Spring is finally here as we look forward to celebrating Easter this month. The gardens are really waking up now and its been wonderful to see the daffodils and other Spring flowers especially out in the villages. Easter Day took place in the garden as Mary meets the risen Lord Jesus thinking him to be a gardener. Rather wonderfully it was only when he called her name that she recognised Jesus and that somehow he was alright, that he was very much alive, even though he warned against touching his resurrection body…. This is the reason for the hope that Christians have, that although Jesus was put to death he rose on the third day as he predicted, breaking into a whole new life, an eternal life which he gives to us if we would but let him break into our lives. I often demonstrate this in my Easter Day talk by breaking a chocolate Easter egg! Before that though we continue to travel through the days of Lent and Holy Week.

We begin this month by holding our Annual Parochial Church Meeting – a chance to review and take account of the last financial year. Reports will be ready for you to collect inside our churches or to look at online. Please see information on our website www.capelandockleychurch.org.uk
The following week we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem with Palm Sunday. This year we have the traditional Palm Sunday service with a dramatised reading of the Passion from Luke’s gospel at St Margaret’s at Ockley. At Capel we welcome back Francis McFaul who will be leading Cafe Church along with Bob and the Band, showcasing some of his new songs which will evoke the highs and lows of Palm Sunday.

Holy Week moves on then to Maundy Thursday where the Surrey Weald Team of churches, that’s us plus Newdigate and the Holmwood, have a service of Holy Communion where we remember the events of the Last Supper and the arrest of Jesus. It is a moving service which we finish by taking off all the altar vestments in silence, keeping a watch and leaving in silence. The following day is Good Friday and there are two services to observe this significant day. The first is at Ockley with a service of reflection and silence using contemporary painted images of the Stations of the Cross. Called ‘One Friday’ it comes with an accompanying illustrated booklet and the paintings will be on display at St Margaret’s throughout Holy Week. The second service on Good Friday is at Capel which has the combined choirs of St John’s Capel and St Peter’s Newdigate singing Stainer’s famous choral work ‘The Crucifixion’. A combination of choral singing, some narration and congregational hymns we hope this service will be a fitting tribute to the events of Good Friday as well as the recent terrible events in Ukraine who are undergoing their own Good Friday at the moment. Finally Easter Sunday dawns and both churches will have special Easter celebration services along no doubt with Easter eggs! Church teas of course will be back in strength so do look at our list of services and events here in the magazine for more precise details of timings.
Wishing you all a very happy Easter
My love and prayers
Revd Liz

The situation in Ukraine

We and the national church continue to watch and pray for Ukraine and are here to offer help and support to any refugee families when they start to arrive in our country, especially if they are resettling near us. We are liaising with Capel Parish Council also, so that we as a community can seek to do the best for our Ukrainian friends.

Dear friends,

This email is coming to you a little earlier than normal as I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that there will be no working party at Capel Church this Saturday as we managed to do most of the clearing required in February when we met. Thank you again to everyone who came along and lent a hand. I’m sure there will be more days in the future, but for now we are waiting on a digger to remove some of the debris from the site before we do anything else.

As some of you may have heard my family has had Covid this week, along with many others in the village. We have been lucky enough to have it very mildly and everyone is recovering well. I spent today pruning roses in the lovely spring sunshine and admiring all the flowering bulbs. I look forward to being declared ’negative’ soon and joining the rest of you. Please do spare a prayer for those who have had it more badly than us, may they all recover soon.

This week we have the following services:

9.30am Matins Ockley
10.30am Family Communion Capel
This service will have Traidcraft items for sale afterwards so do come with cash!

It’s Mothering Sunday next weekend and Capel Church teas will be back, so please bring your families along to sample the delicious cakes 3-5pm.

You won’t be surprised to hear that no-one has come forward to fill the role of editor for the weekly sheets when I leave at the end of May. If it had even crossed your mind that you might be able to do it, please do get in touch – there really isn’t that much work and Rev Liz tells me that they can now print them off at the vicarage if you don’t have a printer available.

I have two lovely photos for you this week, the first from Brian Belton of his beautiful Rose ‘Peace’, the proceeds from the sale of which you may recall were being given to the Ukrainian Red Cross appeal. The second photo is from James Moore of a rather ingenious squirrel attempting to steal nuts from their bird feeder.

I wish you all a calm and peaceful weekend with sunshine and love

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

Dear Friends,

My goodness it’s been a busy week, Hugh and I accepted an extraordinary offer well above the asking price on our house on Monday from a cash buyer who would like to complete by the end of May, so it’s now all go to find our next home or at least a rental home until that is possible. We have been here 25 years so moving is definitely a scary place – any tips would be gratefully received!

All of this of course means that I will need to find a new editor for the weekly sheets. If you think you could help even doing them occasionally – perhaps sharing the job with one or two others, please do let me know. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but you do need access to a printer. I’m really keen to hear from you, especially anyone in Ockley who might feel able to do it as we could do with more items from your village.

This week we have the following services:
9.30am Holy Communion CW Ockley
10.30am Cafe Church Capel
Cafe church this month will be lead by David Grant – known as Baptist Dave to most of us, thank you Dave we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Thank you to all of you who gave so generously to the appeal by Leigh for clothes etc for Ukraine – attached is a picture of the mountains of stuff that were collected and are now on their way to help the refugees. The Ukrainians are still at the forefront of all our prayers, here again is the lovely prayer sent out by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York which is also on our weekly sheets this week:

God of peace and justice,
we pray for the people of Ukraine today.
We pray for peace and the laying down of weapons.
We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow,
that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them.
We pray for those with power over war or peace,
for wisdom, discernment and compassion
to guide their decisions.
Above all, we pray for all your precious children, at risk and in fear,
that you would hold and protect them.
We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Amen

I have mentioned before that the Vicarage fete is back this summer on 25 June by kind permission of Rev Liz and Doug it will again be held in their garden. We are looking for volunteers to help on the day, setting up the day before and for brainstorming ideas. Please let me know if you can help. The eagle eyed amongst you will note that this date is after we are likely to have left the village, but I will be back to help with this event!

Lastly, the photo of the week is a lovely picture of a robin taken by Mike Reeves recently.

With love and prayers

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

13-March-2022.pdf

weekly-sheet-22.03.13.pdf

Dear friends,

As I write this the sky outside is slate grey with a drizzle falling as it has been for most of the week – such dreary weather requires a concerted effort to overcome the gloom, but as a wise woman said to me this morning, the thing is to look for the little things, the signs of spring and warmer days that are all around us and cherish each little spark. Many of you I know are struggling with all sorts of difficulties, bereavement, illness, job losses, family or financial worries, please don’t feel you are alone, we can pray for each other in this wonderful community and know that someone else cares about how you are feeling.

Lent started on Wednesday this week, so one last reminder that Newdigate church is running an online Lent course over the next 5 weeks beginning on Monday at 8pm. The course is on ‘unanswered prayer’ . A number of our church community have signed up, so if you would like to join in as well do email David Newbery who is co-ordinating it on newberyda@gmail.com <mailto:newberyda@gmail.com> I look forward to seeing you there! If you would rather not join a course but would like to receive a daily email, the Church of England is doing a daily Lent reflection which can be found here: www.churchofengland.org/embracingjustice

The awful news from the Ukraine continues to be uppermost in our minds, so I have attached the lovely prayers issued by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, there are also hard copies in our churches, our thoughts are with the people of the Ukraine whose world has been turned upside down and who are living with daily violence and death all around them.
If you would like to do something on a practical level as well, Leigh De Souza is collecting baby clothes, warm coats, baby food etc which will be taken on Tuesday to Hungary to help the refugees. If you would like to donate anything the items need to be with Leigh by Monday evening at the latest.
Also, the World of Roses is donating 100% of the sales proceeds of the famous rose ‘Peace’ in the month of March to charities directly supporting the people of Ukraine. Many of you will know the Peace Rose, which is a beautiful pale yellow rose edged in pink which was created in 1945 to celebrate the end of the Second World War, it also has a lovely scent.

Our services tomorrow are:
9.30am Matins Ockley
10.30am Family Communion Capel.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Lastly, the photos of the week this week were kindly sent to me by Sally Wyborn.

With love and prayers

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

prayers-for-ukraine.docx
6-March-2022.pdf
weekly-sheet-22.03.06.pdf

‘The flowers are blooming, the time of birdsong has come!’  Song of Songs 2:12

This issue celebrates the beginning of Lent and forthcoming Mothering Sunday.

March-Colour_2022.pdf

Dear Friends,

Who would believe that next week is the start of March! I can see green shoots on our hawthorn hedges – always one of the first plants to come back into leaf, and the snowdrops have now been joined by crocuses and some early daffodils – the march of spring has started.

Sadly, in other parts of the world they are facing fear and devastation, we can only pray for all those who have been caught up in the violence in Ukraine. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have designated tomorrow as a day to pray for peace and have issued the following prayer:

If you would like to look at more of the Church of England’s resources around this day please follow this link:
www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/praying-peace-world

I do hope you will be able to join us at one of our services tomorrow. They will be as follows:
9.30am Holy communion Ockley
10.30am Morning worship Capel

This week sees the start of Lent so there will be a service at 11am on Ash Wednesday at Capel, please do come if you are able to.

So many people are struggling at the moment with illness, the aftermath of Covid, pressure of work etc. We hold prayers every Friday evening at 5pm at Capel Church where we pray for everyone on our prayer boards and the health of the parish, it lasts about half an hour and is a wonderful calm time to make the break between the working week and the weekend. Do come if you can.

Finally, our photo of the week is of an oak tree on Holmwood Common this morning – it has obviously withstood last weeks storm and stands proud in the sunshine.

With love and prayers

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

Readings-27.02.22.pdf

weekly-sheet-22.02.27.pdf