At Home Activities

We invite households to send a photo of themselves, preferably of them outside their house, recording who was living in the village at the time of the jubilee. 

The photographs will be incorporated into a montage, which we hope will be put on display at the Village Hall, and digital copy held in archive.  Residents may wish to provide some background information, such as names & any other information relating to the history of the property. 

Email photograph, address & any additional information to admin@fvca.org.uk  Addresses will not be shared, this will be to verify that you live in our community.  We ask for your consent that addresses can be held in archive for future historical reference.

Over the weekend of 30th – 31st October, carve a crazy pumpkin and put it out front where people can see it.

Our village church was named to honour St. Mark the Evangelist, whose feast day is on 25th April.

Mark was an Evangelist—one of the four men who wrote the Gospels found in the New Testament.

It was tradition in many English villages between the 17th and late 19th Centuries for people to sit in the church porch on the night of St Mark’s Eve and stay silent between the bell tolling at 11pm until the bell struck 1am. During this time, the ghosts of those who were to die in the year ahead would be observed entering the church.

In our community we don’t want ghosts, and on this St. Mark’s Eve (Saturday 24^th April), we invite you to light a candle, pause and think of those people suffering in body, mind or spirit and ask that they receive strength and healing.

And, on St. Mark’s Day (Sunday 25^th April) let’s show our loving, caring nature with a Random Act of Kindness with someone else who also lives in our community.

Share your candlelight photos and tell us about your Random Act of Kindness (whether what you have done or what you have received) by emailing admin@fvca.org.uk or message our Facebook page.

Help turn our community Red and White on Friday 23^rd April, to mark St. George’s Day, patron saint of England.

Send photos of your flags/displays to admin@fvca.org.uk or message our Facebook page.

Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day as it is sometimes known, is a traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday, this year Shrove Tuesday falls on 16^th February.

Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter – was traditionally a time of fasting, and Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before embarking on the fast, and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients. As well as eating pancakes it is traditional to have pancake races and toss pancakes!

There will be no community pancake races due to Covid restriction, but there is still something that we can do as a community to mark the occasion:

Challenge

On a dinner plate size circular piece of paper (your pancake), create something that depicts part of our community, e.g. your pancake could have a church (St. Marks), or trees (Pepperwood) or football field (Recreation Ground) – you can use pens, crayons or craft materials.  Take a photo of your creation and email to admin@fvca.org.uk where will share on a social media streams & website.  Please state name to be quoted and, if created by a child, age. 

LENT GROUP 2021

For the people of Belbroughton, Blakedown, Broome, Churchill and Fairfield

On Zoom

on The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

Starting Wednesday 24^th February 2pm, lasting till 3.15/30 pm 

For 6 sessions

The only thing you will need is a Bible.

Session 1:  Following Jesus.   Matthew 4: 18-22; 8: 18-27

Session 2:  The Path of Grace.  Mathew 5: 1-12

Session 3:  The Path of Humility. John 13: 1-17

Session 4: The Path of Suffering: Matthew 10: 1-33

Session 5: The Path of Peace. Matthew 7: 1-12

Session 6:  Following to the End.  John 11:1-44

Not everyone agrees, but the majority think that Thomas a Kempis, an Augustinian monk of the 1400’s, is the author of a book that for years was second only to the Bible in sales. The Imitation of Christ has never been out of print and copies have been in circulation since 1418.

Revered by Protestants and Catholics alike, you might like to get your own copy. You can get the Penguin Classics translation by Robert Jeffery, the Dean of Worcester Cathedral before the present one, for under £10. But you do not need to have your own copy. You might already have one!

If you indicate you want to join this Zoom Group, along with the Zoom details, each week you will get a “Handout” with some text from the Imitation and the questions we shall discuss/think about.

Do join us!   

Email   sueoliver778@gmail.com

Canon Sue

Members of the community put pen to paper and shared their love poems to mark Valentine’s Day 2021.

Love Through the Ages

By Arthur Wilson

In Shakespeare’s time

Love poems would rhyme

With “hast” and “thee”

And “thou” and “me”.

As time progressed

The rhyme grew less

The words less formal

The tone more normal.

So, in love poems now

We will allow

Love to be shown

In any way known.

Just say

I

Love

You

It will be soon be Valentine’s Day (14th February), an occasion when when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts.

This year, let share the love a bit further:

Roses are Red

Violet are Blue

Write us a Poem

That says I love You.

Email your poem to admin@fvca.org.uk and we will add to our special Valentine’s webpage. Your poem could be serious or funny, it can be about a person, animal or whatever you like.

No prizes, just the satisfaction that you have shared your love.

To read the Poems for Valentine’s that we have received CLICK HERE

Halloween 2020 might look a little bit different to previous years. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t still have lots of creative Halloween fun together!

This Halloween, we’d love to get as many homes as possible in our community involved in our Big Neighbourhood Pumpkin Trail!

All you need to do is display a pumpkin in your window – paper, real, decorated, plastic, painted….whatever you like! Then when children are out and about on Saturday 31^st October they can see how many pumpkins they can spot – it will become one massive Pumpkin Trail!

Share your pumpkins by emailing a photo to admin@fvca.org.uk, message via Facebook (www.facebook.com/fairfieldinformation) or Twitter @fairfield_info 

Please Share The Following Suggestions with Your Elderly and Vulnerable Neighbours (phone call/distance conversation)

With the sun out shining, getting out and about can be difficult in this time of social isolation and distancing, but there are ways you can help people to still benefit. Spending time in green space, your garden or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing. It can improve your mood, reduce feelings of stress or anger, and make you feel more relaxed.

It’s possible to still get these positive effects from nature while staying indoors at home. You could recommend to try the following:

• Spend time with the windows open to let in fresh air.
• Have flowers or potted plants in your home.
• Use natural materials to decorate your living space, or use them in art projects. This could include leaves, flowers, feathers, tree bark or seeds.
• Arrange a comfortable space to sit, for example by a window where you can look out over a view of trees or the sky, or watch birds and other animals.
• Grow plants or flowers on windowsills. For example, you could buy seeds online or look for any community groups that give away or swap them, share with your street or neighbours.
• Look at photos of your favourite places in nature. Use them as the background on your mobile phone or computer screen, or print and put them up on your walls.
• Listen to natural sounds, like recordings or apps that play birdsong, ocean waves or rainfall. Get as much natural light as you can. Spend time in your garden if you have one, or open your front or back door and sit on the doorstep and listen to nature around you.
• Take part in wildlife spotting from your window, share with others what birds and birdsongs you’ve heard.

If your feeling trapped and enclosed.

• Open the windows to let in fresh air. Or you could spend time sitting on your doorstep, or in the garden if you have one.
• Try looking at the sky out of the window or from your doorstep. This can help to give you a sense of space.
• Regularly change the rooms you spend time in.