediately let out St. Barnabas House (the Vicarage) to tenants.

The PCCs of the two parishes have a group of people as a ‘writing team’ for the Benefice and they have already met  twice in February. Once they have produced a draft document, it will need to be approved by the PCCs of both parishes, before being made available to anyone enquiring about the post. 

Over the next couple of weeks we have visiting clergy coming to the parishes. This week Bishop David is leading worship at St. Barnabas at 10am. Likewise the Archdeacon, Richard Brand is coming to St. Mary's to help lead worship and preach at the 10am service. Next week Bishop David will be at St. Mary's to lead and preach at both services.

They are also coming so they can get to know the wider community as they help us prepare to look for a new Vicar. These are great opportunities to engage further in the life of St. Mary's fellowship, as we continue to support various aspects of community life, including running the Lunch Clubs, supporting local schools, running the Foodbank and providing facilities for two pre-schools (one in each parish).

Please come and worship with us, and talk to them about why your local church is an asset to your community.

I am thinking about starting a Homegroup, possibly on Thursday morning, at or in a home near St. Barnabas, Darby Green.

There has been a bit of conversation about a craft group as well, but I can’t do both, although many creatives would say that their craft helps them pray, so there may be a creative opportunity here.

Would this interest anyone else who hasn’t talked to me already?

Can you spare an hour occasionally to deliver emergency food parcels to local people when the foodbank is closed i.e. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday?

If you are interested please let me know.

From Monday 2nd January 2023 online Morning Prayer (via Facebook and later available on YouTube) will be shared by Rachel, Jane and Derek on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only.

We hope this will continue to be a source of prayerful enrichment to those who like to make use of it.

Please come and join us at our Christmas Services:

Friday 9th December

5:30-7:00pm Fireside Carols (at St Mary's Church)

Sunday 11 December

10:00am Community Carol Service

Christmas Eve

4:00pm Christingle Service

11:00pm Midnight Communion (at St Mary's Church)

Christmas Day

10:00am Holy Communion

With the cost of cards and postage ever increasing, the idea was put forward to have one Christmas card which everyone could sign at the back of the church.

There will also be a donation box for any donations they wish to make instead of buying cards.  The money raised will be donated to a charity.  Please give any suggestions for a charity to Margaret.

A huge thankyou to Marilene, Rachel, Derek, Kate, Seren, Abby, Penny, Kathy, Jane L, Jane H, Jeanette, Jackie who helped out with our schools days at St Barnabas over the last two weeks.

In total, nearly 300 children from Potley Hill, Frogmore Infants and Spring were able to engage with the Christmas story as part of their RE Syllabus.

Thank you so much!

On 1 November 2022 our Diocesan Vacancy in See Committee has asked us to hold a day of prayer and fasting to pray for the Holy Spirits guiding in the process for discerning and appointing our next Bishop of Winchester.

We are also suggesting we use the day as an opportunity to pray for the next Priest in Charge for our own parishes.

We will be holding the following events during the day where this will be our particular focus of prayer but you are also invited to offer your own prayers at other times in your own way:

• 10am - Online and in person Morning Prayer at St Mary’s
• 11.30am - Holy Communion at St Barnabas with a focus on prayer
• 6.45pm - Prayer meeting at St Barnabas prior to the PCC Meeting at 7.30pm

A huge thank you to everyone who came along, and especially to those who helped with the Lite Nite at St Barnabas on Saturday.

We had a good number of people come and join us, and quite a lot from outside our regular congregations in particular.  Lots of fun was had and we took over £130 in donations.

A huge thank you to Derek and Jeanette in particular for organizing it, and for everyone who took on jobs and helped make it so much fun.

Over the last few years we have struggled to get sufficient numbers together for our midnight services to justify them and so I have been asked if it is worth holding one this year.

If you think that you are most likely to want to come to a service at 11/11.30pm on Christmas Eve, please could you let me know by Friday 4th November and we will take a decision on whether / where to hold a midnight communion service this year.