Welcome to St Giles Church Horsted Keynes

St Giles is a Church of England village church at the heart of this rural community. Our historic church has stood as a beacon in the village for over a thousand years ministering to all of the parish with God's love guiding the way.

St Giles Church encompasses all generations, with a strong youth involvement through our Primary school, a committed focus on families and a caring and responsive approach to our more senior members. All of this bonded together by prayer and united worship.

Please take the time to browse our website to find out what we have been doing in the name of God and to see what is yet to come and we look forward to seeing you at our forthcoming worship and activities.

St Giles now has an active Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/stgilesHK/

Rector's ramblings

A Statement from your clergy following the resignation of Archbishop Justin Welby

The Archbishop's resignation followed the desperate and deeply sad exposure of evil behavior by a lay leader in the the Church of England. It causes clergy and members of our church profound sorrow and regret. It is especially tragic and shocking when Christian leaders, who represent and express the Good news of Christ's love and care for everybody, take part in such horrific activities.
All of us must be aware of and (if we do) pray for the victims of abuse, as they strive to come to terms with the damage done to them and, too often, the failure to address their revelations of their treatment, and even attempts to cover up their suffering.
In recent years churches, schools and other institutions have tried to take safeguarding and physical, mental, sexual and other forms of abuse far more seriously. We seek to take any allegation with the utter seriousness it deserves and to seek to avoid the kinds of cover up that happened in this case. Safeguarding is on every Agenda of the Parochial Church Council meetings. Clergy and lay leaders have DBS (Disclosure and Barring) checks, and regular safeguarding training.

Each parish has a Parish Safeguarding Officer (PSO). Ours is Thelma Mason 07738 621672,  thelmsmason1@gmail.com
Any safeguarding concerns should be raised with Thelma and/or one of the clergy.
(If the allegation is about one of the clergy, approach Thelma alone)
Any concerns will be shared with The Chichester Diocesan Safeguarding Team.

                                                                                      Fr David and Fr Peter

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St Giles News

The charity collection during November and December is for Family Support Work (FSW):  St Giles has been supporting this charity for many years. You can find out all about their work from their website.  Donations can be made using orange envelopes in the collection plate, the electronic system at the back of the church or posted in the post box at the Martindale.  There is a stock of orange charity envelopes in the Martindale porch.

At the All Age and Advent service at St Giles on Sunday 1st December we will once again be collecting Christmas gifts for the children of the families being supported. We’re asked to bear in mind that many of the families have teenagers, and to please avoid donating baby or soft toys, and also that some have very limited living space so bulky board games are not ideal. Please ensure all gifted items are new and unwrapped so that FSW can decide on the appropriate recipient.

The Prayers for the Annex continue on Monday mornings at 11.30am in St Giles Church.

During these difficult, stressful times do remember that HK Help and HK Prayerline exist to help parishioners in a practical or spiritual way. You can find more details here.

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