All Saints ChurchPast Happenings
Here is a selection of things we have been up to in 2020 and before. Due to Covid-19 there are not many recent photos of our virtual activities together - but there is still a lot of 'togetherness'
Splash Zoom Social
In February we held a fun Zoom social for the families of All Saints. We started by looking at the models they had made during the half-term week for our inaugural All Saints Art Gallery. .
Then we played Kim’s game, the memory game where you have to spot what item has been taken away – we used sweets (above). Can you spot which is missing in these 2 pictures?
The children then enjoyed a scavenger hunt where they had to find items in their house beginning with the following letters: P E S H D H R E (what would you find?). These letters led to a word connected to the story that Ian read to the group (the word was Shepherd).
We then had a series of close up pictures of everyday items and the children had to guess what they were – some were easier than others.
Yes – a shallot and a tomato!
The zoom social is open to all families of All Saints – we hope to see you at the next one.
APCM Slideshow - our year in photos!!
Our somewhat delayed APCM has finally happened - via Zoom but it was wonderful to see so many faces! And what a year it has been - through all the recent storms - God has shown his presence and we are so grateful for all those things we have been able to do together!
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Staying connected in difficult times:
We may have to socially distance and change the way we interact, but as a community we have grown stronger, more visible and are staying connected - despite COVID-19 restrictions.
Here are some of the things we have done 'together' in 2020 so far:
We have been working together one projects, such as our community wall hanging and our very own book of encouragement
Thank You from Fiona
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Cream Tea Saturday
Thank you so much to everyone who came and supported our cream tea take away. We made over 110 cream teas and raised over £500. It was wonderful to see so many of you over the fence and great to have a final event to mark Fiona's time in charge. Honeycomb would never have got off the ground without Fiona's vision, courage and delicious baking skills. We are going to miss her a lot when they do move at the end of the summer.
The team had lunch together yesterday and were able to present Fiona with all of her gifts:
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Anniversary letter from Rev Sue
Three year ago Rev Sue became the Vicar of All Saints. Here is her 'anniversary letter':
Eco Church Bronze Award
We are thrilled to announce that All Saints has just been awarded the Eco Church Bronze Award for our efforts to become a more eco-friendly church. It is so important to we recognise our responsibility for God creation and becoming an Eco Church is the first step towards this. If you would like to read more about the Eco Church idea, please click here. Fantastic news indeed - but of course we won't stop there!
APCM News
For more APCM news and the full report click here.
2020 Vision Launch
We are excited to have launched our new 2-year vision plan on January 13th. If you want to know about where we are heading and what is guiding us, you can find out more on the Vision 2020 link. You can also listen to Rev Sue's talk, which you can find here.
We are looking forward to seeing you at one of our many activities and events!
Happy New Year from all of us at All Saints
We had a lovely celebration night, welcoming the new decade together in Church with plenty of food and games.
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A Christmas - Thank You!!
Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard over the Christmas period, what a brilliant time we had. We began with the St Ebba’s Nativity, then the workshop, Christingle, cafe nativity, quiet communion, carol singing at the club, carol singing at St Ebba’s, our carol service, No Room at the Igloo, late night communion, then Christmas Day and finally our NYE party! I am so grateful to every single one of you. It began with those who delivered all our leaflets and then continued with people who organised services, read readings, prayed prayers, led the music, played in the bands, sang their hearts out, built igloos, conjured up incredible crafts, served teas, created beautiful flower displays, heated the mulled wine, acted in our plays, hosted the services and generally all pulled together. What an incredible team we make. Thank you to all of you who gave up your time and energy and sacrificed time with friends and families to make it all happen. All of it of course made possible by God who sustained us, inspired us and brought people to all of our services. Following our collections we were able to send £200 to the Children’s Society and we collected about £1300 for MERU which the church made up to £1500. Finally, a personal thank you for your many kind messages, cards and beautiful gifts. I was overwhelmed by your kindness and generosity.
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Christmas 2019 Highlights - No room in the igloo??
What a fantastic afternoon of creative genius we enjoyed on Dec 24th. There was no room at the igloo and not much room in church either. A HUGE thank you to those who built the igloo and the scenery, those who did the music and especially to Amanda & Nigel for their creativity and hard work.
It was a fabulous Nativity with penguins, polar explorers, reindeer and Jesus, who all put in an appearance at All Saints this year!
We also had great fun in our Cafe Church nativity 'Meet the cast', where we got to hear the Christmas story from the different perspectives of all (or at least most) of those involved. Again we had a full 'house' which was great!
The season started off with our Christmas Workshop and the Christingle service, which again was attended by our gigantic Christingle - this year in the shape of Vlada, our curate.
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125 Celebrations
Wasn’t our anniversary Sunday just the most amazing day??? It was definitely the happiest and most joy filled day we have had for a long time. Surrounded by so many wonderful people, worshipping God with such joy and then all sharing a meal and so much laughter (and some cava and wine...).
The joy of the Lord was definitely our strength!
If you want to see more photos of this special day, you can find them one Facebook - this link will take you there.
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Eco Actions
As of July 1st we are now officially an Eco Church, having achieved the Bronze award on the scheme. This is a fantastic achievement we are very proud of! In line with our determination to do whatever we can for our environment, the children in Splash have created some more bug hotels out of to-be-recycled materials to take home and to encourage a bugs life in their own gardens. This is a month of celebration at All Saints!
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All Saints Talent Show
Last Sunday 3 of our young people had organised a talent show for All Saints. We had a fantastic line up of talented people, with everything from poetry, music, magic to comedy. It was a great event and everybody had lots of fun - and of course all your talents are known now!
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Bunting Project - Sneak Preview
A sneak preview of some of the pennants that have
already come in for our 125 anniversary bunting. It is not too late to join in, please bring your pennants to church tomorrow. They are going to look amazing in church for our celebrations. Come and have a look when they are up later this month (July)!
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Bowling Evening
We had a fun evening on the Bowling Green - and we certainly learned a lot, for example the correct posture for proper bowling...!
More photos can be found on our Facebook page (here).
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Confirmation Service at all Saints
This year on Sunday 2nd June at 10am we hosted a confirmation service and were joined by Bishop Jo. It was a very special event, especially as it has been a long time since we have hosted one. Seventeen candidates were confirmed and we had a lovely time during the service and afterwards on the meadow with coffee and cakes. If you missed this special event, you can find Bishop Jo's sermon in the Podcast section.
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Ladies Night Out/Mens Night Out
We went to Seven Stars Restaurant on 20th May at 7pm and had a fantastic evening with a great turnout of 28 ladies!
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Christian Aid Week May 12th - 18th
Again we took part in the house to house collection this year. Provisional total collected is just £21 less than last year at £1,479.30 (plus some foreign coins).
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Superhero Sunday
On Sunday May 19th we were involved with the Superhero day – see below for more details. This was another opportunity for us to get out and get involved in our community, to fulfil our vision statement.
Some more fun photos can be found on our Facebook page (here)
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Easter Celebrations
What a busy time this was at All Saints! And what a joyous celebration we had Easter morning - first in our sunrise service followed by breakfast in the hall and then in our family service.
For more photos please see our Facebook page, which can be accessed through this link here.
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APCM & Lunch 2019
On Sunday 24th March, we celebrated in our APCM meeting all the ways God blessed us in 2018 . The service was followed by a Bring and Share lunch. At the APCM we were able to reflect on all that happened in All Saints last year and our slideshow of photos was a powerful reminder to many. Sue shared some significant pieces of good news with the church:
1. We will have a new curate, Vlada, who will be with us from the summer. A full time hospital chaplain Vlada lives in Nork with his family and he will be with us on alternating Sundays and on an ad hoc basis during the week. We look forward to welcoming him to our church family.
2. The diocese generously encouraged us to use the funds we have to invest in our church and our future. We have already done this with the screens and the lighting, and we have ring fenced some of our reserves to match fund a grant we are hoping to receive to improve our sound system. After discussions with the diocese we have made a free will offering of £6,500 to the Bishop’s Mission Fund. The diocese has in turn forgiven us our £65,000 debt. This is amazing news.
3. On April 23rd our new youth café launches, and we are really excited to see how that develops and increases our contact with young people in our local area. Please do pray for the team who will be running that new outreach.
If you want to read the full APCM 2019 report you can find it here.
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Epsom RDA Hedge Planting
Our commitment this year is to reach out into our local community and get more actively involved. Our first opportunity to do that as a church is on Sunday 10th March at Epsom RDA (Riding for the Disabled). As you know they suffered a break in last year and some of their horses were injured. One had to be put down around the time of the attack and one just a couple of weeks ago as they were not recovering from the attack. The RDA have been given funding for some privet hedging to help improve the security on the site. We have been asked if we can help plant it. We will be doing it on Sunday 10th March at 2pm and if we get a good turnout we will be all done by 4pm. Epsom RDA will provide tea and cake, you just need to bring gloves, a trowel and a spade if you have one. Advanced gardening knowledge is not required, just a willingness to help. If you can commit to being part of the team with me please can you let me know.
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Vision 2020 Launch & Lunch
We had a fantastic morning worshipping God, celebrating our new 2-year vision plan, showing our commitment to working together and eating soup and lots of cheese. Please see the Vision 2020 page for more details and photos.
"Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. " Joshua 3:5
Whistle-Stop Tour through 2018
Our verse for the year was:
“I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” 2 John 5-6
We certainly learnt to walk in love and obedience during 2018 as we had to trust God through the drains saga and love one another through more challenges, illness and loss. Through it all though we, as a church, grew ever closer to God and continue to deepen our relationships with Him and with one another.
January – saw the launch of our Seeker course with over 20 people attending across the six weeks and much excellent discussion and asking of hard questions. Dave Senneck, Cathy Cattermole and Lyn Oakley all began the Growing Leaders course, Janet and Sue went on a LYCIG (Leading Your Church Into Growth) residential and you all pitched in and did an amazing job at our ‘Service of Serving’.
February – the building works continued in the Webber Hall with the installation of the toilet and the decoration works. Lent began with an Ash Wednesday service and the launch of our ‘Collection Potty’ for Toilet Twinning. In the end £540 was raised and we were able to twin all of our toilets and two extra ones!
March – Janet arranged a Lenten quiet day and Sue and Janet took part in Easter Experience at Danetree school. We hosted an excellent play ‘Where Adventure Begins’ and many of us were challenged to think about how we include and disciple young people in the church. We had our APCM dinner and games night which was really well attended, and the month ended with our new screens being installed in church whilst a Maundy Thursday meal was enjoyed by over 60 people in the hall. The following day we had a really fun and busy Easter Workshop followed by an ‘Hour Before the Cross’, meditating on paintings relating to the events of Holy Week.
April – began with an early start for our sunrise service on Easter Sunday, we gathered outside on the meadow around a fire for communion and then enjoyed breakfast together in the hall. The exciting event in April was the launch of Honeycomb Café which has gone from strength to strength. I am so thankful to Fiona for her passion and enthusiasm for building community and her incredible baking skills too. The month ended with a visit from Revd Wes Sutton from the Acorn Christian Centre and he spoke at our morning service and then commissioned our prayer ministry team.
May – we had a day of prayer with a range of different activities as part of the ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ national initiative. The youth were also working hard to promote Foodbank and arranging a collection of items for them. I can still remember their brilliant, amended version of ‘Amazing Grace’. In total over 111kg of items was collected and donated.
June – the Mothers Union hosted a talk on ‘Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery’, it was enlightening and thought provoking and really well attended. The end of June saw the last of our ‘Tea & Harmony’ events. I am so grateful to all the team who worked so hard to put on those events over many years.
July – was a very busy month. Our new men’s ministry headed by Robert Bourne began and they have enjoyed meals, walks, and pub nights. The youth held the ‘Great All Saints Bike Off’ and pedalled continuously for 24 hours. God blessed us with a sunny and warm day and night and incredible youth leaders who sat up with the young people and took several turns at pedalling themselves. It was an incredible achievement and thank you to all who supported this event. As the Bike Off ended our summer special began and the meadow was filled with people for our service, a picnic and then fun on the bouncy castle. New chairs were bought for the hall and the process of upgrading all the lights in church and the hall began.
August - traditionally a quieter month our lighting works continued, and they have made a real difference to the quality of light in church and both halls. The end of the month also brought the news that the drainage works had been connected to the wrong waste water system and thus began months of prayer, discussions and works and the temporary closure of Honeycomb Café. New connections were eventually completed in January 2019 and the works officially signed off in February 2019.
September – we launched our own LYCIG course, thank you so much to all those who came and engaged with that each week. Your input, insight, enthusiasm and support were such an encouragement to me and so very helpful as our next vision plan was prepared. It was so positive to see so many people wanting to engage with growing our church. We also held our second ‘Hog Roast & Beer Festival’. Even more popular than the first one, the hall was packed, and great food and many drinks were enjoyed.
October – the main event of this month was the youth weekend away to Carroty Wood. A weekend of fun, adventure, pushing ourselves and achieving more than we thought we could. Such a valuable experience for all who went. Thank you so much to Elaine, Fiona, Richard and Nigel who looked after the young people that weekend.
November – we made a change to our Remembrance Sunday arrangements and we began with a service all together in church, before heading outside for an act of remembrance at the war memorial at 11am. The church was full, and many people stayed for coffee afterwards. In the afternoon we held a special afternoon tea with a wartime songs sing-along. My thanks to Peter Duneclift for organising the entertainment side, it was excellent and thoroughly enjoyed by all.
December – was dominated by all of our Christmas events. The Christmas workshop was excellent as ever (thank you so much Sheila and Elaine for organising it), the church was very full for the Christingle service afterwards with the premier outing of my inflatable suit! The St Ebba’s nativity was a joy as ever and I am so grateful to all the team who do so much there. Ian organised a great café church nativity, Gilly did an amazing job with the carol service and Amanda led a brilliant Christmas Eve family service. Carol singing at the club had a particularly big choir this year and was well led by Peter. These were just the highlights – there was so much more happening too with school services, our quiet communion service, Toddler Time party and yet more as well!!
Children’s Toy Collection
Thank you so much to everyone who donated new toys and books for our appeal for the children's department at Epsom Hospital. They were all safely delivered this morning and the staff were thrilled - they literally clapped their hands with joy! This year we decided to do this instead of collecting shoeboxes as we have done in the past. The hospital really needed new toys to give as gifts over Christmas and lots of craft supplies to use with children whilst they are in hospital. I was certainly able to deliver plenty of everything and felt very proud to be your Vicar whilst doing it.
BBC ‘Children in Need’
Once again this year the little ones at Toddler Time took part in fund-raising activities to raise money for this charity. We had great fun with a sponsored ‘sticking’ session and made Pudsey headbands. Also, families could go for a ‘Walk in the Park’ – we provided a map and questions to answer and the children had things to spot and collect. In total we raised £90.50 for Children in Need. Well done everyone.
Sheila Chadwick
Royal British Legion 2018 Poppy Appeal
In this centenary year marking the end of the First World War, our church has really made an effort to recognise this important milestone. The excellent Remembrance Service and Community event had a huge impact on church members and local people. Our sterling work, over the years, to support the Poppy Appeal has resulted in year on year increases in the amount we have raised for the good work of the RBL. We expected this year to be good as people recognised the anniversary and we have also added more collecting opportunities, like Danetree & Blenheim Schools. Accordingly we have banked a total of £6008.08 which is £1883 more than we banked last year. This does not include the £675 that was raised at the Remembrance Day Service and afternoon event. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all those who volunteered to collect from door to door, stand in the draughty foyer at Homebase, delivered tins to shops and businesses or stood late into the evening at the Odeon Cinema, you are truly amazing, Well Done! We will be sending out individual Thank-You Cards to all collectors to let you know how well you did.
Many thanks to you all.
God bless, Andy & Sue Hayward
Remembrance Day 2018
We were delighted to be joined by so many visitors for our service on Sunday morning followed by our Act Of Remembrance. Gathering as a community to remember, to reflect, to pray and to commit ourselves to working for peace was significant and moving for us all. We really enjoyed having members of the uniformed organisations with us. We are grateful to the Armed Forces Covenant Fund who supplied our silhouettes for inside the church and Andy Hayward who made the two Tommies for outside by our war memorial.
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In the afternoon we held a ’Sparkling Afternoon Tea’. Songs from the time of WW1 were sung, poems were read and copies amounts of scones and cake were eaten and all washed down with plenty of tea and fizz! Thank you to those who entertained us, those who baked for us, those who helped set up and clear away and our young people who were fabulous hosts.
The collection from the service and the tea meant that we have been able to write a cheque to the Royal British Legion for £675.
Thank you to you all for joining with us.
Youth weekend away
Here you can see some impressions from the Youth Weekend away; click here to see more photos via Facebook.
The Great All Saints Bike Off
We knew it was going to be a long 24 hours. We knew we needed to be focussed, resilient and to work as a team. We also knew it was a totally mad idea to cycle on static bikes for 24 hours and have a cake sale. Everything we do at All Saints seems to involve cake!
“Perhaps 12 hours is enough we said”; “Perhaps you could just do some car washing to raise funds for the weekend away in October?” But the Genesis group were adamant. They could do it, and they wanted to do it, so the Great All Saints Bike Off was born. When Andrew stood up in church and announced the event four Sundays ago, the reaction from church was overwhelming and the following Sunday when we began to ask for sponsorship for our weekend away in October and our soon to be launched Youth Café, we could see that we clearly had incredible support. So, on Saturday 14th July at precisely 10 am we started to cycle on static bikes, under the gazebo on the meadow and continued until Sunday 15th July at 10 am. We decided to change cyclists every 20 mins as it was such a hot day and that’s how we did it – 72 slots of 20 mins with no breaks = 1440 minutes. It was so important that we complete the challenge properly, so one of the three bikes we were using was in motion the whole time. Sometimes the changeover of the cyclists was tricky, as we needed to have a second bike going for a few seconds so one rider could get off and another get on the same bike, so we maintained the objective of cycling continuously. Sometimes just one cyclist was in motion, but often a second cyclist would start just to offer a bit of support or have a chat. All through the day and evening we had visitors from church who came and spent time chatting with us and drinking tea and buying cakes. It felt like something bigger than just a sponsored event, it felt God driven. We laughed, we played games on the meadow, we ate lots, had a BBQ, watched films, chatted, saw Jupiter and the space station fly over (or maybe it was a satellite), said hello to a mother fox and her cub, prayed and some of us even slept. For 24 hours the meadow was our home and all the while the wheels on the bikes turned. When the sun came up on Sunday morning, we knew we were going to complete our challenge and Rev Sue got us a live interview on BBC Sussex and Surrey radio.
Carried along by the support from everyone around us a very loud impromptu singalong began as the meadow began to fill ready for the service at 10am. Genesis may have looked like they had been up all night but they certainly didn’t sound like it! I will always remember the 24 hours I was lucky to spend with an amazing group of young people and a team of leaders who really care.
Thank you to Pete, Freya, Nathan, Chris, Andrew, Lucy, Katie, William, Alicia and Robert.
The total raised to date is over £750 and counting which will go towards our weekend away and youth café.
Fiona Scullion.
Youth Project 'Foodbank'
Many thanks to everyone who supported our young people collecting donations for the local Foodbank on two Sundays in April & May. They received an amazing response!
Questions of Faith
In January and February we run a course in which we discussed some of the big questions of Faith in an informal group setting. Over juice and wine, we had some lively discussions, ranging from Big Bang theory over personal experiences to Jesus' life. If you have missed the course but would like to know more, please contact Rev Sue Cooke for more information on future course or simply to discuss some of the these questions over a cup of tea. Hand-outs from the discussions are available upon request from rev Sue Cooke. Also - keep an eye on our website for more courses to come in the near future.
Service of Cleaning 2018
Twice a year we put our faith into practise and get together for a big clean of the Church and the Halls. This is always a lot of fun and even includes Communion as well as Coffee and Tea and Cake. Thank you to all the Church family for the great turnout and the great enthusiasm with which we got together to work and to have some great conversations.
More fun photos can be found here.
Christmas at All Saints 2017
Christmas always is a busy time and there were plenty of activities going on in the run-up to Christmas. If you'd like to see more photos, please click on the links below - this will bring you to our Facebook page photo albums.
Nativity 2017
Christingle and workshop 2017
Festive Fayre 2017
Toddler christmas party 2017
Summer Fun Party 2017
More photos can be found here.
Beer Festival 2017
More photos can be found here.
Easter 2017
More photos can be found here.
Dinner Dance 2017
More photos can be found here
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