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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!

Contact Alex on 07730609446 (text, call or WhatsApp), or send an email to projectmanager@ash-vale.org.uk with your location and a photo to add your display to the trail. We are happy to include everyone in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green & Tongham, so don’t be shy! We hope you have lots of fun making your Easter displays and hunting for them all during the Easter break.

Alleluia, Jesus is Risen!

#EasterTrail #MessyEaster #AshValeEasterTrail #EasterHope #EasterWalks #CommunityFun

PS: to start the fun, how many Easter Eggs can you find in this Magazine?

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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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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.

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What’s Inside (Easter Parishioner 2021 – Back Cover)

What’s inside?

An Invitation to the Table — (p3&4) By Revd Neil Lambert                 

Book of Psalms 2021 — (p5) New Psalms by local people in trying times

Meet the Local—(p8&9) The Parishioner interviews Mary Langsford

Our local Waterways Chaplain (p10) Rosie Leakey

News from Abbeywood Care Home (p11) We’re doing a panto! Oh yes we are!

Poems & Poetry Competition — (p14&15) Enter your poems by 30th April!

How to Celebrate Easter 2021—(p16) St Mary’s services

What’s on in Ash Vale — (p17)

Bible Study for Eastertide —(20 & 21) By Helen Lambert

Pea shoots, a seasonal favourite  – (p22) By Vicki Fox

News from St Paul’s Tongham— (p23) Ramp building has started!

How I came to write ‘Navigating by the Son’ – (p25) Author Stephen Cox shares his journey and the key themes from his new book.

Meet the Candidates for the County Council elections on 6th May (p26  – 28)

15:00 03/04/33 — (p29) Scrivener reflects on the Romans at Easter

Help is at Hand! – (p30) Useful numbers

Easter Trail—(inside back cover) Free fun in the holidays!  Decorate your windows and front gardens for some lovely Easter walks! #AshValeEasterTrail

Don’t miss the Easter Service!

Sunday 10am on Zoom (See centre pages for what’s on)

We welcome fun, informative and local interest items! The copy deadline for the June/July 2021 issue of The Parishioner is the 7th May 2021. Emails please to:  parishioner@ash-vale.org.uk

In these unusual times 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 The Chapel, or call / text 07730 609446  to request one. Best wishes & stay safe!

The Parishioner seeks to explore and reflect upon a wide variety of local issues whilst recognizing 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.

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St Mary’s invites you to celebrate Easter 2021

Palm Sunday 28th March: Zoom Service 10am

Email parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk for the link or see below for zoom details. Hosanna!

Good Friday 2nd April: Stations of the Cross & Prayer

Follow the stations of the cross trail from The Chapel on Wharf Road to St Mary’s Church on Vale Road. Arrive at St Mary’s for a socially distanced  opportunity for private prayer and reflection in church. (Open 10am onwards)

Easter Sunday 4th April:  Zoom Service 10am

Email parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk for the Zoom link or to book your seat in Church (spaces are limited) We look forward to celebrating the risen Christ!

Easter Trail 4th April—18th April

We had so much fun with the sheep trail, 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. Contact us on 07730609446 or send an email to projectmanager@ash-vale.org.uk with your location and a photo to add your display to the trail. We hope you have lots of fun making your Easter displays and hunting for them all during the Easter break. #AshValeEasterTrail

Easter Trail link: https://ash-vale.org.uk/easter-trail-4th-18th-april-2021/ 

Book of Psalms for our time

St Mary’s is creating a book of psalms reflecting on how we have experienced God and faith in recent times. Feeling inspired? You can send contributions for this to projectmanager@ash-vale.org.uk or pop them through the door at the Vicarage. We will display the new psalms outside St Mary’s on the prayer wall in the car park for Easter. Come end enjoy them on their own or as part of the Easter Trail.

With every blessing this Easter from all at St Mary’s

Alleluia, Jesus is Risen!

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What’s on – April & May 2021

Weekly Events at St Mary’s :

Sundays 10am –Join St Mary’s for our weekly Church Service. All are welcome. During lockdown we will be on Zoom only, and once the doors open again at Easter we will be both in Zoom and in person.

Evensong is back too, contact the office for the latest timings.

Contact: Parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk

Mondays 11am: Coffee Chat Zoom Join fellow parents and carers for informal coffee chat and friendship. (Term time only) Contact Alex: 07730609446

Tuesdays 10am: Babies at St Mary’s Support Group We have run this new Support Group on Zoom while COVID numbers are high locally, but will open with restricted numbers after Easter. Booking will be essential once we are back in church, with legal limits on numbers. (Term time only) Contact Alex: 07730 6094446

Wednesdays 11:30am: Toddler Zoom with Chapel Kids and Little Lambs Library toddler groups. Watch this space for “Garden Praise” once it’s allowed! (term time only) For more info please contact: Alex: 07730609446

Thursday Café look out for news on Facebook & website. Once cafés are allowed to re-open we will be risk-assessing and reopening. parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk

10th July – More in the next Parishioner! Sneakin’ Suspicion are booked for an ‘end of covid’ Gig – watch this space!

Donations for St Mary’s: https://givealittle.co/campaigns/47eb21e6-c2b0-4a23-a526-8d13fd24fa56  This will be a huge help in challenging times. Thank you!

Chapel Arts Monthly Makes

Artists in Residence Debi & Jono Retallick host a ‘monthly make’ fundraising event for The Chapel, Ash Vale. Ashvalechapel.com

Email Debi for event details, Zoom links, and to book your place on the workshops: debiretallick@googlemail.com

6th April 4pm: Monthly Make:

Wire & paper birds (Zoom): A 60 minute session where Debi will take you through the process of creating a wire armature and hand building with paper to create a Bird form. Suitable for 11rs+ Kit £6 & please make a donation to The Chapel.

4th May 4pm: Needle-felting flowers (Zoom) Learn the art of needle felting whilst creating a flower of your own design to celebrate the arrival of spring! 11+Yrs, Kit £10 incl p&p.

Donations for The Chapel : https://givealittle.co/campaigns/8d80cd98-df9f-494e-9808-b8898744146f Your support is very much appreciated. Thank you!

Chapel Poetry Group Workshops: 

April: Fr 23rd April 7:30pm (Zoom & Garden)

May: Fr 14th May 7:30pm (Zoom & Garden)

Contact Alex: 07730 609446

St Paul’s Tongham Baby Plus:

· Mondays 4-4.30pm. Toddler Storytime  – stories, actions and songs

· Tuesdays 2.30-4pm Mum Plus— friendship and facilitated discussions

· Wednesdays 4-4.30pm. Toddler Storytime

· Thursdays 10.30-12am. Baby Plus  – Informal chat session for mums, with some singing and action songs for the little ones.

Contact: CommunityWorker@stpaulstongham.org.uk

Or via the Church office: 01252 783081

All events are subject to change due to Covid-19 safety rules. Please keep in touch!

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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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Poetry Competition – Mirror Mind

Reflections on memories in poetry

The Chapel Poetry Group invites you to get creative and submit poems reflecting on your memories. All the winning poems will be published in our 2021 poetry collection “Mirror Mind”, and celebrated at a launch event either in person or online, as covid regulations permit.

First Prize for our overall winner is a £30 book voucher, and all winners whose poems are published will receive an author’s copy of the collection with your poem in it. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate local poets and explore treasured memories.

Everyone is welcome to participate, whether you are an established poet or a beginner, young or old. The important thing is, you must write about your own memories and experiences. Here’s how to enter:

Submit your poems by email to: ashvalechapel@gmail.com 

Subject line: Mirror Mind Poetry

Deadline: Friday 30th April 2021

Format: Please attach your poem to your email as a word document or PDF, all entries will be anonymised by our administrator before being sent for judging.

Make sure you include your name, address and phone number in your covering email.

Maximum 3 poems per poet, maximum length 40 lines per poem (no minimum length)

£2 suggested donation per poem to enter. https://givealittle.co/campaigns/feafddb7-d1b7-4686-810d-a66d0d0914c6

Would you like to pre-order a copy of “Mirror Mind”? Text Alex: 07730 609446

All donations & proceeds from the sale of “Mirror Mind” will go towards the running of The Chapel Project, further details here: www.ashvalechapel.com