Church Blog
News, Updates, Thoughts

Ash Wednesday is on 22nd February, and on the Sundays following, and in our discipleship groups we will be looking at the story of Nehemiah, and what we can learn from it for our churches today.

This focus has been prayerfully chosen by the combined forces of ministers and preachers across St. Mary’s and St. Barnabas, with help from those who are supporting us from other churches. Nehemiah is just part of the story of how, and how well, Jerusalem was rebuilt following the Exile of Israel in Babylon. To get a clear picture of the historic context please can everyone in our churches:

• Take time to read through the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah (which were originally one book!) They’re not that long, and you’re only looking at understanding the sweep of the story.
• Watch the video Overview: Ezra-Nehemiah which will also help us understand what’s going on, and might start to raise some questions about how studying Nehemiah might have relevance to our current situation – it’s only 8.5 minutes long, it’s not a feature film 

If you are interested in buying the book (which costs about £7.10-£7.99 depending on the bulk ordered), please email me (I can use a discount to order). Otherwise our homegroups will be provided with a range of notes for sessions, which will follow on from the preceding Sunday’s sermon. There will be 5 sessions before we break for Holy Week, and 2 further sessions after the Easter holiday’s – which is why we’ve called it a Spring Discipleship Course - rather than a Lent one!

If you’ve got any questions, want to join a group to specifically look at this as we continue to pray and study scripture through vacancy, then please do talk to one of the Churchwardens or ministers!

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'm hoping and praying to restart my home group.

One thought is to run it during the daytime so that those who find night-time driving difficult could attend. So please can you let me know which of the following days would suit you: Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon, or Friday afternoon.

If daytime doesn't suit you then please let me know and I could look at an evening group too. Again let me know which day suits you: Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday?

Look forward to hearing from you.

Due to the temporary relocation of Autumn Cottage Childcare operations to the Rectory Room and associated car park area, we have had to move Mini Church to St. Mary’s Church Hall and change the day it operates to accommodate other established users of that space. 

St Mary's Mini Church re-starts on Friday 13th January 2023 
in St. Mary’s Church Hall, 
8.45am – 10.30am

St. Mary’s Church Hall is behind St. Mary’s Church, Church Lane, Eversley, RG27 0PX. Parking is on the green outside. Access is via the main entrance of the Church, or go around the back on the tarmac path and enter up the path between the church and the hall.

If you want to know more about Mini Church please contact us

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

Sunday 11 December

2:30pm Bramshill Chapel Carol Service

Sunday 18th December

10:00am Community Carol Service

Christmas Eve

4:00pm Christingle Service

11:00pm Midnight Communion Service

Christmas Day

8:00am BCP Communion

10:00am All Age Communion

A big thank you to everyone who supported our Fireside Carols event this weekend.

In total we had over 250 people join us for event and took over £550 in raffle/donations/refreshments.

A particular thank you to all who helped organise beforehand, those who helped on our refreshments stall, and bought the refreshments to sell, Clive and our choir, the bell ringers, Yateley Lions for providing the lights and fencing, Tim for sound and tech support, Rachel and Graham for organising the Raffle, all those who provided gazebos, firepits etc, David Lister for providing the wood and of course CKS staff and pupils from Year 3 and 4 for making the evening so memorable.

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

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.