ST GILES FARNBOROUGH - EVENTS, NEWS AND NOTICES

 

 


Easter Flowers

Sunday 20th April 2025

Throughout the six weeks of Lent, we have no flowers or foliage in church, apart from small arrangements on the Book of Remembrance. We celebrate the great festival of Easter by decorating our church with lilies and spring flowers.

This year we will be purchasing a variety of lilies including Longiflorum, Calla and Stargazer, to enhance all our colourful floral arrangements in church. We hope you will enjoy the mixed displays over the Easter weekend and subsequent weeks. If you would like to donate towards a lily or spring flowers for St. Giles, in memory of a loved one or to celebrate Easter, we would be delighted. The cost of a lily is now around £4.

Please look out for the special yellow envelopes that will be in church from late February. Alternatively, please place donations (cash or cheques) in an envelope, clearly marked Easter Lilies. All envelopes can be placed on the collection plate at church services, left for Eddie Roberts in the church pigeon-hole, or handed into the Parish Office.

If you are a UK tax payer, including tax on pensions, dividends and savings, you qualify to Gift Aid your donation. Gift Aid adds an additional 25 percent to your donation and this extra amount really adds up, so please provide your name and address, where applicable. Each envelope contains a preprinted Gift Aid Slip. Please return the slip blank, if not required, so we can reuse.

Please make your donations as soon as possible, as all flowers need to be ordered in advance. Please make cheques payable to ‘St. Giles PCC.’

Thank you for your support.

St Giles Flower Arranging Team


New Organ Scholar

I'm Thomas Blew and I'm delighted to be taking up the organ scholarship at St Giles. For the last two years I've been singing in the choir here as a choral scholar, which has been a very valuable experience for learning new repertoire, learning about choral music and singing regularly. Working in such a positive and fun environment has been a real joy.

I'm a student at Saint Olave's Grammar School, where I'm studying music, Latin and religious studies for my A Levels, and where I enjoy taking part in as much music as possible, particularly playing the organ and directing the Chapel Choir.



Outside of organ playing I play the viola, and I've recently joined the Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Youth Orchestra, where I've been inspired by the drive to make orchestral music as accessible as possible with outreach projects and free-for-teens tickets.

Playing at St Giles for the next year will help to push my playing further and to prepare me for future applications and roles, as well as being very fun, so I'm looking forward to it immensely.

Charity in Focus

St Giles Centre Refurbishment

At our PCC meeting held on Monday 13th October 2023 the PCC decided to suspend our charitable giving for the whole of 2024, with the exception of the Parish Fete. 

The reason for this is that we hope that work on the St. Giles Centre will begin in earnest in the summer of this year. 



Latest Update





Bromley Food Bank

I am writing to express our heartfelt thanks to your congregation for supporting Bromley Borough Foodbank this Harvest season.  Your continued support of our charity is invaluable, enabling us to assist those who are most vulnerable in our community.



Please find attached your
Food Bank Certificate, which you are welcome to print and display. Please accept my apologies for the delay in sending this out to you.

Thank you once again for your continued support of Bromley Borough Foodbank. Many thanks and kind regards,

Gabrielle  
Bromley Borough Foodbank


V.E. Day Commemorations

Flower Festival - Sponsor a Window

Sat 3rd - Mon 5th May 2025

We are delighted to share with you plans for a display of wonderful flower arrangements to celebrate the 80th Year Anniversary of VE (Victory Europe) DAY which falls on 8th May 2025. Our aim is to recognise the men, women and children who went through the war and contributed to the war effort and final victory.

St Giles will be open to visitors Saturday 3rd, Sunday 4th and Bank Holiday Monday 5th May, with bunting and an Afternoon Tea in the village hall. Full details to follow.

Planning is now underway. If you would like to dedicate one of the 5 large or 2 smaller windows, at St Giles Church, to a member of your family, who was in the war, please consider sponsorship of a flower arrangement, in their memory Larger windows are £50 and smaller ones £25. We would love to include personal photos and memorabilia. Their name(s) will be displayed alongside the arrangement, with a suitable dedication. The flower arrangement in the window can be in colours of your choice, for example a patriotic red, white and blue or something to reflect the persons war occupation / favourite colours or flowers.

Where demand is high, we can split the large windows to accommodate two bookings at £25 per half. Additionally, the Font, Porch and pedestals can be booked.

For Bookings - Please Contact:
Lynn Taylor on 01689 861597.

If we are not able to accommodate your dedication, due to a high uptake, then we would be happy to offer you a display in memory of a loved one, on any of the following Sundays up to 2nd September which marked the official end of the Second World War.

Thank you – Elizabeth Harriss Orr -
St Giles Flower Teams

St Giles Afternoon Tea: Village Hall

Sunday 4th May 2025 2.30pm to 5.00pm

Come and join us for a celebration for those who gave so much. Good food and music. Bring your family, friends and neighbours for a pleasant afternoon.

Tickets: Adult £10.00 Child £5.00 Contact: Carol on carol@stgileschurch.uk or 07951725069 Or from Liz in the Parish office, Church Road (Tuesday to Friday, 9.00am to 4,00pm.

Don’t forget to view the Flower Festival in St Giles along with commemorative items.

Farnborough War Memorial

Thursday 8th May 10:45am

A short service followed by two minutes of silence at 11am and the laying of a poppy wreath will take place to mark the 80th Anniversary of the end of war in Europe.

Remembrance Photography Board

People are welcome to place a picture/s of relatives who served during the course of the war on the large notice board at the back of the church accompanied by a short inscription. (Preferably typed). eg.. in loving memory of my father/mother, grandfather, brother etc who served in the Royal Artillery 1939 - 1945.

Community Larder &
Warm Space

Tuesdays from 10:30am

Just a reminder that our Community Larder runs every Tuesday morning at St. Nicholas church.



We are now also opening up our building as a 'Warm Space' from 10.30am - 12.30pm every Tuesday. Anyone can come along and enjoy the Warm Space from 10.30am, and will also be able to access free fresh food and grocery items from the Community Larder from 11.30am onwards, along with a free cup of tea or coffee.

Please do advertise the Community Larder and the Warm Space initiative to anyone you know who may be interested

Our Monthly Bulletin

It is now some time since we started sending out our monthly Bulletin and I know from a number of comments that it is much appreciated as a way of keeping in touch with the life and faith of St. Giles.  I hope that in our stressful, unpredictable and secular world this Bulletin remains a source of hope and faith for you. 

A number of our readers still appreciate receiving the Bulletin via Royal mail, and in past years our readers have been really generous in helping to fund the postage.  It costs £63 per month to post this out and I would be very grateful if any of our readers could take on sponsorship of one month's postage to allow us to continue this service. 

Cheques can be made payable to St. Giles PCC and delivered to the Parish Office, or via the Rectory.  Alternatively, via online banking with use of the following details:

Barclays 20-14-33   50686212  Parochial Church Council of St Giles


Recycling Stamps for Charity

Thank you to everyone who has donated stamps for Against Breast Cancer UK. As I write this, you have donated over 1kg of stamps. I will be removing the box from the porch of St. Giles at the beginning of March and sending off the collection.

Please continue to save your stamps. I have collected for my chosen charity for two years now, and I think it has been very successful. If you would like to use this as a means for collecting for your chosen charity in the future, please create a box and put a notice in the pew sheet and the magazine.

Helen Roberts


ABOUT ST. GILES CHURCH


St. Giles Coach Trip to Brighton

Saturday 10th May 2025

Fancy a day by the sea? Join us for our annual trip to Brighton. Bring your friends and family for a great day out.  We will leave Farnborough Village (outside the school) at 9.00 a.m. and leave Brighton at 5.00 p.m. 



Tickets always go fast.  Tickets: £18.
 
Contact: Carol on 07951 725069 or email carol@stgileschurch.uk

St. Giles Coach Trip to Broadstairs

Saturday 12th July 2025

Fancy a day by the sea? Join us for our annual trip to Broadstairs. Bring your friends and family for a great day out.  We will leave Farnborough Village (outside the school) at 9.00 a.m. and leave Broadstairs at 5.30 p.m.  Tickets always go fast. 



Tickets: £18.

Contact: Carol on 07951 725069 or email carol@stgileschurch.uk
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St Giles Annual Summer Fete

Saturday 14th June 2025

Advance Notice - Make a date in your diary for a lovely traditional day out. Enjoy great entertainment, good food and plenty of Pimm’s.

If you would like to be a sponsor for the fete, full details will be available soon. The cost of putting on a fete can be large so we appreciate any help we can get.

We value our volunteers so if you have time to help out, setting up, on the day or clearing away we are more than grateful. This is a team event. In the meantime, if you have any good quality gifts please bring them. A box will be available in the church for your donations. Please leave bottles, books and plants until nearer the day - we will let you know when we can receive them. Home-made cakes on the day are always gratefully received and prove very popular. 

Contact: Carol on 07951 725069 or email carol@stgileschurch.uk