roots down walls down
You are warmly invited to come to our Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday 14th February 2024 at 6.30pm. Join us at St Mary’s on Vale Road, GU12 5JE. All are welcome.
The first day of Lent is called Ash Wedensday. This is the time in the year for a special service with the imposition of ashes. If you want to know more about it, why not pop in to St Mary’s and ask? Our cafe is open on Fridays 10:00-13:00 and our Sunday services start at 10:30am. See you soon!
Join us on Tuesday 13th Feb 2024 from 10am-12:30 for some pancake day fun! Races, crafts and yummy pancakes for all ages. It’s all by donation, no set fee. Pop along and enjoy a family friendly get together at St Mary’s church, Ash Vale GU12 5JE All are welcome.
PS – We don’t have staff for this, just a lovely team of volunteers, and all help is much appreciated at tidy up time. Thank you for pitching in – many hands make light work!
pic credit https://pixabay.com/users/valshill-12389644/
Hello everyone, who’s up for a party? It’s time to book your tickets for the Candlemass Ceilidh on Saturday 3rd Feb 2024, doors open at 7.30pm here at St Mary’s on Vale Rd GU12 5JE.
To book please text / phone / WhatsApp our Project Manager on 07730 609446 for tickets. Please do book in advance so that we can be sure to cater. (and let us know if you have any dietary requirements!)
We are asking for a suggested donation of £10 a ticket (or give what you can afford) which includes entry, music, dancing, fun and food. (Half price for children.) The amazing Andy Johnson and team will be leading the fun, including dances, music and songs.
We will also have a bar available and a raffle on the night to help fundraise and cover our costs. Any raffle prizes gladly received, donations welcomed. See you at the party!
#CandlemasCeileidh #Dancing #CommunityFun #FamilyFriendly #Dancing #Music #Raffle #Food #ComeAndJoinUs #Community #JoinTheParty
Our regular term time community groups start back again at The Chapel and St Mary’s from 8th Jan 2024. Have a look at what’s on and do pop in to join us!
Mondays 9:30-12:30 Chapel Cafe (Warm Welcome venue) free tea / coffee / snacks / soup lunch. The Chapel, Wharf Rd, GU12 5AY
Tuesdays 10:00-11:30 Little Lambs Library (baby and toddler group with bouncy castle ages 0-4yrs) at St Mary’s, Vale Rd, GU12 5JE
Tuesdays 20:00-21:00 Choir Practise in Church (no auditions, just pop in and join us, and make a joyful noise!) at St Mary’s, Vale Rd, GU12 5JE
Wednesdays 11:00-14:00 Chapel Kids (baby and toddler group with lunch club and sensory play after lunch ages 0-4yrs) at The Chapel, Wharf Rd, GU12 5AY
Fridays 10:00-13:00 Community Cafe (warm welcome venue) free tea / coffee / biscuits and soup /toasties lunch served at 12:00 St Mary’s, Vale Rd, GU12 5JE
Sundays 10:30am church service and Sundayschool followed by refreshments in the church hall. St Mary’s, Vale Rd, GU12 5JE
All free / donations accepted. No need to book just turn up!
We look forward to welcoming you.
Join us this Sunday 17th December 2023 at 6:30pm at St Mary’s for Carols by Candlelight. A wonderful service and a super start to the Christmas break. All welcome!
St Mary’s, Vale Rd, GU12 5JE
Saturday 25th Nov—Christmas at The Chapel on Wharf Rd: Join us 2pm-5pm for festive fun, amazing cake sale, raffle, free card making craft, second hand toys, clothes and more. Free admission.
Saturday 2nd December St Nicholas Day Lantern Walk (time slots start from 4pm): An atmospheric lantern walk from The Chapel on Wharf Rd to St Mary’s on Vale Rd, finishing with a bonfire party, hot chocolate and sweets from St Nicholas! Text / WhatsApp to book: 07730 609446
Sunday 17th December Carols by Candlelight 6.30pm: Come and share the joy of singing our favourite Christmas Carols by candlelight at this very special service at St Mary’s. Let’s rejoice! (free / donations)
24th Dec—Christingle Journey (time slots start from 3pm): Make Christingle, visit the Inn, see the Wise Men, stoke the shepherd’s bonfire, and get a selfie with baby Jesus! Not forgetting Revd Neil’s amazing pizza! Text to book 07730 609446 (Children’s Society donations welcomed)
24th Dec—Christmas Communion 11.30pm: Come and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the first communion of Christmas.
25th Dec: Christmas Day Service Join us to celebrate our Lord Jesus’s birth. Children welcome, why not bring along your favourite present to show & tell?
Christmas Donations: This year we are asking for donations of Christmas treats & gifts for local food parcels please, and we are fundraising for tree planting in Uganda as well as local refugees. To donate items for any of our projects please contact us, or you can follow this link and select a project to support by donation. Thank you! https://givealittle.co/c/75npOYB3aZl4vFFBN2Ve3p
Keeping in touch: Visit us at Community Cafe on Fridays 10:00-13:00, Sunday services at 10:30am Email parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk | Facebook @StMarysAshVale | Church Blog is available online here: www.ash-vale.org.uk and includes The Parishioner Magazine. Project Manager Tel.: 07730 609446
Have a blessed and happy Christmas!
‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’)
Matthew 1v23 (NIV)
Do you ever feel like you’re on your own? Just you, no one else… Do you ever fell like no-one is interested, that no-one sees you or hears you? Well, I’ve got news for you! Because, as we learn in Matthew chapter 1, God is with us: Immanuel.
The truth is, you are never on your own, and as it says in our communion prayer:
“Though we chose the path of rebellion, you would not abandon us.”
In fact, you became us! Again, as it says in our communion prayer:
“embracing our humanity, Jesus showed us the way of salvation; loving us to the end”
Have you noticed that it says “God with us” rather than “God with me”? That’s important. We are a family, and especially at Christmas we come together to celebrate the fact that God is with us. ALL of us, not just people who go to church.
And as we remember at Christmas that God actually IS with us, we realise that He is here, even at a time in our history where we see wars, famine, uncertainty about our future—not only our future but the future of the world. Christmas is something we do together with God. And it’s not just for children, it’s for everyone.
Our resident composer Matt Weeks wrote a beautiful song which we will be singing this Christmas called ‘Emmanuel’. Here is the first verse:
Expectantly we wait for you
You are a faithful God in all you do
Your promises have been fulfilled
When a baby boy was born to us
Was born to us
Lord Jesus Christ…
You can find the whole song and listen to the melody here:
We would love you to join us to celebrate the truth that God is with us and has not abandoned his own. One of my favourite parts of Christmas is our Christingle event on Christmas Eve in the afternoon, and the Midnight service, as we wait with anticipation and celebrate the greatest love of all, the love of God for us. Emmanuel.
There is a warm welcome waiting for you at St Mary’s. Our Christmas events are below, come and join us!
Neil
Revd Neil Lambert: revneil@me.com
Christmas 2023: You are invited!
Saturday 25th Nov—Christmas at The Chapel on Wharf Rd: Join us 2pm-5pm for festive fun, amazing cake sale, raffle, free card making craft, second hand toys, clothes and more. Free admission.
Saturday 2nd December St Nicholas Day Lantern Walk (time slots start from 4pm): An atmospheric lantern walk from The Chapel on Wharf Rd to St Mary’s on Vale Rd, finishing with a bonfire party, hot chocolate and sweets from St Nicholas! Text / WhatsApp to book: 07730 609446
Sunday 17th December Carols by Candlelight 6.30pm: Come and share the joy of singing our favourite Christmas Carols by candlelight at this very special service at St Mary’s. Let’s rejoice! (free / donations)
24th Dec—Christingle Journey (time slots start from 3pm): Make Christingle, visit the Inn, see the Wise Men, stoke the shepherd’s bonfire, and get a selfie with baby Jesus! Not forgetting Revd Neil’s amazing pizza! Text to book 07730 609446 (Children’s Society donations welcomed)
24th Dec—Christmas Communion 11.30pm: Come and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the first communion of Christmas.
25th Dec: Christmas Day Service 10:30am Join us to celebrate our Lord Jesus’s birth. Children welcome, why not bring along your favourite present to show & tell?
Christmas Donations: This year we are asking for donations of Christmas treats & gifts for local food parcels please, and we are fundraising for tree planting in Uganda as well as local refugees. To donate items for any of our projects please contact us, or you can follow this link and select a project to support by donation. Thank you! https://givealittle.co/c/75npOYB3aZl4vFFBN2Ve3p
Keeping in touch: Visit us at Community Cafe on Fridays 10:00-13:00, Sunday services at 10:30am Email parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk | Facebook @StMarysAshVale | Church Blog is available online here: www.ash-vale.org.uk and includes The Parishioner Magazine. Project Manager Tel.: 07730 609446
Have a blessed and happy Christmas!
The annual St Nicholas Lantern Walk & Bonfire party is on Saturday 2nd Dec 2023 – it’s time to book your places!
Start your adventure at The Chapel garden, on Wharf road (GU12 5AY) and enjoy a walk by the light of your lanterns to St Mary’s on Vale Road (GU12 5JE), where we enjoy the garden, meet St Nicholas, and enjoy a hot chocolate & food by the bonfire.
Start times are staggered, from 4pm-6pm, so that everyone has their moment to say hello to St Nic. Text or WhatsApp to book! 07730609446 (Dress for the weather and bring a torch!)
Free/by donation if you can on the night / or you can donate online here any time. Thank you! https://givealittle.co/c/4xeePyTgOWHmZiKvQqePOb
If you don’t have a lantern we can send you instructions to make one, or you can have one of our paper ones made by volunteers on the night. It’s a lovely experience, and a great way to start Advent, seeing all the lanterns in the dark! See you soon xx 💕⭐️✨
#StNicholasDay2023 #LanternWalk #StNicholasLanternWalk #Community #FamilyFun #AdventAdventures #AshValeChapel #StMarysAshVale
Please mark your diaries for the Chapel Project Christmas Fair. Join us at The Chapel on Wharf Rd, Ash Vale, GU12 5AY on Saturday 25th Nov 2-5pm
It looks like a wonderfully festive day for the community. Why not visit the Ash Fantasia event in the village from 12, and then come over to us from 2pm for even more festive fun and Christmas bargains! Nearly New, cakes and biscuits, gifts and games, amazing raffle, children’s society stall, hotdogs for tea and a free Christmas craft for the kids. Please pop in and support your local Chapel Project. See you there!
Would you like to join in and volunteer, or donate a raffle prize? Please do get in touch! 07730 609446 Facebook: @AshValeChapel
Christmas Appeal: The Ash Villages Food Parcels project will be packing and delivering food parcels for (we estimate) 40-50 families in Ash, Ash Vale, Ash Green and Tongham in the week before Christmas, and we like to send gifts for the children and Christmassy treats along with the emergency essentials if we can. Can you help? Anything our wonderful community can donate will be amazing, and add some lovely Christmas cheer to the parcels. We will share out whatever is received from the community between the families on our list on the day.
Need some inspiration? How about donating Christmas puddings, custard, mince pies, treats, crackers, nibbles, stuffing mix, gravy granules, cranberry sauce, sweets, nice toiletries, warm socks, gloves, tangerines, chocolate coins, children’s toys, board games, juice, squash, hot chocolate, pretty napkins… what ever you would you be pleased to receive if you were in need yourself. (We can’t take alcohol sorry!)
Dropping off donations: All items need to reach us at St Mary’s church (GU12 5JE) or at The Chapel (GU12 5AY) by Thursday 14th December please. Contact us if you need to book a time 07730 609446 or you can pop in to donate whenever we are open.
If you prefer to donate cash to help us buy each family the ingredients for a roast dinner, our link is here: https://givealittle.co/c/3ijYS6zC4gbOGqwer2tmdY
Thank you for your support and have a wonderful Christmas!
