Church Information Dec 2021
Help is at hand! Useful numbers December 2021
Help is at hand! Useful numbers… Here are some of the useful numbers you may need if you need support in Ash Vale. If you think we are missing a number please let us know.
Local Churches:
St Mary’s, Ash Vale – 07863 311165 (Parish Administrator’s Mobile)
The Chapel, Ash Vale – 07730 609446 (Project Manager’s Mobile)
St Peter’s, Ash – 01252 331161
Holy Angels, Ash – 01252 321422 (Catholic Church)
St Paul’s, Tongham – 01252 782790
Continue reading “Help is at hand! Useful numbers December 2021”Christmas Market 12th Dec 2021 4-6pm
St Mary’s Christmas Market: Sunday 12th December 2021, 16:00-18:00
Continue reading “Christmas Market 12th Dec 2021 4-6pm”St Mary’s invites you to celebrate Christmas 2021
St Mary’s invites you to celebrate Christmas 2021
Mon 6th Dec. St Nicholas Lantern Walk 4-6pm Celebrate Advent with a lantern walk from The Chapel (Wharf Rd) to the church garden at St Mary’s (Vale Rd), where you can meet St Nicholas, enjoy the bonfire and taste Rev Neil’s famous home made pizza! Text to book a start time: 07730 609446
Continue reading “St Mary’s invites you to celebrate Christmas 2021”What’s Inside? Parishioner Aug/Sept 2021
A letter from the Vicarage — (p3&4) By Revd Neil Lambert
**Summer Ball 21st August, book your tickets today! (p5) **
Neighbourly Reflections — (p8&9) By Jackie Scott
Friday Night Isonation — (p10) By Steve Worsfold
Faith, Hope and Love in Uganda Lockdown (p11) Amaha We Uganda Update
My Favourite Recipe — (p14&15) Walnut Kisses by Jackie Scott
Chapel Music News — (p15) Matt Weeks enjoying the diversity at The Chapel
What’s on? – (p17) pull out and pop on the fridge!
Messy Church dates for the diary — (p19)
Bible Study—Where do we belong? — (p20&21) by Helen Lambert
Mirror Mind—Poetry Competition Winners! – (p22&23)
Ash Citizens Advice – (p24)
Chapel Filmshare – (p25) Dick Elsey invites you for a movie
Post Holiday Kitchen Blues – (p26 & 27)
Kids corner—(p28) Lucy suggests 10 things for kids to try in the summer holidays
Modern Aids—(p29) Scrivener
Help is at hand—useful numbers (p30)
Picnic & Play news (inside back cover)
Community café is on this Summer at St Mary’s on Fridays 10:30-12:00. No need to book just pop in. Tea, coffee, chat, come and say hello 🙂
We welcome fun, informative and local interest items!
The copy deadline for the Oct/Nov 2021 issue is 10th September.
Emails please to: parishioner@ash-vale.org.uk Thank you!
While the COVID infections rates remain high, we are minimising the risk to our readers and volunteers by printing only on request, and by sharing The Parishioner far and wide via email, website and social media instead. Please remember to like & share online! If you or someone you know would like a paper copy please pick one up at St Mary’s or contact 07730 609446 to request one. Best wishes & stay safe!
The Parishioner seeks to explore and reflect upon a wide variety of local issues whilst recognising
that not everyone will agree with the views expressed. These do not necessarily reflect the views of all the members of St Mary’s Church nor those of its Parochial Church Council.
Help is at hand! – Useful numbers
Here are some of the useful numbers you may need if you need support in Ash Vale. If you think we are missing a number please let us know.
Local Churches:
St Mary’s, Ash Vale – 07863 311165 (Parish Administrator’s Mobile)
The Chapel, Ash Vale – 07730 609446 (Project Manager’s Mobile)
St Peter’s, Ash – 01252 331161
Holy Angels, Ash – 01252 321422
St Paul’s, Tongham – 01252 782790
Local help and support during the Covid-19 crisis:
Ash, Ash Vale & Ash Green Coronavirus Support group (volunteers doing shopping & prescription runs & emergency food parcels) – 07843 489796
Ash Parish Council – 01252 328 287
Ash Citizens Advice – 01252 315569 or 01252 314711
Ash Vale Health Centre – 01252 317551 (Out of hours phone 111, in an emergency dial 999)
Guildford Borough Council Covid-19 Community Helpline – 01483 444400
Community Wellbeing Team – 07769 642053 / 07901 513652
Safe & Settled Team – 01483 444476 for those needing help at home on arriving back from hospital or needing some help to manage at home.
If you need to talk to someone : national helplines
Samaritans (24/7 service) – 116 123 or text SHOUT 85258
National Domestic Abuse Helpline – 0808 2000 247 www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/ (run by Refuge)
The Men’s Advice Line, for male domestic abuse survivors – 0808 801 0327
The Mix, free information/support for under 25s in the UK – 0808 808 4994
National LGBT+ Domestic Abuse Helpline – 0800 999 5428
PAPYRUS—Young suicide prevention society, 0800 068 4141
Childline for children 0800 1111
Alcoholics Anonymous — 0800 917 7650 (24/7)
Narcotics Anonymous — 0300 999 1212
Cruse Bereavement Care — 0808 808 1677
Contacting The Parishioner:
Call Alex 07730 609446 in the first instance and she will put you in touch with the right volunteer parishioner@ash-vale.org.uk
Donations: Did you know? You can now ’give a little’ online to support St Mary’s Church and all the work we do. We very much need and appreciate your support in these difficult times. https://givealittle.co/campaigns/e912dae4-3af1-4453-99dc-0330f32faf15 Thank you!
Picnic & Play in the Holidays
Picnic & Play in the Holidays
12:00 -14:00
Wednesdays in August
Outside in the garden at
The Chapel, Wharf Rd, GU12 5AY
Come and join us for a picnic, a chat and a play in the Chapel garden.
Please text Alex to book 07730 609446
Booking is essential so we can manage numbers
& cater for your picnic lunch.
Modern Aids
A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a seed & plant supply company. Its headline read that they had a stock of heritage seed packs available including one of the first (if not the first) climbing French Bean. The variety of this bean – The Lazy Housewife. The derogatory name derives from the fact that this variety of bean does not require de-stringing like runner beans: just topped & tailed and cut into short lengths before cooking, thus saving much labour in the kitchen!
This got me thinking about our attitudes to change in an ever changing world. So often a really more efficient way of achieving a target arrives but it may take years for the new way to catch on. Sometimes the new way is either mocked (rather like The Lazy Housewife above), or completely underestimated like the possible demands for television sets (people will soon get tired of watching a plywood box) and most famously in the fallaciously attributed statement that in 1943 Thomas Watson (the President of IBM) declared that he thought there was a world market “for maybe five computers” and “5,000 copying machines” –it was someone else!
My father bought my mother the first refrigerator in the street, it was noisy but it kept the milk and other perishable foodstuffs fresh for much longer than the larder, at the same time he purchased a washing machine to replace the copper that had to be removed so that the refrigerator could be fitted into the kitchen (it was a VERY small galley kitchen). So at a stroke my mother could reduce the weekly number of times she needed to shop and reduce washday to a mere morning’s labour. The gainsayers all said “We don’t need such things, why would we waste money on electrical appliances to block up the kitchen when we can go to the shop every day (except ½day Wednesday, ½day Saturday and whole day Sunday) for perishables, and send the washing to the laundry?”. The latter point had a slight ring of truth but with two irascible sons and an engineer for a husband the stuff needing to go off to the laundry from our household alone would have filled the laundry truck.
These days few people would not have a refrigerator, a washing machine, a television or a computer and only a few pedants would have inkwells, quill pens, typewriters or a box of single use Nightingale Gramophone Needles. There seems to be a tipping point with good new ideas, either they are “quickly” accepted and become the new normal or they fall away into history, sometimes to be found and resurrected eons later. Leonardo’s “helicopter” drawing is a case in point.
So what will future generations think about the machinations of pro & anti vaxxers and pro & anti maskers when the main concern has to be getting “things” safe for the world population?
Scrivener
Kids Corner—things to do in the holidays
By Lucy Sanderson (age 9)
Here are some ideas for what people can do in the Summer holidays! I hope you enjoy them.
1) Go on a bug hunt—how many creatures can you find?
2) Go hiking, near here there are some lovely walks on the ranges and along the canal.
3) Make your own ice lollies! I like to use orange juice or orange squash. If you don’t have lolly moulds you can use an old yoghurt pot and a teaspoon!
4) Bake a cake (tip for vegans, you can use a basic shop cake mix and a can of fizzy orange to make a yummy chocolate orange cake!)
5) Camp outside! Borrow a tent or pin a big sheet over the trampoline, add a duvet and you’re ready to sleep out. Don’t forget the midnight feast!
6) Rock paper splash! This is a variation on the game ‘rock paper scissors’ but the loser each round gets splashed with water.
7) Make your own spray paint for outdoor art. Mix (washable) paint and water in an old cleaning spray bottle (make sure you clean it out thoroughly first!) then spray on to a wall, or and old sheet to create your artwork (check with grownups for permission before you paint!)
8) Create your own beach! If you have a sandpit you can dig a hole and add a big bowl of water to dip your toes in. Ahhhhhhh lovely.
9) Junk Modelling—make your own toy! Recycle old clothes into teddy bears, or cereal packets into robots, anything goes!
10) Den building—in the summer heat, shade is the key to happiness! Get a sheet or blanket and pin, peg or drape it wherever there is space, and create your own den. How about making a big one if you have brothers and sisters?
Have great fun with this list.
Lucy
Post-holiday kitchen blues
By Jane Cox
You know how it is: you stagger in from a glorious holiday having been reunited with family at last. After 7 hours on the road on a journey which should have taken 4, you are hungry, desperate for a cup of tea and weighed down by a pile of washing that threatens to erupt from the suitcase. All you want is to collapse under the duvet and sort it all out tomorrow.
This year we got back to a kitchen that was a building site – the only functioning things were the kettle and the cooker – no sink, no hob, no fridge, no washing machine (eeek!!!) and the contents of the kitchen stacked up in boxes in the dining-room. Could I find where I had put things??? Of course not. Why is it some people can remember exactly where they put things (my husband – unless it’s his comb) and others can’t (me)?
Meals take so long when you have to hunt for things. You end up eating your breakfast (if you can find it) out of an old yoghurt pot. For many days I was washing up in the bath – not recommended for those with dodgy backs. There are various aggravations: not being able to access the room in which I spend a lot of my day; the need to clamber round ladders, paint pots, dust sheets and all manner of building paraphernalia every time the dog needs a piddle. I could not ask for a nicer builder, but his constant presence from the cheerful ‘hello’ at an hour of the morning when I am not presentable, to the afternoon’s equally cheerful, ‘see you tomorrow’ is wearing. Sometimes I just need space to think, swear, sing, talk to myself, overdose on chocolate without being observed.
We thought it was an excellent idea when our builder suggested he started the long-overdue work on our kitchen while we were away – and it was sensible advice. Never having had a new kitchen before, we had just naively expected less chaos and more progress when we got back. The disruption has continued for weeks, and I’ve got teeth-grindingly, self-pityingly stressed – while feeling pretty guilty about it. I know I am really lucky to be having a new kitchen at all – but I still get stressed. The kindness of friends offering help, people turning up at the door with meals and offering me the use of their washing machine, has been amazing and I am so grateful….but still stressed!
Then in our church service we heard from brothers and sisters in Uganda. The country has gone back into Covid lockdown with catastrophic consequences. People who live from hand to mouth unable to work and support their families are going hungry. Widows, street children, who have nothing, and no one to care for them, are in danger of starvation. Their situation is truly desperate. And this is happening now, today, when I am moaning about washing up in the bath.
That put things in perspective for me. I am utterly ashamed. How dare I complain when they, quite literally, face the prospect of losing their lives? For all the temporary stress, I have so much. I may not have a properly functioning kitchen, but I am not going hungry. So, I am determined to turn my back on grumbling; to lower my expectations of what I can do, while there is disruption at home, so as not to add to my stress; to be exceedingly grateful for the huge amount I have – not least the kind friends who care and share with me — and a beautiful new kitchen to look forward to…even if it is taking a while.
