HALSTEAD AND BADGERS MOUNT PARISH MAGAZINE September 2020 Many styles of bouncy ò Bouncy Castles ò Furniture Hire castles to choose from ò Marquee’s ò DJ Hire ò Dance Floors ò Party Decoration ò Lighting ò Catering Tel : 01959 534 032 Mob : 07923 640 336 or 07970 667 924 Any size Marquee Hancocks Knockholt Road, Halstead Tel: 01959 533137 OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK MON-FRI 5.00 - 18.00, SAT 5.00 - 17.00, SUN 5.00 - 12.00 NEWSAGENT CONFECTIONERY TOBACCONIST GROCERIES CARDS LOTTERY AGENTS FOR: DRY CLEANING & SHOE REPAIRS Printed by SIL VER PINES SERVICES • SEVENOAKS 01732 465641 C M B Services Plumbing & Heating St. Margaret's Church, Halstead Corgi Registered Boilers: service, repair, installation, radiators, etc. Ministry Team: Bathroom: design, fitting, Rector: Rev’d. Tim Edwards The Rectory, Church Road, Halstead TN14 7HQ • Tel: (01959) 532133 showers & tiling. Taps, Tanks, etc. Churchwarden: Call Out 24/7 Mr Richard Hughes 7 The Old Manor, Halstead Place, Halstead, TN14 7BJ • Tel: (01959) 533649 01689-811071 Mobile 07801-838417 Website: www.knockholtandhalsteadchurches.org 60p PETER KELLY CHIMNEY SWEEP Professional chimney sweep and chimney maintenance (member of the Institute of chimney sweeps) 20 Station Road Halstead Kent 01959 532063 / 07502 383147 Certificates issued with every sweep c/o Halstead CP School Otford Lane, Halstead Kent TN14 7EA 07950 681846 Qualified, experienced staff. OFSTED inspected All children work towards the Early Learning Goals A happy ,caring environment for children aged 2-5 Open Mon-Fri 9:00-3:15. www.halsteadnursery.org.uk Reg charity 1022015 JJ..L ALangstaffNGSTAFF LLtdTD JJ..L ALangstaffNGSTAFF LLtdTD J. Langstaff Ltd Electrician Sevenoaks O Sevenoaks Based O Additional Sockets & Lighting O Design and InstallationElectrician Points O Fuse Board Upgrades - Design and - AdditionalO Garden Sockets Power & Lighting O Security Lighting Installation O& LightingFault PointsFinding O - Fuse Board - GardenO Power & Full or Part Rewires Upgrades Lighting CCTV O New Builds and Extensions- Security Lighting - SystemO PAT Upgrades Testing O System Upgrades - Full or Part Rewires - FaultO All Finding Work Completed to BS7671 - New Builds and - CCTV Professional Extensions - Reliable - - Courteous PAT Testing - Insured Contact Jason: Professional - Reliable - Courteous - Insured T: 01959 525 136 • M:All 07817Work Completed 733 257 to BS7671 • E: [email protected] Contact Jason: T: 01959 525 136 M: 07817 733 257 E: [email protected] THE RECTOR WRITES SEPTEMBER 2020 September is usually the time when we get back to our normal routines after the summer break. With the current coronavirus pandem- ic, it’s very different this year! However, it is still a good time to consider how God can use us to make a real difference in our workplace, school, family, friends and community. He equips us with everything we need to make His love known. When God gave Moses the job of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, He asked the question, ‘What is in your hand?’(Exodus 4:2). Moses was holding his staff, which represented his livelihood (what he was good at); his resources (his flock represented his wealth) and his security (which God was asking him to lay down). God asks the same question of us: What has God given you? Our gifts, temperament, experience, relationships, mind, education can be used in the work God has given us to do. How will we use them to make a difference in the places where He calls us to serve Him? John Ortberg, in his book It All Goes Back in the Box, speaks of Johnny, a 19-year-old with Downs syndrome. He worked at a supermarket checkout putting people’s items into bags. To encourage his customers, he decided to put a thought for the day into the bags. Every night his dad would help him to prepare the slips of paper and he would put the thoughts into the bags saying, ‘I hope it helps you have a good day. Thanks for coming here.’ A month later the store manager noticed that Johnny’s line at the checkout was three times longer than anyone else’s! People wanted Johnny’s thought for the day. He wasn’t just filling bags with groceries, he was filling lives with hope! What has God given you that will help and encourage others as you point them to Him? Tim FROM THE PARISH REGISTERS Funerals: Our deepest sympathy to the family of: Hilda WILLSHER, who was buried at St Margaret, Halstead on 24 June 2020. 3 Geoffrey SELLERS, who was buried at St Margaret, Halstead on 16 July 2020. Russell SAUNDERS, whose ashes were interred at St Margaret, Halstead on 2 August 2020. Carole HINTON, whose ashes are due to be interred at St Katharine, Knockholt in August 2020. Weddings: Our hearty congratulations to: Miranda KITCHENER and Jackson LIPPOLD, who were married at St Margaret, Halstead on 1 August 2020. Toni-Marie READER and Alexander POLLARD, who were married at St Margaret, Halstead on 8 August 2020. N.B. Tim is continuing to prepare people (via Zoom) for baptism (for them- selves/their children) and confirmation, and providing marriage prepara- tion sessions. If you would like to discuss a future baptism or marriage, please contact him on [email protected] Verse for the Month: “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” Proverbs 16:24 OBITUARY SIMON KVERNDAL My dear brother Simon Kverndal QC died, far too young at 62 on Sunday 14th June 2020. Simon was already in his twenties when we moved to Halstead but he spent many happy weekends at our family home, Col- gates, and we both sang in the St Marga- ret’s church choir. He loved singing and at university was in the Sidney Sussex College choir. St Margaret’s and Halstead are very im- portant to us as a family. Our parents, Brenda and Olly Kverndal, were regular 4 attendants and Olly was chairman of the Halstead Millennium Committee. He and my grandmother are buried in the churchyard and St Margaret’s Lychgate was erected by our family in his memory. (I was married in the church and my nephew, niece and my elder son were all christened there). Faith was hugely important to Simon, he as a regular churchgoer, was very involved in his local church and gave free legal advice to the Church and Gen- eral Synod. Simon was a maritime barrister and QC. Most of his cases – involving ship- owners, cargoes, casualties at sea, collisions and salvage – were resolved by arbitration and rarely came into the public eye. But occasionally he stepped into the limelight, as he did when he acted for the widow of a man who drowned after falling from the Stena ferry Koningin Beatrix in the Irish Sea and succeeded, against the expectations of his peers, in winning damages for her; or when he took on, pro bono, the defence of Greenpeace activists who had boarded and chained themselves to MV Etoile, which they suspected of carrying genetically modified grain into Cardiff. An extremely generous and kind man with a huge appetite for life; his mis- chievous sense of humour was evident even in adversity – for him, his chemo- therapy clinic was the ‘cocktail lounge’. He was a devoted family man and adored his wife Sophie and their two sons, Thor and Finn. We will all miss him enormously. MARY KNOWLES Mary Knowles passed away on 27th July 2020 aged 93. Loved and missed by her husband David, her 3 children and 5 grandchildren. Mary had over 40 happy years living in Watercroft Road. She founded the Kent Heights Flower Club (still going strong today) and often helped to arrange the flowers in the village church for various events. She was also a regular fundraiser for St Chris- topher’s Hospice and was an enthusiastic member of Sevenoaks Indoor Bowls club. Donations in her memory to https://www.dementiauk.org/. SERVICES FOR SEPTEMBER 2020 Following changes to government and Church of England guidance, from Sun- day 2 August, we are planning to gather for socially-distanced services on the following pattern each week: 9.30am Sunday Service @ St Katharine’s (20 spaces) 10.30am Sunday Service @ St Margaret’s (30 spaces) 11.30am Sunday Service @ Badgers Mount Memorial Hall (20 spaces) 5 Services will be shorter – c. 45 minutes long, and will usually include Holy Communion. One of the services will be recorded, then edited and uploaded to YouTube ahead of the regular ‘from the Rector’s Study’ 6pm slot. We are, of course, very aware that not everyone is on the inter- net, and able to access the service in this way. Please do contact the Rectory if you are unable to access the YouTube recording online, and would like to stay connected. In the meantime... If activities publicised in this magazine are cancelled/amended, we will do our best to notify you via the church mailing list (aka “Benefice Bulletin”), and notices on Facebook and the Benefice webpage:www.knockholtandhal - steadchurches.org. If you are not online and would like to check, please contact the Rectory on 01959 532133. If you do not currently receive the Benefice Bulletin and would like to, please email [email protected] to be added. At the time of writing, arrangements as follows: When will church services be? Because of the restricted numbers, there will be three services on a Sunday morning: • 9:30 at St Katharine’s, Knockholt • 10:30 at St Margaret’s, Halstead • 11:30 at Badgers Mount Memorial Hall (Please note the different times). To avoid people arriving all together and to ensure that everyone can be seated before the service, we ask that you arrive between 5 and 25 minutes before the start of the service (so, between 9:05 and 9:25 for the 9:30 service, for instance).