St Giles Shipbourne

01/12/2024

There is a vigil of hope and expectation for Advent this evening at Shipbourne Church this evening at 6pm
All Welcome!

13/02/2024

The funeral of the late Rev Peter Flynn will be held this coming Monday (19th Feb) at St Giles' Church, Shipbourne at 12noon.
All welcome!

10/09/2022

As we all process the news of Her Majesty's death we would like to invite you to come together to mark the proclamation of Charles as our new King and afterwards to remember Queen Elizabeth at a sung evensong. The proclamation will be at 5.50pm at the war memorial in St Giles churchyard on Sunday the 11th September and the service at 6.00pm in the church.

10/09/2022

Here is the link to a message from our new Bishop of Rochester following the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II:

Access a transcript here: https://bit.ly/3eH99O9

07/09/2022

We are running guided tours of our fascinating and beautiful church on Sunday the 11th at 11.30, Monday at 2.00pm and Thursday after the award winning Shipbourne farmers market at 2.00pm. These are all free and can be booked through www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/st-giles-shipbourne-guided-tours
Every morning from the Monday the 12th to Saturday the 17th we are also welcoming walkers to join us for coffee from 10.00 until 12.00. We'd love to meet you and see you there and have a look around our beautiful church.

◄  Back to previous page St Giles, Shipbourne Guided tours St. Giles Church, Stumble Hill, Shipbourne, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 9PF Come and explore our fine Victorian church with it's hidden royal connections and frightful crypt. We invite you to a tour of the church of St Giles Shipbourne, set in...

03/09/2022

We’re very excited to announce that we are taking part in the National Trust Heritage Week. www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/st-giles-shipbourne-guided-tours please check out the Heritage website to find out more and find details to book on a fascinating guided tour of our historic church.

◄ Back to previous page St Giles, Shipbourne Guided tours St. Giles Church, Stumble Hill, Shipbourne, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 9PF Come and explore our fine Victorian church with it's hidden royal connections and frightful crypt. We invite you to a tour of the church of St Giles Shipbourne, set in.....

04/06/2022

What an extraordinary weekend, please come & celebrate with us tomorrow at 10.00 on the common at Shipbourne for an open air service, tree planting and refreshments afterwards at the village hall courtesy of Fairlawn.

17/04/2022

Christ is risen…
We’re celebrating this amazing fact at St Giles this morning please come and join us at 9.30.
He is risen indeed!

A tremor in the void

‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)

A tremor in the void

It began with darkness, a tremor in the void,
the shadow of God moving silently
over the cowering deep.

It began with darkness, a serpent’s lie believed,
a temptation devoured,
a garden left behind.

It began with darkness, a people enslaved,
a murderer in exile,
the angel of death snatching a nation’s young.

It began with darkness, the terror of war,
the breaking of kings, invasion and oppression
and a God abandoned, then forgotten.

It began with darkness, a frightened mother
travelling a dusty road, a stable for a delivery room,
a desperate escape into a foreign land.

It began with darkness, the plotting of the pious,
the betrayal of a friend, an arrest in the night,
an unjust trial.

It began with darkness, an innocent man’s arm
forced against a wooden beam, iron nails driven through his
skin tendons ligaments bones

broken body hoisted high
the crowd jeering joking sneering spitting,
his mother, weeping.

It began with darkness,
an anguished cry, a spear thrust into flesh,
life pouring out, sky turning black.

It began with darkness, a tremor in the void,
the eyes of the anointed opening
in the cold heart of a tomb,

and then a voice:
‘Let there be light.’

Happy Easter from everyone at Tearfund.
May you know the reality of the risen Christ in your heart.
May Christ’s love, peace and hope rest upon you and your loved ones, now and always.

Gideon Heugh
Gideon writes for Tearfund and is a poet and environmentalist.
Poem is © Gideon Heugh, taken from Rumours of Light.

15/03/2022

https://mcusercontent.com/0b375b1912f2d9f546f580f63/images/f80c93e5-42e3-1b32-b89c-a5fe8653b0a0.jpg

05/03/2022

We’re looking forward to seeing you at our 9.30 🕤service tomorrow where we will be very pleased to be able to share coffee ☕️ afterwards. It’s been a while… 😊

04/03/2022

When we hear the news and feel so helpless in the face of so many suffering, let's pray that they all will know God in their suffering and know comfort through that. Also think about donating to a suitable relief agency if we're able.
The following is from the Henri Nouwen Society
DAILY MEDITATION | MARCH 4, 2022
Jesus is God-Who-Suffers-With-Us
God sent Jesus to make free persons of us. He has chosen compassion as the way to freedom. That is a great deal more radical than you might at first imagine. It means that God wanted to liberate us, not by removing suffering from us, but by sharing it with us. Jesus is God-who-suffers-with-us. Over time, the word sympathizing has become a somewhat feeble way of expressing the reality of “suffering with” someone. Nowadays, when someone says: “I have sympathy for you,” it has a rather distant ring about it. The feeling, at least for me, is of someone looking down from above. The word’s original meaning of “suffering together with someone” has been partly lost. That’s why I’ve opted for the word compassion. It’s warmer, more intimate, and closer. It’s taking part in the suffering of the other, being totally a fellow human being in suffering. . . .

Jesus is the revelation of God’s unending, unconditional love for us human beings. Everything that Jesus has done, said, and undergone is meant to show us that the love we most long for is given to us by God, not because we deserved it, but because God is a God of love.
Henri J. Nouwen

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
2 CORINTHIANS 3:17 (NIV)

28/02/2022

Sometimes Lent can be about what we take up not just what we give up. Have a look at this app as a way of connecting with Gods heart for justice & wholness.

This Lent we are called to reflect on the injustices of the world and ask what God is calling us to do about them. Over forty days, we step into God’s work in the here and now – and in doing so we move from brokenness towards wholeness.
www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/what-we-believe/lent-holy-week-and-easter/livelent-embracing-justice-our-lent-reflections

This Lent we are called to reflect on the injustices of the world and ask what God is calling us to do about them. Over forty days, we step into God’s work in the here and now – and in doing so we move from brokenness towards wholeness.