ADVENT SUNDAY

Seeing the heart of hope: Vicious Cycles Broken
Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5

9.15AM BUSBRIDGE Classic: Taizé for Advent Sunday: A Patchwork of Hope
Leader & Speaker: Philippa Baker
Busbridge Church & Online
A reflective service with music and quiet spaces to prepare for the season of Advent which will take place in the nave of the church. Download the service order.

10.30AM BUSBRIDGE Contemporary [Holy Communion]
Leader: Mark Williams
Speaker: Simon Willetts
Busbridge Church & Online

4PM Advent Evensong
With benefice choir.
Hambledon Church

6PM UNPLUGGED
Led by the Youth Team. With lighting up of the Advent heart.
Busbridge Church

Sunday 5 December

Peace at the heart of Christmas: lives restored
Readings: Isaiah 11:1-10

9.15AM BUSBRIDGE Classic Service [Holy Communion]
Leader: Margot Spencer
Speaker: Chris Payne
Busbridge Church & Online

9.30AM HAMBLEDON Heritage Service
Leader: Dudley Hilton
Speaker: Simon Willetts
Hambledon Church & Online

10.30AM Muddy Church for Advent
Leader: Mark Puddephatt and Suzie Lambert
The Old Rectory Garden
We are continuing the tree theme, linking berries to Advent. Please bring a hand fork and a reusable cup (for coffee). Musicians! please bring your instruments and download the music and chords

6PM BUSBRIDGE Evening Service
Busbridge Church

Please note: Hand sanitiser and face coverings are available in both churches for those that wish to use them. Holy Communion is celebrated by each congregation once a month (at a service in the benefice each Sunday.): Holy Communion Sundays.

Communion UPDATE - 15 Nov 2021
In the light of the continuing rise in Covid infections, coupled with people's desire for caution, we have taken the decision to revert to offering Communion in one kind only - i.e. bread (wafer) - for the foreseeable future. We realise that this will be disappointing news for some of you, but hope that you will bear with us as we try to navigate our way safely through what is still a very uncertain situation. We shall review this from time to time, as circumstances change and regulations permit.

The Notices

Farewell to Lisa. We sadly say goodbye to Lisa who is leaving the staff team this Sunday. She will be at Busbridge services on Sunday, and helping to launch the Advent season before she departs. We are grateful for all she has been to Busbridge&Hambledon Church in the 3 and a half years, and send her off with our love and prayers. The Olsworth-Peters are staying in Chiddingfold, so Lisa, Ed, Henry, Lily and George won’t be vanishing completely.

CHRISTMAS!…

All things happening for Advent and Christmas can be found HERE including the link to book Christmas Eve services at Busbridge. There’s separate pages for the Walking Advent Calendar, Advent Reflections, Christmas Giving (Hampers and the Christmas Appeal for the Bible Society, and the Nexus Christmas Quiz next Saturday.

Advent week 1: Look out for Buddy the dog and Coolio camel outside Busbridge church from 3.15-45pm on Wednesday 1 Dec, and don’t miss window display number 1 in the Walking Advent Calendar. Collect a map from church this Sunday, or download it from the web site. Choose and start an Advent reflection series and prepare your heart for Christmas!

Please join us for the online Christmas Charity Quiz on Saturday 4 December at 7.30pm! Nexus will be raising funds for the wonderful local hospice care team at Phyllis Tuckwell. Our brilliant quizmaster duo will be with us again.  Alan Betts will be masterminding the setting of thought-provoking questions and delivering these in his inimitable style; and Dudley Hilton will oversee the amusing graphics, the technical stuff and score keeping!! 

To join the Quiz, please make a donation to Phyllis Tuckwell on www.justgiving.com/PamelaDaltonWilliams

Once you have donated, please email Janet Harvey by Monday 29th November, on: janetmharvey@btinternet.com, so she can organise teams and get details to the Church Office for sorting into breakout rooms. If you are a Zoom user, please give Janet the email address you use for Zoom, then Zoom will recognise you!!

The Bridge Magazine—looking for an new editor and treasurer. 

We have two very important vacancies in one of our key local mission and outreach activities.  Do please contact Vic Hicks if you would like to find out about these roles.  The role of Bridge editor is paid, and could be shared with a deputy editor.  Click the link for details.

Current Editor Cathy Brook will be stepping aside at the end of December after sending then Jan/Feb issue to print.  Lesley Reeves will also be ending her tenure as treasurer so we are looking for someone to take on the accounts (advertising income and printing costs) for the Bridge in the new year too. 

The Nov/Dec Issue of the Bridge is available online HERE, including Christmas events and services at church.

Yew Tree Cafe update

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Lizzie Soar to be our Café Manager! Lizzie comes with a wealth of experience having set up and successfully run a similar café locally. She will start work mid January to finalise the interiors, train volunteers and assistants, and get everything up and running ready for the opening. We will introduce her to the church properly in January but you might see her visiting in the meantime.

We will be going out to advert soon for Assistant Managers, and in the New Year will be looking to recruit lots of lovely volunteers to help out n this exciting project, watch this space!

The build continues, the external terracing is underway and all the electrics have been first fixed internally. We still await a date for our new windows to be delivered, but Mark Patemen and his team are working hard around this as much as possible.

Please continue to pray for the supply issues around the building, for recruitment of Assistants, and do consider if volunteering in the café might be for you. Do email any questions or comments to Karen at yewtreecafe@bhcgodalming.org

Karen and the Café management team (Carol Jones, Sarah Black, Chris Garner)

Some reminders…

MISSION: The November Outward Giving Update is about the Guildford Besom. It thanks Busbridge&Hambledon Church for it’s support and has some great examples of how the money we’ve given has enabled care and ministry to vulnerable people moving into new homes around Guildford.

Waverley have offered to help resettle some Afghan refugees. The churches response is being coordinated by the Diocese but the BHC home group led by Julia Stubbs is the contact point in Busbridge. If you have anything to donate please contact Julia Stubbs (eashingstubbs@aol.com) or Sarah Black (sarahblack536@gmail.com) or there will be a box at the back of church on Sunday.

The first family who are arriving this week  have 2 young children .

Things  they need for the family  are :
-household items, food parcels, toiletries etc
-clothes  and toys for a boy aged 2 and a 4-year-old girl. 
-any household electricals have got to be new, for health and safety reasons.
Most families have arrived with very little and would be very grateful for anything our church can do to help support families to resettle here in the UK.

The Outward Giving team needs new members urgently, to oversee the outward giving and work with our mission partners. To find out about the work that the OG team makes happen on behalf of Busbridge&Hambledon Church, please see the Outward Giving page.

Ben Ford has joined the staff team as Worship Pastor (part-time) and will oversee music and worship at Busbridge&Hambledon over Christmas and the coming months.  Ben will be introduced in services from 21 November. 

Anto is delighted to announce the appointment of Ed Sherwin to the role of Children’s Worker Assistant. Ed will be working with the Children, Youth and Families team (CYF) on a part time basis until July 2022 and will focus on the delivery of 4-11s children’s work. Ed has grown up in the church family so don’t be surprised if his face is familiar (photo to follow next week). Let’s give Ben and Ed the usual warm BHC welcome.

PCC News
The PCC met last week and discussed a sense that we need to shape our church life around mission and looking outwards and how people might lead this and get involved. The church finances were reviewed including an update on whether the financial shortfall to run our existing mission and worship was still around £40,000. The great news was that there’d been a fantastic response and we’re now looking to cover around £25,000. The PCC felt that we should be explaining about finances more regularly and how finance fuels Christian mission and presence locally and that we should be explaining the quiet works of mission that we undertake without fanfare. There is a space for one more Christian governor of our church school (see Anto for more info). We’d like to look at Christian ecology and our stewardship of resources. Recent staff and volunteer leadership changes were looked at, including welcoming Ed Sherwin (interim children’s work young person) and Ben Ford (part time worship pastor).

BUSBRIDGE JUNIOR SCHOOL APPLICATIONS

If you are thinking of submitting a church application to Busbridge Junior School for September 2022, please visit the Busbridge Junior School website and familiarise yourself with their admission criteria (‘About Us’, ‘Admissions’). If you meet the criteria, email catherine.garner@bhcgodalming.org for an information sheet. The deadline to submit the supplementary info form to the church office is 10 December.

Coming Up NEXT:

See the list below or look up dates further ahead in the full calendar. Select the event for details and the location (online or on site).

church family news

We have been deeply saddened to hear of the death of Muriel Campbell last Sunday. She has been a faithful, active and lifelong member of Hambledon Church and village and her presence will be much missed. A service will be held in Hambledon Church on Thursday 9 December at 2.30 p.m., to which all who knew and loved Muriel are welcome. Please pray for Ion and the whole family, that they may be sure of God's peace and comfort.

We send love also to Bea Coleman, whose father died last weekend. Please hold Bea, Tim and the whole family in your prayers, for God's love to surround them and his peace to be with them.

Please Pray for

All those who attend the annual benefice Memorial Service on Saturday 6 November, that they might find comfort, and give thanks for our bereavement team and pastoral assistants as they care for those who have lost loved ones.

Please continue to pray for the COP26 conference in Glasgow from 31st October - 12th November. At this significant time for our country and the world we must unite in prayer. 

• Park Road and road steward Anthony Field and Frances Morris

• Lane end

• Those working in medicine.

ELSEWHERE

We are very pleased to be able to run the Churches Together Christmas lunch again this year, subject to any changes in the Covid situation. It will take place at the Baptist Church Godalming on Christmas Day. Guests and volunteers are invited now. Please see the letter to guests and volunteer form below.

Christmas lunch letter to guests

Christmas lunch Volunteer form

We offer our prayers and support to staff, pupils and parents at Busbridge Infant School following it’s recent Ofsted Inspection. Please watch a message from Head Teacher, Darren Heatley outlining plans to respond.
http://www.busbridge-infant.surrey.sch.uk/website/ofsted_reports/63957

Waverley Abbey Trust (CWR), based in Waverley Abbey House Farnham. We are primarily a college offering Christian counselling training and Spiritual Direction courses. The catering is an important part of the students experience and we are currently understaffed. It's a great job for youth who may be looking for part-time work between studies or at weekends. Or for anyone looking for a full-time position of this kind. There are both full time and part-time opportunities.  The job descriptions, person specifications and main terms of employment are available from Iain Jones. Iain.jones@waverleyabbey.org 

See Churches Together Link Up - November Issue for news from around other churches in and around Godalming.

Catch up on News from other areas

Busbridge and Hambledon Churches are open daily for private prayer.

PRAYER MINISTRY TEAM AVAILABLE

To contact the EMERGENCY prayer chain, email prayer@bhcgodalming.org  or call Lisa Olsworth-Peter on 01483 421267.
Listening prayer is available mid-week.