Church Blog
News, Updates, Thoughts

 
Dear Friends

The churchyard at Eversley is bursting into life – despite the early morning frosts. I saw primroses in the churchyard last Sunday and today, as I drove back from the church, I saw a flock of about 50 deer in one of the fields. Everybody is commenting on the sun and how much better it makes us feel.

Fitting in with the spring feeling, this week we have begun our preparations for Easter. It doesn’t really seem possible that we are already thinking about Easter, but we had a wonderful Messy Church Pancake Party last Sunday and Ash Wednesday services during the week, which lead us into the season of Lent.

The words we use in the Ash Wednesday service as a confession do two things, they remind us of how much we need God and remind us of the wonder of what Jesus did for us.

This year, we are using the book ‘ Lentwise’ to help us walk through Lent. We will be using the material in the book for both our sermons and for the  Lent groups that are starting over the coming week on either Wednesday 12th March or Thursday 13th March . Please see below for further details –it’s not too late to sign up. Each week the groups will be looking at a particular question relating to basic Christian living, how we find direction in life, how we keep going, how we find wisdom and security and how we refresh ourselves when everything seems weary. I had a taster session this week and we had the opportunity to study, pray, reflect and discuss what the Bible was saying, it was really helpful.  I am sure the series will be like a spring clean for the soul, so thankyou to Mark and Sally, Dave and Jane, Wendy and Derek for agreeing to lead the groups.

God Bless,

Faith.

 
“The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan.” Mark 1:12-13

Hello everyone

Next Wednesday is the start of Lent a time where we think about Jesus' temptations in the desert and renew our efforts to resist temptation in our own lives.

On Sunday we have the Benefice Pancake Party, to which you are all invited, when we’ll have the challenge of eating a pancake without licking our lips at all! Perhaps you might like to try this at home on Shrove Tuesday if you’re not coming to the Pancake Party.

Afterwards you might like to talk about how difficult this temptation was to resist and use this as a way to discuss temptation together. i.e when might we be tempted to make choices that are wrong? To do things that hurt others, to damage the earth or not to help other people in need? How can we overcome these temptations?

How can we overcome temptation?
            Jesus was driven by the Spirit of God… Satan forgot that Jesus wasn’t alone. The Spirit was still there. We are never alone. Jesus promised us that in John 14: 15-21

Enjoy your pancakes and may you draw closer to God this Lent.

Jane Hughes

Licensed Lay Minister

 Dear friends

I had a friend who died recently from a terminal illness. This week I met with her daughter, Mary (not her real name) to arrange the funeral. When I arrived, there were 6 little pink Post-it notes lying on the table. The notes had been neatly folded and then opened again. Next to the notes was a jar with lots of other Post-it’s in it. Mary explained that each day, over recent months, she had written something her mum had said or done on a note and put it in a jar.  She had picked out the most poignant notes from the container to be shared at the funeral.

Over the last two Sundays, at both churches, I have shared our vision to be churches which love God, love each other and love our communities. I spoke from Luke’s gospel about the miraculous catch of fish.  The reading starts with ‘One day as Jesus was standing by the lake ….’ Nothing would have happened if Jesus hadn’t been there – the fishermen would have gone hungry,  the crowds wouldn’t have gathered and there would have been no miracle to see.

Although loving each other and loving our neighbour is part of the greatest commandment, everything begins with the first part of the commandment “loving the Lord our God with our whole mind, soul and spirit”. It is our love for God that enables us to love each other and our community.

As I thought about this and the little pink Post-it notes in the jar, it occurred to me that our love, even our love for God, often grows slowly and imperceptibly.

I wonder if there is value in having our own pot of Post-its where every day, we write down one thing that has reminded us of God’s love for us. Then, occasionally, we can unfold those notes and be reminded of His great love for us and be inspired to love Him more.

God bless

Faith

 
Dear friends

This week many of us will be heading into half-term, perhaps via a romantic Valentine’s evening, or looking forward to a short break with family or other loved-ones. Love is of course at the heart of the Gospel message, where Jesus’ actions spoke of the unconditionality of that love for all. His sacrifice on the cross was offered for everyone, and we can encounter the reality of that in the forgiveness we receive by placing our faith in his crucifixion and resurrection, something we frequently remember in the celebration of Holy Communion with bread and wine. 

Many of us will have been praying for the ‘government’ of the Church of England (called ‘General Synod’) this week. Among other things, they are making difficult decisions following historic safeguarding errors and the lack of sensitivity and love shown toward survivors of abuse.

In addition to that you may have seen some other media stories about how Holy Communion should, and can, be distributed. Rules (called Canons) that pre-date an understanding of allergies such as those experienced by coeliacs were picked up on by the media, who sadly didn’t make it clear that it is common practice in churches to make far more inclusive provision.

This includes St. Mary’s and St. Barnabas where we have gluten-free wafers available for those who need them. If this is your situation, please let clergy/ service leaders know, we keep everything on a separate dish to avoid cross contamination. Similarly, if sharing in the chalice of wine presents any risk or concern for you, please just quietly move away after receiving the bread, knowing that you have received that loving memory of Jesus’ sacrifice in full. Please talk to Faith or I, if you have further questions.

Faith and Stuart are taking a short break from next Friday 21st Feb for a few days. Please contact the administrators or myself if you have any particular needs or concerns whilst Faith and Stuart take this well-earned rest.

Go well and God bless

Rachel.

 
Dear friends,

One of the ways that I like to start any meeting is to share encouragements of where we have seen God working. It is always good to lift up our eyes and notice what is going on around us. This Sunday at St Mary's we will be spending some time doing that together, reflecting on all that God has been doing amongst us over the last year and looking forward to what the next 12 months may bring. We will be doing the same next week at St Barnabas.

When I first came, I remember saying that my vision for the benefice was for it to be a place where we lived out what Jesus called the greatest commandment, which broadly paraphrased, is to love God, to love each other and to love our community.   I know that isn’t just my vision or a new vision for us and that it has been at the heart of what has happened over many years. Pinned to the notice board in the vestry at St Marys there is an old, yellowing piece of paper with the same vision on it, love God, love each other, love our community.

We have so much to be thankful for as churches and so much to look forward to. Over the last few weeks there have been so many encouragements, we've seen more people joining us on a Sunday morning, we have seen prayers being answered and experienced encouraging responses to new areas of mission. 

I hope that you can join us at one of the services over the next few weeks, if you have your own encouragements that you would like to share I would love to hear them, either when we meet or in an email. I'd love to hear from you.

God Bless

Faith.

Dear friends,

The module I am just finishing in my Licensed Lay Ministry (LLM)  course is about ‘human identity’. It is a huge and surprisingly complicated topic, all about what it means to be ‘made in the image of God’, and why it matters. One of my favourite quotes is from a nun called Sister Nonna Verna Harrison, who says that “human persons are intrinsically endowed with royal dignity… it is a gift from the Creator, the intrinsic value, honor, and splendor of the children of God that lies hidden at the inmost core of every human being.” Wow! Did you know you are intrinsically endowed with royal dignity?!

As I’ve been doing this module, I’ve thought, ‘How do you help someone to see their value, to see they’re made in the image of God?’ I think one way is for us to see their value, for us to see God’s image in them, to recognise their royal dignity as a child of God, and to treat them as such. Actions speak louder than words. As usual, Jesus said it much more clearly: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)

It seems to me that the people of this benefice are really good at loving and valuing others – I certainly have felt valued here since I joined you. I hope you feel loved and valued too – you are!

Love Roo

One of my lecturers when I first started studying theology wrote a book called “Reading the Bible with the dammed”. In his book he described his experience of reading the bible with some of the toughest criminals in jails in Mexico and America. What he found was that the experiences of those in jail gave him a fresh and different insights to the Bible than those he had gained from his standard American upbringing. I particularly remember him saying that prisoners weren’t surprised when they were reading the Bible story about Paul and Silas breaking out of the Philippian jail. They thought the security was obviously very lax, but they were also amazed that after breaking out they just stood around talking to the jailor.

His main point was that if we always study the Bible with people from a similar backgrounds or traditions our understanding will be poorer than it could be. For the same reason the diocese gives people training for ministry the opportunity to visit and learn from the church in Rwanda.

This Sunday we are fortunate that we have two preachers who come from outside our normal tradition. At St Marys, Roger Standing who has been the Principal of Spurgeon’s Baptist Bible college is joining us. At St Barnabas we are being joined by Pastor Leonard and the rest of the congregation from Triumphant Global Ministries (TGM), the Ghanian church that meets in St Barnabas on a Sunday afternoon.

I hope you can make it to one or the other services.

God Bless,

Faith

P.S - There is more background information about Triumphant Global Ministries on the Winchester Diocese website:

https://winchester.anglican.org/celebrating-ecumenical-partnerships-in-our-diocese-for-week-of-christian-unity/?utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Fcomms.winchester.anglican.org%2Fdioceseofwinchesterlz%2F&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Mailer%20-%2016%20January%202025&utm_term=Weekly%20Newsletter%2016%20January%202025&utm_content=10517&gator_td=3cz2nwrKgn9YbhAswiQN19vyp9a21hasQjBCqD%2FXpAPO0cnJLLZHDA5bT7KXKMwD62r2xcvzS6ZPuwJLfXBcmA80EE%2FK2B1u7OD2HgWh6sC5XEE%2FGCPFFUVa1I3GBg8rvb0TlAcxCOUwq39Re3zW2rBlk938vt1lJES0UqTo9B4%3D

Dear friends,

Graham and I are enjoying being back among our friends across the benefice and in our communities, seeing what things have been completed across the fabric improvements to both churches, and exploring what everyone is looking forward to in the coming year. 

This Saturday 18th January at St. Mary's is one of the very practical days that helps to keep the Grade 1 listed church, and it's churchyard, well maintained. Some of us will be clearing, cutting, cleaning and sharing in hot drinks from 10am-1pm on Saturday. If, like me, you are currently struggling a little for mobility in some respects, there will still be things that you can help with, even if it's only for an hour, so do join us if you can. 

Next weekend (Sunday 23rd January) we have visiting speakers at both 10am services, details of which can be found further down this newsletter. Do come, welcome and listen to fresh voices as they share the Gospel with us from different non-Anglican contexts.

Clergy are not immune from going through tough times. I am returning to my curacy parish a couple of times in the coming month to cover for a bereaved colleague who was ordained at the same time as Lerys and I, and is also well known to Faith.

Please do hold in prayer all in our Benefice and in the wider Deanery and Diocese, especially those who are struggling to come to terms with difficult personal circumstances at this time.

Go well and God bless,

Rachel

Dear friends

I was rather late to the party at being confirmed (when, in the church of England, you take the promises that others made on our behalf when we were baptised as infants)  and needed to be ‘done’ before I could be ordained. The only service available in the time frame was a Pentecost service at the cathedral, and after lining up to be confirmed there was this surprising moment when the Bishop strode along the huge nave dipping an enormous sprig of Rosemary into a bowl  and spraying the congregation with water whilst calling out ‘Remember your baptism’. It felt a bit embarrassing at the time but remembering our baptism is a good thing to do.

This Sunday, we will be thinking about the baptism of Christ.  Coincidentally I was talking with a group of people about having a ‘celebration of baptism’ service later in the year so that we could invite all of the people who have had their children baptised recently back to church. Somebody pointed out that it isn’t just the newly baptised that should celebrate their baptism but that it is something that most of us in church can and should revel in.

Our baptism marks the beginning of  our commitment to  follow Christ and making him Lord in our lives. This week, as we think about the significance of Jesus’s baptism, let’s not just remember our own baptisms as a past event but spend some time considering how our commitment to turn to Christ has shaped our lives  and how we can more fully follow and love him, which is, after all,  what  we promised to do when we were baptised.

Faith

The lectionary and all the Bible Reading apps that I draw on regularly all share the same reading for new years day. It comes from Numbers 6 and it is the blessing that God asks Moses to share with the Israelites.

I love the words of that blessing and I often use it when people have come for  prayer rather than bread and wine at the communion table.

'The Lord bless and keep you: the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you: the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.'

At the beginning of the year, there is space and opportunity to reflect on the past and to consider the future, this is my prayer for each of us. That as individuals, as churches  and as a benefice, we, and all whom we love and are called to serve, will know to an ever increasing extent, God's blessing, God's protection, God's grace, God's peace, God's presence and pleasure over the next twelve months.

Faith