Welcome to April’s InSpire with lots of topical articles, puzzles, quizzes and much more!
As we begin to celebrate Spring and all it’s beauty, this is a particularly poignant quote:
“The probability of life originating by accident is comparable to the probability of the complete Oxford dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing factory”. – Edwin Conklin
Post expires at 7:42pm on Tuesday April 1st, 2025
The post April 2024 Issue 82 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Happy Easter everyone!
I hope you all have a wonderful time this weekend with a bit of sunshine albeit quite wet underfoot.
Next week, 7 April, we have several exciting things going on.
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First and foremost it is the day of our Annual Parochial Church Meeting. Please make sure you attend this important event in our church diary when you can hear reports of what happened last year and plans for the current year.
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One plan that has come to fruition already is the revival of the rota for coffee after Sunday service in St John. Mike and Jane will be biting the bullet next Sunday so please stay after the service to support them.
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Last but not least we will be introducing our new collection taker: CollecTin as pictured. This is our new creditcard donations machine that we have purchased with help (and a grant!) from the central Church of England. By all means familiarise yourself and if you would like to test it out you are more than welcome!
Be careful in the next week as the change of clocks can result in people not concentrating as normal for several days.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
Post expires at 11:42am on Sunday March 30th, 2025
The post Notes for Sunday 31 March 2024 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Dear Members and friends,
This year the APCM (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) will be held on Sunday April 7th at 11.45am at St John the Baptist Capel. Please join us for this annual meeting where we can come together to review the past year in our wonderful parish.
If you wish to be elected to serve on the PCC please complete a nomination form, with Proposer and Seconder and hand it to the Chairman or Secretary at the beginning of the APCM.
The APCM Report is attached here so you can read up ahead of the meeting. APCM Report 2023 R
We hope to see many of you at the there.
The PCC
PS
apologies for the email earlier today. This is a new ‘newsletter’ specfically for important announcements and the system accidentally sent an email for an existing post.
The post Annual Parochial Church Meeting @ St John’s, Sunday April 7th after the service appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Dear friends,
For those who receive these notes in time: tonight 23 March we can join in with Earth Hour. This yearly event makes us stop and think how much resources we drain from the planet each year and how this affects climate change and nature loss. The idea is to switch off all non-essential lights between 20:30 and 21:30 and celebrate creation. Have some food and drink together, tell stories or play games: it’s surprising how many games exist that don’t require light or even require no light! You can also think of something specific to do for the planet like have a vegetarian day once or twice a week or replace short trips in the car with walking or cycling or consider car sharing more.
Happy Earth hour and God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
Post expires at 8:14am on Sunday March 23rd, 2025
The post Notes for Sunday 24 March 2024 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Dear friends,
As I write the garden is bathing in glorious sunshine: a sight for sore eyes!
Tomorrow we have a parish service in St John and I hope to see many of you. I will bring the new donations machine that will take card payments. We have been given a subsidy on the purchase of this device and it will be particularly useful when we have weddings, baptisms and funerals in St Margaret’s or St John. From this you will gather that it is a portable card reader and we can display different pictures on it depending on what we are raising money for at that moment.
Hopefully it will be ready to take gifts but if not tomorrow then soon.
Like last week’s picture of the grebe, the attached heron picture was taken two weeks ago on our visit to Amsterdam.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
Post expires at 8:55am on Sunday March 16th, 2025
The post Notes for Sunday 17 March 2024 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
So with March, the daffodils are blooming with many other blossoms to cheer us on our way to the first day of Spring falling this month. How wonderful it is to look forward to the earth warming up in our gardens and a return to the outdoors for many of us. This month at church we are in the throes of the season of Lent, enjoying our soup lunches in church at Capel and of course with Mothering Sunday also falling this month Capel Church Teas begin once again. Lent is another season in church life which is one of waiting in hope for God to meet us and sustain us through the storms and trials life brings. We are encouraged to draw close to our Lord and to each other as we journey through Lent, towards the Passion of Jesus, through to his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday.
We must not lose hope in these difficult times in the world. There is much strength to be gained through faith in Christ and I urge you to find time to reflect on the things that are most important to you and to have conversation with the God who promises he will be with us always to the end of the age.
This year we are once more raising money for the Bishop of Guildford’s Communities Fund Lent Appeal through our Wednesday Soup Lunches. Bishop Andrew’s Appeal will help those faced with the continuing impact of the cost of living crisis and the psychological scarring of the pandemic. It seems strange now doesn’t it that thankfully for most of us, the precautions that we all had to make in the pandemic are now mainly over. I recently did a talk in church which demonstrated the lengths we went to at that time and we measured out the two metre distance of separation we had to abide by. I cannot believe that is now five years since the pandemic began in the UK. Sadly of course Covid still is with us and can affect sometimes fatally the very vulnerable amongst us.
Holy Week begins near the end of this month with Palm Sunday, a Sunday when instead of a sermon we read one of the gospel accounts of the Passion. This year it will be Mark’s gospel. A moving service, this, as we celebrate at the beginning with our palms, Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Then the mood darkens as Jesus is arrested and so his passion begins. Maundy Thursday is another very poignant time when we commemorate the Last Supper and this year we are joining our friends at St Mary Magdalene, The Holmwood for this occasion. Good Friday with the church stripped back sees us spend time in reflection at the foot of the cross along with our combined choir singing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater which reflects the sorrow of Jesus’ mother Mary. Sorrow turns to joy however, as death never has the final word and Jesus is risen from the grave. Hallelujah! He is risen indeed. I do hope you might come and join us through this somewhat stripped back but also rich season of worship, reflection, prayer and fellowship knowing that whatever happens God is a God of surprises. Join us and find out more!!
Happy Easter!
With all my love and prayers
Liz
Post expires at 2:41pm on Thursday March 13th, 2025
The post Sorrow turns to Joy. Hallelujah! appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Dear friends,
Tomorrow is Mothering Sunday and that means the first teas of the year in St John. Both our churches will have a special service with a cafe church in St John.
Our PCC Facebook page is getting popular with more than 300 followers now. If you have access to this social media platform please consider following our page: ‘Capel and Ockley church’ and spread any news by liking, sharing and commenting whenever you see the original post or a shared one. Each so-called interaction means that more people see our posts and it’s a great way to reach younger people who may not read our notes or Inspire magazine. We aim to share our posts with the local schools, surrounding villages and churches whenever appropriate.
The picture of the great crested grebe in winter plumage was taken close to Amsterdam last weekend.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
Post expires at 9:53am on Sunday March 9th, 2025
The post Notes for Sunday 10 March 2024 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Dear friends,
This message comes to you from sunny Dutchland, where we are on a trip we had to postpone from last January.
Next week is Mothering Sunday and we hope to welcome many children of all ages in our churches, either to cafe church in St John or a more traditional service in St Margaret’s.
The picture today is of some tiny patches of moss gracing a Capel gate post.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
Post expires at 1:42pm on Sunday March 2nd, 2025
The post Notes for Sunday 3 March 2024 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Welcome to the March issue where we look at Lent, Easter and Mothering Sunday.
“Each morning we must raise the sails of our boat and go where the Spirit leads.
He brings the wind and He governs the speed and direction,
but we must co-operate by ensuring that we join Him on the journey.”
Anon.
Post expires at 7:13pm on Saturday March 1st, 2025
The post Issue 81 March 2024 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Dear friends,
My apologies for the lateness of this message. I was on a mission yesterday and totally forgot to post.
Our quiet day last week was a great success. The location was inspirational (see attached photo) and we learnt a lot about reading the bible in a listening mode. Rev Jo took us through the process step by step and the serious nature of the subject was broken up by good companionship and moments of laughter and joy.
Please consider coming to St John on Wednesdays in Lent to enjoy homemade soup for a donation to charity.
God bless,
Dineke van den Bogerd
Post expires at 5:44pm on Tuesday February 25th, 2025
The post Notes for Sunday 25 February 2024 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
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