Notes for Sunday 21 April 2024
Dear friends, The apple tree did us proud this year: an abundance of flowers made me decide to sacrifice some branches for an entry in the spring show of the Capel Horticultural Society and they won the class. Unfortunately the hail storm the following day ensured the tree is now a sad sight. We should be in for some better weather in the next week. Gill showed me the progress of the extension of St Margaret’s last week and it’s really impressive. The new window is stunning and the position ensures that you see it on entering the church. The parish service is an excellent opportunity for Capelites to have a look. Last but not least: it’s too late now to register to vote in the local elections early May but please bear in mind that the general election should happen later this year so if you are not registered consider doing so soon. It’s not quite 100 years ago that the right to vote became the norm so do exercise that right. God bless, Dineke van den Bogerd notes-20240421.pdf Weekly Notes Readings-20240421.pdf Weekly Readings Post expires at 8:01am on Friday April 18th, 2025
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Dear friends, Four years ago we were in the first COVID lockdown. The picture of the wild garlic was taken of one of the many glorious walks around our villages. I will always remember the beautiful weather, the silence, the glimmer of hope that flight numbers would stay down. There was also the deep sense of privilege that living in the countryside we could go out into nature when those living in a bedsit in London were not even allowed out in the parks. It was a memorable time for many reasons. God bless, Dineke van den Bogerd notes-20240414.pdf Weekly Notes Readings-20240414.pdf Weekly Readings Post expires at 5:43pm on Friday April 11th, 2025
Dear friends, Last week, on Easter Sunday, we did a lovely walk starting on the footpath in front of our house. The attached picture with St John in the distance was taken from the nature reserve. We hope many of you will come to the APCM in St John tomorrow after church. Do give yourself some extra time to get acquainted with our new donations machine, which can of course also be used before the service for the collection (experimental credit card donations most welcome!). I will be bringing it and be available for any questions before the service and during coffee before the APCM. God bless, Dineke van den Bogerd notes-20240407.pdf Weekly Notes Readings-20240407.pdf Weekly Readings Post expires at 11:14am on Sunday April 6th, 2025
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 April_autocolour.pdf Post expires at 7:42pm on Tuesday April 1st, 2025
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. * 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. * 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. * 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… 
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.
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 notes-20240324.pdf Weekly Notes Readings-20240324.pdf Weekly Readings Post expires at 8:14am on Sunday March 23rd, 2025
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 notes-20240317.pdf Weekly Notes Readings-20240317.pdf Weekly Readings Post expires at 8:55am on Sunday March 16th, 2025
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… 
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 notes-20240310.pdf Weekly Notes Readings-20240310.pdf Weekly Readings Post expires at 9:53am on Sunday March 9th, 2025