Dalesdown: 5-7 May 2023
Time for this year’s Immanuel Church Weekend! It’s an opportunity to spend time together as a church family, away from the usual routine – worshipping together, learning together and having fun together! All in the relaxed atmosphere of Dalesdown, with its 8 acres of grounds, in the Sussex countryside near Horsham.
This year will be different- there’s the Coronation on the Saturday and Bishop Ruth will be visiting us on the Sunday. So our programme will be fitting around King Charles’ plans and will include a Coronation party! (More details to follow.)
Watch!
Here is a quick video of last year’s Dalesdown to give a flavour of what it’s like!
Visit the Dalesdown website
The programme:
Paul Collins will be teaching for two sessions on Saturday (in the morning and the evening), and lead the family communion service on Sunday morning – this time with Bishop Ruth joining us.
There children and young people will have their Coronation-themed activities in the spacious Sports Centre, and playing fields and will have our traditional Saturday night BBQ as usual!
And there will be plenty of time and space in between the sessions on Saturday to watch the Coronation, have fun, eat, go for walks and chat.
The weekend will finish on Saturday after our Coronation Lunch on Sunday afternoon!
Getting involved
You can join in for the whole weekend, or just part of it. You can stay over for one or two nights, or come as a day visitor for Saturday and Sunday – or just one day. If you want to stay overnight, you can choose to stay in a room, or camp on site.
If you are in a room – or camping – all your meals will be provided from Saturday breakfast to Sunday lunch. (So if you’re arriving on Friday evening, please bring your own evening meal – cooking facilities will be available.)
The day visitors will join in for lunch and BBQ on Saturday and the Coronation party on Sunday!
How much does it cost?
We’ve tried to keep the costs down – we are offering an Early Bird saving of £5 for each person booking the weekend by Sunday 2 April. From April 3 the tickets are full price.
If money is tight: We can help out if the cost is going to be an obstacle to you coming. Please talk to one of the leadership team or the trustees.
When can we book? You can book now – but bookings will close on Sunday 16th April.
The Rooms
Dalesdown has 14 rooms of various sizes, each with single beds. Some are family rooms with bunk beds, others are small dormitories. Four of the rooms are en-suite. We will arrange some rooms for single people to share as same sex rooms. We will try our best to meet everyone’s requirements.
Camping:
Each year there is a small gathering of Immanuel members who bring their own tents, caravans and campervans and camp on the grass next to the main building, ( where campers can use the toilets and showers.) We will do our best to provide camping pitches for everyone interested, but this may not be possible due to the limited space available.
Come each day
Many people stay at home overnight and travel to Dalesdown in the morning. We can help each other by sharing lifts. And it’s a way of keeping costs down too.
Playing your part!
It takes a whole team of people to run this weekend – and everyone (or almost everyone!) can help in some way. We will be asking for volunteers to help with many different aspects –some similar to Sunday mornings and some different. This will include hosting, serving tea and coffee, preparing meals, clearing tables, washing up, cleaning – as well as worship team, AV, youth and children’s sessions etc. Or just bringing some cake for morning coffee breaks!
