Category: Events

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Chapel Project News

Chapel Arts Monthly Makes—Debi Retallick

Debi is continuing to run the monthly make on Zoom but hoping to return to face to face sessions at the Chapel from September…..

May’s monthly make was a Bird sculpture; one of the participants has caught the making bug and is now on her 9th Bird sculpture; she’s even teaching her friends to make them! 

June Monthly Make: Join Debi for the next monthly make to do some wire work, creating your own dragonfly:  4pm on Tuesday 1st June 2021.

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What’s on in June & July 2021

What’s on at St Mary’s, Vale Rd, Ash Vale,

Sundays 10am –Join St Mary’s for our weekly Church Service. All are welcome, both on Zoom and in person. Wednesday Evensong  is back too, please contact the office for the latest rules and 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) Zoom ID: 520 880 119 / Password: Grownups Contact Alex: 07730 609446

Tuesdays 10am: Babies at St Mary’s Support Group We are open Tuesdays 10am-11am in term time for parents and carers with babies under 12mths. Booking is essential. Come and join us! Contact Alex: 07730  6094446

Thursday Café Once cafés are allowed to reopen we will be risk-assessing and reopening. Contact us for details.  parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk

Sat 26th June: 7:30pm:  Poetry Night & Book Launch:  Chapel Poetry Group are launching their latest collection, and celebrating the winners of the “Mirror Mind” Poetry Competition. Join us on Zoom or in person at St Mary’s to hear some of the winning poems and celebrate with us! St Mary’s Church, 26th June, 7:30pm. Contact Alex: 07730 609446 for tickets, zoom links and copies of the book!

August: Summer Café: Fridays in the holidays at St Mary’s—keep an eye on the notices for details. Sign up to receive the weekly news parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk

Summer Fair!  10th July 12-3pm Sneakin’ Suspicion are booked for an ‘end of COVID’ Gig – and the Wood Street & St Mary’s Team are cooking up a bit of a festival! See inside back cover for details.

Donations for St Mary’s: https://givealittle.co/campaigns/47eb21e6-c2b0-4a23-a526-8d13fd24fa56  Thank you!

The Chapel Project, Wharf Rd, Ash Vale

Chapel Arts Monthly Makes: Artists in Residence Debi & Jono Retallick host a ‘monthly make’ fundraising workshop for The Chapel, teaching all kinds of art and craft techniques. Email Debi for event details, Zoom links, and to book your place on the workshops: (&See page 26) Contact debiretallick@googlemail.com

Tue 1 June 4pm: Dragonflies

Tue 6 July 4pm: Painting with fibres

Chapel Kids Baby & Toddler Group: Wednesdays 11:30am: Garden Praise  Chapel Kids toddler group ages 0-4yrs at The Chapel in Wharf Road GU12 3AY (term time only, text us to book) Contact Alex: 07730 609446

Chapel Poetry Group Workshops: Join  the group on WhatsApp for chat with like minded creative writers, and join us on Zoom for a monthly poetry workshop. (Hopefully in person once regulations lift). Contact Alex: 07730 609446

Chapel Craft Group: Join us on Wednesdays in term time 8-10pm at The Chapel on Wharf Rd. Bring along your latest craft project and have a natter and a cuppa as we craft. We have been zooming but aim to be back at the Chapel as soon as regulations allow. Contact 07730 609446

Chapel Filmshare: Your local fortnightly Filmshare is starting back in September! If you enjoy tea, coffee and cakes and appreciate films you’re welcome to join us fortnightly at the Chapel from 7.30pm. To sign up to our e-mail newsletter contact: Dick Elsey at richard.elsey45@gmail.com or on 01252 694314.

Donations for The Chapel : https://givealittle.co/campaigns/8d80cd98-df9f-494e-9808-b8898744146f Thank you!

St Paul’s Church, Poyle Rd, 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 10.30am-12. Baby Plus  – Informal chat session for mums, with some singing and action songs for the little ones.

Baby Plus Contact: CommunityWorker@stpaulstongham.org.uk Or via the Church office: 01252 783081

Messy Church at St Paul’s :

· 17th June (pack with Facebook live introduction)

· 15th July (format tbc)

Keep an eye on Facebook / Website

Open Church Event:

Keep an eye on Facebook & the website for our “Open Church” for reflection, a grand opening of the ramp, and an outside event for the community (or we might combine this into one big  3-in-1 event!)

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

St Peter’s Church, Ash

27th June St Peter’s Day: Outdoor (weather permitting) service in the St Peter’s Centre garden, followed by a bring-your-own picnic lunch in the Rectory Garden.

St Peter’s Craft Evenings: At St Peters we have a regular craft evening which will relaunch in September. It’s a free of charge group which meets at 7pm on the 3rd Monday of each month. It’s a creative session where people bring along whatever craft project they have underway. We have some painting, card making, jewellery making and lots of keen knitters! Refreshments are offered as well as an evening of friendship. All ages welcome. For confirmation of the relaunch please check our website Web  saint-peters-ash.org.uk

Holy Angels, Ash

Youth Group: Our first face to face Youth meeting will be on Sat  29th May.  Rounders and picnic on the field behind Holy Angels Church.  2-5pm – praying for the weather and no further lock downs!!!  If you’d like to join our groups please get in touch.

Gloria:  gloria.benson14@gmail.com

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

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Mothers Union – Local Update

News from our local Branch by Barbara Ridley

A warm welcome awaits at either of our group meetings. We usually meet on the 1st Wednesday in the month at 2.30pm. Our evening group meets on the last Monday in the month at 8pm. Both meetings are held in the small hall at St. Peter’s Church centre.

Our meetings begin with a short time of prayer. A variety of speakers are invited, and we also have more informal meetings for fellowship. All meetings finish with refreshments.

Recent speakers have included talks from our community wardens, the prison service and the CAB. Future topics are to include teaching in an SEN school, the history of the Victoria Hall and the Christian Police Association. We also enjoy a summer visit to a local Church.

Mothers’ Union is a Christian organisation that has been supporting families worldwide for over 140 years. Started by our founder Mary Sumner in 1876, in her local parish, we have grown into an international charity with over four million members in 84 countries. MU is especially concerned with all that strengthens and preserves marriage and family life. We support our local Women’s Refuges, helping to provide essentials such as clothing and toiletries for women and their children when they first arrive.

Despite our name we are an inclusive organisation, welcoming everyone; we have men and single ladies in many of our branches.
Unfortunately with the pandemic we have been unable to hold our usual meetings during the last year, but are hoping to resume our normal program from September.

Please contact Barbara Ridley 01252 323037 (Branch leader) for more information and details of upcoming programs

Official MU website: https://www.mothersunion.org/

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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!

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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!

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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 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

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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 

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