St Francis Church – Valley Park, Chandler's Ford

We are a local ecumenical partnership involving:
DIOCESE OF WINCHESTER (Deanery of Eastleigh)	SOUTHAMPTON DISTRICT (Winchester, Eastleigh and Romsey Circuit)	WESSEX SYNOD (South West Hants Group)

Safeguarding those at risk:
To find our policies on Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults please click here;
Our primary Safeguarding contact: safeguarding@stfrancis-valleypark.org.uk

Our Minister, Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland reflected on her first impressions of our Church at our Annual Church Meeting on Sunday 7th April 2019. Click on this link to hear her comments:

Happening this week at
St. Francis’.

Our “Duty Churchwarden” until 25th August is Steve Williams.
Duty Warden from 26th August – 1st September is
Alison Rhodes.

Note:
St Francis’ School Breakfast Club (7.30 a.m. – 9.00 a.m.) &
St Francis’ After School Club (3.15 p.m. – 6.00 p.m.)
held each weekday in School Terms.

Saturday 24th August:

Sunday 25th August:
Tenth Sunday after Trinity
8.45 a.m.: Said Holy Communion (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland);
10.00 a.m.: Parish Communion: (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland & Dunni Ajayi);
6.00 p.m.: No informal Evening Worship this Sunday.

Monday 26th August:

Tuesday 27th August:
8.00 a.m. – 8.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland): Chapel (Enter via North Door),

Wednesday 28th August:
09.00 a.m. – 12.00 noon: St. Francis’ Rendezvous Community Café: Large Meeting Room; All members of the Community most welcome.

Thursday 29th August:

Friday 30th August:
12.00 noon – 2.00 p.m.: Test Valley Stay at Home Scheme Social Club and Cafe: Large Meeting Room.

Saturday 31st August:
3.30 p.m.: Wedding Blessing – Julie and Gareth Davies.

Sunday 1st September:
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
8.45 a.m.: Said Holy Communion (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland);
10.00 a.m.: All Age Worship: (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland & Alison Rhodes);
6.00 p.m.: Informal Evening Worship (Rev’d. Cliff McClelland & Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland).

MESSY CHURCH

Craft, Activities, Afternoon Tea, Celebration.

The fun way to do church
for all the family.
Next Session
Sunday 22nd September:
Theme:
“TBC”

Click this link to find out More:

Note: No Messy Church in August

ST FRANCIS’ RENDEZVOUS
COMMUNITY CAFE

Café Open every Wednesday
9.00 a.m. – 12.00 noon.
All members of the Community of all ages most welcome.
Creche with toys and games for children.
Community Information Point for Local Community, Health
and Benefits Information.

M ore:

MEN’S BREAKFAST

Join us for a
“Full English”,
fellowship and
Thought for the Day

Next Breakfast:
Saturday 14th September
8.15 a.m. for 8.30 a.m.

All menfolk most welcome.

NB: No Men’s Breakfast on
10th August 2019.

Glitter and Glue

Creative commons acknowledged

Glitter and Glue is an hour of
craft, messy play, stories and
songs for the under fives
and their parents/carers.
Glitter and Glue is held monthly in term-time –
all pre-school children and
their parents / carers are welcome.
Next Session:
Friday 13th September
10.00 a.m. – 11.00 a.m.
More:
NB: No Glitter and Glue in August during the School Summer holiday.
Glitter and Glue restarts on 13th September

INFORMATION:

St Francis’ Church in action:
To find out more about what else we are doing through the coming year please look at our Parish Calendar and Weekly Notices pages.

What were we doing in 2018?
To read about the Ministry, Mission and Witness we undertook, and how we used the Financial Resources gifted to us in 2018, please click on St Francis Annual Report 2018 – v1.0 Final

Click Annual Review – 2018 – web version to see a pictorial review of our Church’s Ministry and collective life during 2018.

What are our strategic plans for Ministry and Mission in the coming months?
To read our latest Parish Mission Action Plan (pMAP) please click on:
St Francis Valley Park – pMap 2017 – 2020 – v 2-2,

together with the latest revision of our aims and objectives: St Francis Valley Park – pMap 2017 – 2020 – v 2-2-1 – Action Plan Revision November 2017

and Lay Leadership Matrix of which Church Council member leads on which topics:
St Francis Valley Park – pMap 2017 – 2020 – v 2-2-1 – Leadership Matrix – Revised Nov 2017.

Data Protection:
To read our Data Protection Policies please click here. Please let the Parish Office know if you no longer wish us to hold your information.

To contact us:
For our contact details please click here.

Some of our Home Groups develop their studies around the central theme of our Sunday worship and study.
Our teaching theme this week focusses on:

Faith in action in the World:
Faith in Healing.

Key Readings:

Psalm 71, vs.: 1 – 6;
Luke, Ch. 13, vs.: 10 – 17.

In this Gospel reading Jesus is in the synagogue, it’s the Sabbath, and he heals a woman who is crippled by a spirit. But the Pharisees are annoyed! Jewish tradition added more rules to the Old Testament law, and the synagogue rulers enforced these strictly. Jesus tells them they are hypocrites. The word for untying or losing an ox or donkey is the same as that for freeing the woman from the Spirits that had bound her – some nice word play from Jesus pointing to the irony that it was OK to free an animal on the Sabbath, but apparently not a human.

So in this passage, we see Jesus’ true identity as God, as he uses his power to break Satan’s hold on the woman; we see his love and compassion for the marginalised of society, and we see Jesus’ power to bring healing.

How is this relevant for us today?

Power over Satan: We live in a world where the power of evil is all too evident. Evil died with Jesus at the cross, but we won’t see the completeness of that victory until Jesus returns and His Kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. But we can live in this world certain that evil will be defeated, and we can pray for God’s Kingdom to come now in part, even as we wait for it to come completely at the end of time. How does this help us to live with the evil in the world that we hear about each day?

Compassion: Jesus’ love and compassion for this woman outweighed the law of the synagogue. His love and compassion for us also outweighs the law: if we all had to keep to the law, to be perfect, we all know that everyone of us would be found guilty. But as we trust that Jesus died not only to take away the evil of the world, but also for the things we do wrong, the laws we will break, so we rest in his grace – his undeserved favour. We can all be legalistic at times – there’s a certain comfort in rules. What rules do we insist others keep and get annoyed when they fail? (Often we demand this of ourselves and get cross with ourselves when we fail.) But grace triumphs over the law because of the cross.

What does that mean for you, for us as a Church family, for our wider community?
Who are the marginalised in our society to whom we can demonstrate this outrageous grace?

Healing: we don’t know what spirit crippled the woman, whether it was physical, emotional or spiritual. It could have been any of these and it had affected her terribly for years. Maybe she had arthritis; maybe she had suffered terrible emotional pain, rejection or abuse, maybe she had turned away from God. But Jesus healed her and he does the same for us. He often uses modern medicine to help but coming to Jesus with whatever ‘cripples’ us will bring healing. Ultimate healing isn’t until heaven, but Jesus does heal today. That might look like immediate healing, or peace, hope and the comfort of God’s presence in the face of long term illness, or release from things that have tied us up emotionally for one reason or another.

What would you like Jesus to do?

Ask Him.

Please click here to go to all of the Lenten Course Study Material on Prayer and for a selection of recent sermons and homilies on current study topics.

Please note:
The Minister’s day off is Friday. For emergencies please contact the Duty Warden or Parish office on that day.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR): The new data protection regulations, relating to the holding, management and use of personal data by organisations came into force on Friday 25th May 2018. St Francis’ Church takes its responsibilities under GDPR very seriously. You can read our Data Privacy Notice here. If you are a member of St Francis’ Church, or wish to remain in close contact with us, you may give us consent to hold, manage and use your personal data by downloading a Full Data Consent Form 2018 – 27-04-18 and completing and e-mailing it to us at <sfvp91@btconnect.com>.

Safeguarding those at risk: To find our policies on Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults please click here; Our primary Safeguarding contact: safeguarding@stfrancis-valleypark.org.uk

Our Minister, Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland reflected on her first impressions of our Church at our Annual Church Meeting on Sunday 7th April 2019. Click on this link to hear her comments:

Happening this week at St. Francis’.

Our “Duty Churchwarden” until 25th August is Steve Williams. Duty Warden from 26th August – 1st September is Alison Rhodes.

Note: St Francis’ School Breakfast Club (7.30 a.m. – 9.00 a.m.) & St Francis’ After School Club (3.15 p.m. – 6.00 p.m.) held each weekday in School Terms.

Saturday 24th August:

Sunday 25th August: Tenth Sunday after Trinity 8.45 a.m.: Said Holy Communion (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland); 10.00 a.m.: Parish Communion: (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland & Dunni Ajayi); 6.00 p.m.: No informal Evening Worship this Sunday.

Monday 26th August:

Tuesday 27th August: 8.00 a.m. – 8.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland): Chapel (Enter via North Door),

Wednesday 28th August: 09.00 a.m. – 12.00 noon: St. Francis’ Rendezvous Community Café: Large Meeting Room; All members of the Community most welcome.

Thursday 29th August:

Friday 30th August: 12.00 noon – 2.00 p.m.: Test Valley Stay at Home Scheme Social Club and Cafe: Large Meeting Room.

Saturday 31st August: 3.30 p.m.: Wedding Blessing – Julie and Gareth Davies.

Sunday 1st September: Eleventh Sunday after Trinity 8.45 a.m.: Said Holy Communion (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland); 10.00 a.m.: All Age Worship: (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland & Alison Rhodes); 6.00 p.m.: Informal Evening Worship (Rev’d. Cliff McClelland & Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland).