Author: The Parishioner

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Greetings from St Peter’s, Ash

By Revd Keith Bristow & Revd Carol Monk

Warmest greetings from the Reverend Keith Bristow and the Revd. Carol Monk. We would like to tell you a bit about the church here, which has enabled people to worship God and serve others, for about 800 years.

We are a friendly bunch from all walks of life and all ages. As well as our weekly services we always have lots of other things going on – from our daily pre-school to events for those of more mature years! We are very excited about welcoming back lots of groups to our fantastic Parish Centre, now that COVID restrictions are lifting. Our facilities are available for hire for children’s parties, dance groups, U3A, uniformed organisations, craft groups and much more. As a church we hold a Summer Fete and a Christmas Fayre, monthly soup lunches, social evenings, quiz nights and afternoon teas, to name but a few. Prayer groups and Bible studies help us to get to know God better, and become the people He wants us to be.

We welcome many families who bring their children to be Christened (Baptised), and sometimes adults ask to be Christened too – you’re never too old! We enjoy celebrating weddings with couples setting out on the adventure of married life. We also offer Blessings for those not married in church, and renewal of vows for those celebrating special anniversaries. On a sadder note, we can be there for people when a loved one dies. We conduct funerals in church or, if preferred, at the Crematorium, and we tailor each service to reflect all that the person meant to their family and friends. Every November we invite families to a service to remember and give thanks for them all. We also have a caring Pastoral Team of trained volunteers who offer support too. You don’t have to be a regular church member for us to share in these life events with you – just contact us and we can take it from there.

Our worship is centred around Holy Communion but we also have a more informal family service each month and other types of relaxed worship from time to time. Whether you have been a Christian for years, or just want to explore what it’s all about, you will quickly feel at home with us, just come as you are! We look forward to meeting you soon.

May God bless you,

Revd Keith and Revd Carol

http://www.saint-peters-ash.org.uk/

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Ash CAB – Your Questions Answered

I have been living in my privately rented flat for years. I generally have a good relationship with my landlord, but I just cannot get them to carry out various repairs that have built up. How can I get them to act – and what exactly do they have to do?

This must be a very frustrating situation. The law states that your landlord must provide accommodation that is safe, healthy, and free from things that could cause serious harm. (This is for England only)

You do not say exactly what repairs are needed. If you have problems such as electrical wiring that you think might be faulty, or there’s damp, or an infestation by pests, the landlord has a legal obligation to put things right.

Landlords are also responsible for the maintenance of the general structure, and fittings such as boilers and radiators; basins, baths, and toilets; and the drains.

The first step is to contact your landlord again, in writing. Include photographs of the problems. Keep a record of all communications and evidence relating to the disrepair.

If that does not prompt any action,  advisors at Citizens Advice can help you  with next steps. These could include contacting your local council who have dedicated officers for dealing with  privately rented properties in disrepair or asking for a visit by the environmental health team.

Tenants can take their landlords to court to force them to carry out repairs. However, it is worth getting some advice and thinking carefully before embarking on this route. You can contact us by email at ashcab.org.uk or call 01252 315569.

UPDATE from the Ash Office

Ash Citizens Advice would like to welcome Louise Seabrook Scrase, who will be the new Chief Officer for the Bureau. Louise has been volunteering with the bureau and is excited to be part of the highly skilled team delivering support and advice to our community. She is very much looking forward to working with the people of Ash

We currently have a vacancy for a Money Advice and Benefits Caseworker as part of a highly skilled and experienced casework team providing money and benefits advice to prevent homelessness across the borough of Guildford. You can find out more about this role by visiting our website ashcab.org.uk or e mail admin@ashcab.org.uk or call 01252 330080.

Ash Citizens Advice  helps people deal with the problems they face in everyday life and covers a range of topics including legal, consumer, employment, housing, benefits, debt and much much more.  If you would like to find out more about Volunteering or would like an application pack, please call  on 01252 330080 or email admin@ashcab.org.uk.

Every year Citizens Advice puts thousands of pounds back into the pockets of hard-pressed families, the unemployed, homeless, and poorest communities it serves. It does this by helping them to manage their money, claim their full financial entitlements and avoid the costs of getting into debt.

This money is critical to their lives and to local business. Without money people cannot afford the essentials of life and without spending, local business cannot thrive.

You can help us to keep local markets buoyant by supporting our work with people in need in your community.

Citizens Advice Ash is looking for Corporate Partners to work alongside us in the local community.

Citizens Advice Ash is currently open for telephone Advice, Monday to Thursday 9.30am to 4pm

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The Ash Vale Easter Trail!

We had so much fun with the lost sheep trail at Half Term, we are doing another one for Easter!

Please pop an Easter Egg, Easter Scene, Easter Garden, Easter Wreath or even a knitted Easter Egg in your window or front garden in time for Easter Sunday, and leave it up for 2 weeks, so we can all enjoy finding them during the Easter Holidays. We have our Easter Trail web page ready to go, and will add all your trail locations to our list in time for Easter Day.

Trail link: https://ash-vale.org.uk/easter-trail-4th-18th-april-2021/ Click here to see where to start hunting for Easter windows!

Continue reading “The Ash Vale Easter Trail!”
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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 (Ed) 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!

Which is your favourite egg? I rather like this one! – Ed

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Seasonal Favourites: Grow your own Pea shoots!

By Victoria Fox

Marrowfat peas make excellent Mushy Peas, but they also make delicious salad greens and are really simple to grow!

What you need:

· A pot, a trough, a pot, anything that will hold soil will do!

· Compost/soil (enough to fill your pot) 

· Marrowfat Pea seeds. 

If you are recycling your plant pot then make sure it’s had a good scrub in soapy water as dirty pots can harbour bacteria and moulds. Fill your pot loosely with compost. Lay your peas on the surface around an inch apart and poke them around half an inch down into the soil. Cover slightly so the peas are under the surface and water well.

Until April they will do better inside, on a sunny windowsill, after that they will do best outside. Place your pot somewhere where mice can’t get to it. Mice love peas! 

When they are around 6 inches high, trim the top few inches to eat. They taste lovely on their own, but are great  in salad!

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News from St Paul’s Church in Tongham

By Margaret Murray

The most exciting thing to happen this year (apart from vaccinations!) has been the start of the ramp building project. That isn’t to say that this has not been many months, or even years, in the planning. Only last summer we were busily examining bricks for compatibility with the clunch work of the church. (Phew – they match…). The ramp will make such a difference to wheelchair or pushchair users, in fact anyone who finds climbing stairs difficult. As part of the same project we are renovating the porch, with new glass doors and curtain heating to ensure a warm welcome – in both senses of the word!

We have carried out a considerable amount of fund-raising to finance the project, and people have been so generous, both in donations and in legacies and fund-raising, e.g. making cakes. (We do love cakes in Tongham.) Claire – our Vicar – was planning to do a sponsored sky-dive, and in fact may still do so.

Our builder, Richard Margetts, started work in December 2020, closely followed by Christmas, in quite horrendous weather – he has worked through rain, gales, snow and occasionally sunshine – and expects the work to be finished around Easter day, but as a back-up we are hoping to have an outdoor service to avoid using our shiny new ramp and porch. Or, more honestly, we are hoping to navigate any sudden changes of Governmental policy in the Lockdown restrictions by planning an outdoor service. Watch the website and Facebook for updates – because of course in Britain we can’t ignore the weather. But one way or another, whether online, outdoors, in church or maybe a mix of all three – we plan to be in action.

We are so looking forward to welcoming as many people as possible into our Church.

https://www.stpaulstongham.org.uk/

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Navigating By The Son: Finding Our Way in An Unfamiliar Landscape

How I Came to Write It, by Stephen Cox

About twenty years ago I prayed what for me then was an almost unthinkable prayer. I paused for a long time before I prayed it. I couldn’t imagine the sequence of events that would be necessary for God to lead me to see the issues differently, and I wanted to pray with full openness to allow God to work in me. I asked God to show me if I was wrong in how I understood what the Bible says about homosexuality. I was not prepared for how painful and disturbing God’s answer was to prove. I took a conservative position, and it seemed obvious to me then that this was the only biblical view and therefore the only legitimate Christian view.

A year or so later, my prayer began to be answered in a way I had not anticipated, when I discovered suddenly and unexpectedly that my devout and deeply Christian older son was gay. Three things were very clear, firstly that he had not chosen to be gay, secondly that his efforts, which had been long lasting and persistent, to find ‘healing’ from homosexual orientation, had been to no avail, and thirdly that he loved God and was submitted to God in a way that won, (and still wins) my admiration and respect. Over the next several years he moved to a position of believing that the expression of homosexual love was not necessarily un-Christian. Though we still do not totally agree over how to interpret the Bible on this issue, I was deeply changed by engaging with him and with the questions raised. I found myself reading the Bible with a fresh urgency. In doing I found myself reflecting more biblically on how we live together with profound and emotive disagreement, and on what God might be saying to us when we see Jesus and the fruits of his Spirit clearly manifested in those with whom we disagree. I have found that the scriptures have a great deal to say on the matter in ways that have enriched my faith and my love for Jesus Christ, and have opened up the Bible to speak afresh to me in all kinds of circumstances. 

This book is the result of my journey of exploration.

It is not primarily about homosexuality. It is about being Christlike, and what that might mean in a church and society that is often divisive and judgmental. It is about where we find our identity. It is a book about how we treat our ‘enemies’ and what it actually means to love them, about how we argue well, about grace and honesty and disagreement.

Above all it is a book about Jesus, and how we are called to imitate Him, not just ‘believe the right things’. 

The above is slightly adapted from the introduction to the book,’Navigating by The Son: Finding Our Way in An Unfamiliar Landscape’. Matador 2021 £11.99 paperback or £9.99 e.book. Widely available including from the Matador shop at

https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/

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15:00 03/04/33

It was just after 3pm on the 3rd April 33AD.  The Roman Army Execution Detail noted that the first of the three prisoners being executed that day had just died.  It was a bit of a surprise because normally a prisoner took much longer to die, but as the Detail had to remain until all the prisoners were dead it was probably more of “One down, two to go” feeling than anything else.  In the meanwhile it was back to gambling to while away the hours until they could return to barracks; after all they were just Roman soldiers carrying out their orders.

The background to this?  At the time the Roman Empire was busy being the Roman Empire.  The Emperor Tiberius ruled in Rome and Pontius Pilate (a junior Roman Civil Servant) was the Roman charged with keeping order in the province of Judea.  To keep things rosy he had cosied up to the Jewish Religious Powers and they to him, but being Pilate he had still managed to alienate others.  Also in the frame was Herod Antipas (a son of Herod the Great) who was the Roman appointed Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea.  So far so good.

Then along came trouble, a 30odd year preacher who had gone about preaching that the Kingdom of God was close at hand had come to town. The new preacher was accompanied by a band of rustics (including ex fishers, an ex tax collector and an ex zealot), he did not rail against the Roman Authorities but preached that one should love God and love one’s neighbour as one’s self.  He had upset the Religious Authorities by declaring that the Temple was a place for prayer and worship and not a place for commerce.  For the Religious authorities the question of the day was how to neutralise this threat without upsetting the status quo?

Herod Antipas had incarcerated a previous troublesome preacher (and cousin to the new one), then without trial the preacher had been beheaded, his head put on a platter and presented to a young dancer who had pleased the said Herod Antipas.  This option was no longer available.

The preacher was detained by the Temple Authorities and after a confrontation was handed over to the Roman Authorities.  The death penalty was demanded by the Temple Authorities and to avoid trouble this was granted by Pilate, which takes us back to the start of the article.

Epilogue: Pilate was removed from office 36AD, Tiberius died 37AD, Herod was removed from office 39AD, the Temple was destroyed 70AD and that rag tag army of fishers and others (excluding the zealot) spread the teachings of the executed man until in 313AD Christianity was recognised as an acceptable religion within the Roman Empire.  Now THAT is a story!

Scrivener

PS.  The date quoted above is believed to be the most probable, by many scholars.