Author Archive

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were big things.” August_2018_websiteissue.pdf

The post August 2018 Issue no 18 appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

Dear all I am really enjoying spotting and generally being surprised by the different scarecrows which keep appearing in the village. How fun are they and how ingenious you scarecrow makers are! From the long green nose of what I presume is an upside down watering can to appearances between gaps in hedges to daring positions precariously scaling houses I am loving them! Scarecrows you see, throughout the village were before my time in Capel. So I have googled how to make a scarecrow and hopefully by the time you read this we will have one outside the vicarage as well. We also have a new addition to our vicarage in the shape of a new Labrador puppy called Ruby. Some of you will already know that Doug and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary recently – hence the puppy’s name – and this is our present to one another. We were very spoiled at both churches too with beautiful flowers, champagne at our PCC meeting and a fabulous card with our wedding photo on it (!) with a lovely Susie West print of the Isle of Wight where we spent our anniversary with our children and grandchildren which was… Read More

The post School’s out and so are the scarecrows! appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

Dear all So once again we are fortunate to have fine weather for our vicarage fete tomorrow. As I write there is a wonderful array of gazeboes kindly lent and installed by many kind and very helpful people adorning our back garden. Lovely that we need them this year to keep the heat off us instead of the rain! I would like to thank everyone who has involved themselves with the fete, the organising team, the helpers who man the various stalls – a record number this year; those who prepare and serve the delicious teas and of course a huge thank you to those who have donated very generous raffle prizes. Hopefully we will raise lots of money for our schools. It is amazing how everyone together each playing their part creates something wonderful. I have also very much enjoyed playing a very small part in the Ockley Dramatic Society’s 70th birthday celebrations this last month. Something I’ve never done before I have to say! I was persuaded to as they say in theatrical circles I believe; tread the boards, in what was fairly obviously a comic play. I was given a ‘cameo’ role (more theatrical speak) as one… Read More

The post Ordinary Time? appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

Issue 17 brings news of our Vicarage Fete, Eco Church launch and the cancellation of the Photographic competition. July_2018_issue17-2-4.pdf

The post July 2018 Issue 17 appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

In this issue we are commemorating St John the Baptist on 24th June and Investigating the origins of Father’s Day, together with celebrating the approach of our Annual Parish Fete in aid of the local schools. June_2018_issue16_webedition.pdf

The post Issue no 16 June 2018 appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

Dear all, I am able to compose this letter on my iPad as I have been enjoying a few days off this week on the Isle of Wight! As usual I am right up against the magazine deadline but thankfully because of modern technology it can be met! These few days prearranged have coincided with several pastoral and ministry issues which have needed my attention by email and again modern technology has allowed me to still take time out and not have to cancel holiday time. Sometimes circumstances dictate I have to be available to certain things. Fortunately this situation doesn’t happen all the time in case you’re wondering whether I really ever do get proper time away! So I was enjoying Radio 4s Thought for the Day earlier and the subject was all about time. The broadcaster was Bishop Phillip North who incidentally will be a speaker at our Clergy Conference this year but more of that another time…. He introduced his thought by telling of an example of a little girl who when asked what she would like to disappear from her life answered ‘my mothers mobile phone’. The mum was spending so much time texting and speaking on… Read More

The post Eco versus Techno? appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

Dear all Some of you may remember the Diocesan newspaper which was a free distribution newspaper. It was called ‘The Wey’. It ceased publication some months ago now and in its place we have a brand new quarterly magazine for the Guildford Diocese called ‘Living Church’. I can recommend it! The first issue is here and you can pick up your own copy in both Capel and Ockley churches. There are several very interesting articles and one which caught my eye was one on the ancient practice of pilgrimage. It seems that increasing numbers are choosing to go on a pilgrimage and numbers are increasing. In the last decade 30 pilgrimage routes have been created or rediscovered in this country alone. In Europe the number of visitors to Santiago de Compostela has grown so much that more than 300,000 people or should we say pilgrims (!) walked the Camino in 2017. You may have caught a documentary on television before Easter which filmed a lovely but disparate group of people who tackled parts of it. It certainly looked gruelling! However, these days you can travel by coach and walk parts of it; I think that would be easier, but I’m… Read More

The post To be a pilgrim appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

Welcome to the May edition of Inspire! I am delighted to be able to tell you that we now have sponsors for every month’s issue of InSpire for 2018! May_2018_issue15_website.pdf My sincere thanks to those who have sponsored each edition and will continue to do so throughout the year. We will of course be looking for sponsors for the 2019 issues too.

The post May 2018 Issue 15 – Pentecost appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

Dear Readers, Happy Easter to you all! I wish you all the joy of the season and Easter Blessings on this most holy of weekends. April_-2018_issue14-reduced.pdf

The post April 2018 Issue no 14 – Happy Easter to our readers appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.

Dear All, As I write this with the snow on the ground it hardly seems like Easter is nearly here and Spring has almost begun! However, Easter is approaching fast and when we do get the odd lovely warm day, it is a wonderful thing. By the time you read this we may even have celebrated the most important time of the Christian calendar. A time when we travel with the Lord Jesus to Jerusalem, continue with him through the Last Supper and accompanied him to the cross on Good Friday. And then the quietness and stillness of Easter Saturday as we await the joy of Easter morning when his disciples find the empty tomb and find him resurrected in a body which appears to show the marks of his wounding but nevertheless can appear and disappear at will. There are many ways of looking at Holy Week and the season of Easter and each year I find there is more and more to discover about the Easter events. Each event of Holy Week is a part of the Easter story and Easter will mean far more if you consider each one as they build up to the end of… Read More

The post Easter thoughts appeared first on St John the Baptist & St Margaret’s.