Parish of Finchampstead and California

Thank you very much to everyone who gives regularly. We are closely monitoring parish finances and reducing our expenditure. We have not received some substantial amounts of income since March and really need your support.
If you usually give when you attend church, and may not have given since March, may I respectfully ask you to make a donation now to help us maintain all the work we are doing during the pandemic. Please either send a cheque to the church office, or authorise a direct bank transfer to our parish identifying yourself as the donor. Details are: ‘Parish of Finchampstead and California, account 0002 2949, CAF Bank sort code 40-52-40’

We have also just launched our on-line giving platform! This is an easy way to give to the Church via an online site, the link is: 
https://givealittle.co/campaigns/bda9833f-533e-4d6c-b701-2960936402b1

Thank you. Robert Alder.

We hope to be able to make changes to the heating in St. James church over the coming weeks. As the church will be closed for a while services will take place in SJCC.

The work on wood repairs will follow on.

We will keep you informed about timing and other details. If you have any questions, please ask us. Robert and Jo. SJ Churchwardens.

Monthly Monday Evening Prayer Meeting – Monday 5th October at 8pm

Come and join us as we gather for our monthly evening prayer meeting on the first Monday of each month via Zoom.

For more information contact Reverend Julian on julian@finchampstead.co.uk or 0118 973 5876

We hope you are keeping well during these unusual times. Our mixture of both on-line services and services in church continue. The dates for services in church over the next few weeks are as follows:

September 27th
8am Common Worship Holy Communion in St. James
11am Holy Communion in St. Eligius

October 4th
11am Parish Communion (Harvest) in St. James

October 11th
8am Book of Common Prayer Communion in St. James
9.30am Family Service (OUTSIDE) at St. James
11am Holy Communion (Harvest) in St. Eligius

October 18th
11am Parish Communion in St. James

October 25th (Bible Sunday)
8am Common Worship Holy Communion in St. James
11am Holy Communion Service in St. Eligius

Please email office@stjamesfinchampstead.co.uk or phone the office to register your desire to attend no later than the preceding Friday by 10am. St. James’ remains open for private prayer on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 10am and 12pm.

As our in person services continue can Please could we stress how important it is for you to email office@stjamesfinchampstead.co.uk or call the office to let us know that you are coming, by 10am Friday every week that you wish to attend. As you know we are restricted on space and have limited numbers for attendance. Similarly, if you have already booked a space and are no longer able to attend, please let either the office, or if after Friday, Jo know via email (joannemyall@hotmail.co.uk), even if it is half an hour before the service. 

This is extremely important due to the limited numbers in the building and making sure everyone has opportunity to attend if they wish to.

The annual revision of the Church Electoral Roll will take place between 28th September and 2nd October.

If your name is already on the list you do not need to do anything this year.

To check your entry please email the church office or nicky@alder.ndo.co.uk

Either send a cheque to Crowthorne Foodbank 25 Wellington Business Park Duke’s Ride Crowthorne RG45 6LS or donate online https://crowthorne.foodbank.org.uk/give help/donate money/

Monday afternoon Discussion Group 2-3pm

Join Reverend Julian via Zoom as we apply our Christian faith to our everyday lives.

For more information contact Rev Julian via e-mail or phone. julian@finchampstead.co.uk or 0118 973 5876

Dear Friends,

Following Canon Julie’s retirement we thought it would be helpful to let you know a little about how we as churchwardens will be working together over the coming months to ensure that the parish and its activities run as smoothly as possible.

The long established churchwarden duties and responsibilities listed in the Churchwardens Handbook are: “The churchwardens shall use their best endeavours to promote peace and unity amongst the parishioners, and by example and precept to encourage the parishioners in the practise of true religion”

During a vacancy, our regular duties are in practice extensive, include ensuring that services take place, maintaining parish buildings and church premises and making sure that the Parochial Church Council continues to meet. This includes committee meetings such as finance and communications. Virtual meetings are being held at the moment.

We are also here to help, support and advise you, so if you have a question or concern please contact us, or call Pamela at the parish office as appropriate. Contact details are below.

We are blessed with 6 churchwardens in total, 2 from each worship centre, and we do all meet together and support each other in what we do. Fortunately, we also have a very able ministry team including 4 clergy who will keep our current services going. We don’t expect to need to request help from outside the parish. We hope that it will be possible to resume some worship in person in a safe way soon. More details about this will follow.

We will certainly keep all congregations informed of the procedure of finding a new Rector. We were given permission a few months ago to put together a draft PARISH PROFILE. This is a fairly large document explaining to would be applicants the full description of our parish……our 3 worship centres, the type of services we have, the local area, and of course the house that the new Rector would live in. This will help us on our way.

We do realise that lots of people in our congregations are incredibly supportive of all aspects of our services and social gatherings and we do really appreciate that. We are one big family and we will do our utmost to support the process to appoint our new rector as soon as possible, but do please be prepared for a lengthy vacancy; these things do not happen overnight,

Bear with us and pray that God will guide us through the vacancy and lead the right person to us.

Your Churchwardens
Jo Myall, Robert Alder, Marjorie Stalker, Ashlyn Webster, Lucia Golding and Paul Marsden.

Dear friends,

We would like to share with you an update about the opening of St James’ church building. As you are probably aware, the government has recently allowed churches to reopen for private individual prayer.

We are pleased to let you know that our ancient and beautiful building is now ready to be reopened, for private prayer only, from Monday 29 June, at certain times on weekday mornings.

The church will initially be open between 10am and 12 noon each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, without the need to make an appointment. We hope to be able to return to our previous pattern of opening the church every weekday morning soon.

By way of preparation we have made a risk assessment and arranged a professional deep clean and aeration of the building, following diocesan and government guidelines. Current hand hygiene and social distancing rules will apply to those entering. Guidance notices will be in the church.

The backbone of all we do as a church community has always been the volunteers who make it possible. Once again, we are indebted to those who give their time and energy to prepare and facilitate the opening of the church.

We would also like to warmly welcome you at any time to enjoy our beautiful grounds and churchyards with extensive views and seating for contemplation and prayer. We respectfully ask everyone to be mindful of social distancing rules.

Information on our prayer walk is available in a separate document here.

This will be a time of experiment for us and we would much welcome your feedback and thoughts. We ask for your grace and patience whilst we find our way forward during this time of significant change.

Yours in Christ,
Jo and Robert
Churchwardens
Finchampstead St James church.