St Francis Church, Valley Park, Chandlers FordSt Francis Church is a Christ centred family, prayerfully growing in God's love to serve our community and the wider world.
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 22nd June is Andrew Grove Duty Warden from 23rdh – 30th June is Steve Williams
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 15th June:
Sunday 16th June: TRINITY SUNDAY 8.45 a.m.: Said Holy Communion (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland & Miss Kate Muammar); 10.00 a.m.: Morning Worship: (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland & Miss Kate Muammar);
6.00 p.m.: Informal Evening Worship (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland & Dr. Ian Clarke).
Monday 17th June:
Tuesday 18th June: 8.00 a.m. – 8.30 a.m.: Morning Prayers for the Church and Community (Rev’d. Dr. Sarah McClelland): Chapel (Entry via Office Door).
Wednesday 19th June: 09.00 a.m. – 12.00 noon: St. Francis’ Rendezvous Community Café: Large Meeting Room; All members of the Community most welcome;
7.00 p.m.: Valley Park Ladies meeting: Large Meeting Room.
Friday 21st June: 12.00 noon – 2.00 p.m.: Test Valley Live at Home Scheme – Social Club and Cafe: Large Meeting Room.
Saturday 22nd June:
Sunday 23rd June: First 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;
4.00 p.m.: MessyChurch followed by Barbeque (Messy Church Team).
TRINITY SUNDAY:
Sunday 16th June.
We mark the work of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit on Trinity Sunday Sunday. Join us at our Services of:
Said Holy Communion: 8.45 a.m.
Morning Worship: 10.00 a.m.
MESSY CHURCH
Craft, Activities, Afternoon Tea, Celebration.
The fun way to do church
for all the family. Next Session
Sunday 23rd June: Theme:
“Dazzling Disciples”
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.
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 12th July 10.00 a.m. – 11.00 a.m. More: No Glitter and Glue in April during the Easter School holiday.
INFORMAL EVENING WORSHIP:
DAY AND TIME CHANGES:
Please note that as from Sunday 5th May, our Informal Evening Worship Services will be held twice monthly on 1st and 3rd Sunday starting at the earlier time of 6.00 p.m.
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
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,
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 clickhere.
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:
CHURCH AS FAMILY:
OUR WORLDWIDE CHURCH FAMILY.
Key Readings:
Genesis, Ch. 1, vs.: 26 – 31 and Ch 2, vs. :15;
Mark, Ch. 4, vs, 26 – 29.
It’s great to have Kate Muammar with us on Trinity Sunday to tell us about her work and to remind us that we are part of a world-wide family of the church.
Here’s a bit about Kate and her work: ‘I first joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in 1993 and initially got involved in work with AIDS, initially in Uganda, and in 2006 I moved to Zambia.
As time went on, medical treatment for HIV became more widely accessible so that it is now a manageable condition. Although the HIV treatment is free, eating a healthy diet is often a huge challenge. I became more and more interested in nutrition, growing healthy crops (rather than dependency on food handouts), and this eventually led me to learn about small scale farming/backyard gardens.
I have always been concerned about the environment, and the effect of global warming is now having a massive impact on farming worldwide, so I also have focused on conservation farming as a way to grow healthy crops and take care of the land. A couple of years ago I took a course on Environment and Resource Stewardship and through that realised there is a strong Biblical foundation to caring for the land and all of God’s creation. This is still a new area for me and so I am learning as I am doing.
I hope that by setting up a demonstration farm and by sharing some of my ideas, I may inspire others, but setting up the farm from scratch is very challenging so progress is slow. I also hope to inspire missionaries/local community at the mission where I live (different location to the demonstration farm) and am trying out small ideas there such as growing nutritious crops and intercropping trees with vegetables.
We have just had a really poor rainy season for the second year running, so any kind of farming is proving even more challenging.’
Kate’s work illustrates the 5 marks of mission which are:
To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom;
To teach, baptise and nurture new believers;
To respond to human need by loving service;
To transform unjust structures of society, to pursue peace and reconciliation;
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, & sustain and renew earth’s life.
Questions:
Are you familiar with these 5 marks of mission?
Discuss them together. Not all mission needs to include all 5 marks. ‘To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people (D Bosch, Transforming Mission 1991),’ so as members of the Family of the Church, we are all missionaries.
What do you think about that?
Which marks of mission appeal to you and why?
Do we at St Francis engage with all 5 – if not, how could we/ is there more we could do?
(Please let the vicar know!)
Sarah
Please click here to go to all of the Lenten Course Study Material on Prayer
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>.
WESSEX SYNOD
