We have made good progress with our stock take this week. A risk assessment has been prepared and we are well advanced in our consultation with parishioners to determine the amount of interest in coming to church for a service.
We are committed to continue with our online worship as things continue to change and will let you know our first steps about worship in church as soon as possible.
If there are any questions, please ask us.
Thank you very much for your support.
Your churchwardens.
As Sunday July 19th is our celebration of St. James’ Day I am very pleased to invite you to a Zoom Coffee Time after the 11am service.
Unfortunately, you will need to provide your own coffee/tea and biscuits! Please do join us for a chat and catch up at 11.50am for 20minutes or so, it would be great to see you.
Rev. Gemma
The Zoom information is here:
Topic: Post Service Coffee for St. James’ Day
Time: Jul 19, 2020 11:50 AM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89335282712?pwd=RlhJMnBqNHFLNnV3Nk50aHhWRS9ZQT09
Meeting ID: 893 3528 2712
Password: StJames
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. [email protected] or 0118 973 5876
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/
Derrick Sequeira from the St James congregation has launched a petition for posthumous medals to be awarded to front-line staff and victims of the coronavirus, having heard how one carer ‘sacrificed’ their life to Covid-19. The petition needs 10,000 in order for the government to respond to it.
Derrick told Bracknell news: “If the signature reached the10,000 mark then the politicians will have to do something tangible and not just focus on the living heroes. I would like them to also think about those workers that are in non-health care jobs such as supermarket staff, postal workers etc that may have died while serving the public.”
To sign the petition visit: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/312389
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.
The Finchampstead Magazine is not being published during the CV19 virus, but will get back to normal monthly publication as soon as we get back to normal.
Starts Tuesday June 23rd 8pm. Sinner to Saint.
A 5-week course to look at the topic of holiness. Numbers are limited. The link to the course is https://gotherefor.com/offer.php?intid=26669&changestore=true. If you would like to be considered for the course please email Tonia: [email protected]
Dear all,
In light of the awful events in Reading that have touched so many people local to us, we would like to say that all are welcome to the grounds of the church for prayer and reflection. Please see the video below.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=282720639514655
With best wishes,
The Ministry Team
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