Worship with us this Sunday, the Fourth Sunday before Lent, and the 70th Anniversary of the Accession of Her Majesty the Queen.
This week’s service comes from St Albans Cathedral, and is led by Rev Calum Zuckert, who will be sharing about calling and vocation.
Click the read more link to go to the service on the Church of England Website.
Post expires at 7:28am on Monday February 6th, 2023
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Dear Friends,
I hope you’ve all had a good week, our decluttering has been continuing apace. This week we tackled the dreaded ‘back garage’ that depository of all things useful, but not sure when. It had 25 years of old paint pots, offcuts of wood, garden implements etc etc, now all gone. We really are nearly ready to contact the estate agents!
Besom’s also visited this week and took some crockery, glasses, saucepans, stools etc. For those who don’t know, Besom’s are a charity (a branch of which is based in Dorking) which take good condition furniture and household items to help furnish homes for those who have been re-housed and have nothing. It’s a wonderful charity as it matches our old but good possessions with those that really need them, so it’s a win win scenario where everyone benefits. Do think of them if you have household items that you no longer need. Their phone number is: 07765 598854
This weeks services are as follows:
9.30am Matins Ockley
10.30am Family Communion Capel
At Capel we will be serving coffee after the service, but please stay in your seats and we will bring the drinks to you.
The weekly sheet contains details of this years Lent course, which will be online and run from St Peters Newdigate and will discuss the topic of prayer, specifically unanswered prayer. A poster is attached.
I’m sure most of you have seen them but the new copy of InSpire is in our churches now, do take one for a friend if you already have your copy.
Suzanne Cole and I had our first meeting about the Vicarage Fete this week, which are very much looking forward to having once more on 25 June. We will in due course be asking for all sorts of things, but for now I wonder if you would keep an eye out for suitable baskets and boxes that we can use to make into hampers. They were so successful at the Christmas Fair that we thought we would do the same again.
This weeks photo is a lovely atmospheric shot of the pond at Friday Street early last weekend taken by the friends who were staying with us.
With love and prayers
Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008
Post expires at 2:46pm on Sunday February 5th, 2023
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Spring cleaning – love it or loathe it?! As I write this to you on a late January morning – one of those sometimes rare sunny beautiful winter mornings, the sun pouring in through the windows exposes all that post Christmas dust! I’m in the mood to clean – opening windows and doors to let the fresh air and light in – what a treat! Well this lovely month of February we begin the month celebrating Candlemas Day. Candlemas is a traditional Christmas Festival that remembers when Mary and Joseph take the infant Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to be presented to God where he is recognised as the one who will bring salvation to the whole world, yet there will be suffering along the way… You will recall that we hold our Christingle service the Sunday before. There was lots about that in my letter last month. In pre- Christian times this day was also known as the Feast of Lights and celebrated the increase strength of the life giving sun as winter gave way to spring. In fact this ancient festival marks the midpoint of winter, halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox! This so called Festival of Lights is the reason we have decided to keep the nativity scene on the vicarage lawn for what might seem a long time! I hope you have enjoyed the display and thanks again as ever to Christina Curtis for her creativity and assistance in bringing the holy family back to the vicarage along with a new addition – the donkey. It has been wonderful for us to see the joy and awe that many have expressed through their stopping to explore, photograph and generally interact with. Mind you, there was a bit too much interaction when the baby Jesus disappeared! What a mystery! The plot thickened with the discovery of an empty beer bottle nearby….. sadly he has never been returned. However in true resurrection style we have a new baby Jesus installed, firmly strapped in his crib this time!!
So February begins with discovering what Jesus means to the whole world and as the month continues with what we call ‘Sundays before Lent’ we prepare ourselves for Lent itself in four weeks time. Lent is the time when we have the chance to think how we might respond to Jesus, the Christ, and to the needs of the world. Perhaps do a bit of Spring cleaning (!) In our hearts and minds, get back to those basics and ‘ground’ ourselves as we welcome all the wonderful new growth of creation around us.
Looking much further forward, we are very much looking forward to being able to invite you all back to the vicarage for the annual Vicarage Fete, raising money for our local schools. It will take place Saturday 25th June and we already have all sorts of exciting ideas for it. It looks as if we will have a busy year with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at the beginning of June as well as all the usual village occasions and events. What pleasure to be able to mix again freely but sensibly we hope! As part of those village celebrations we will be holding special commemorative services in the parish. It also happens to be Pentecost Sunday but much more about that later!
So as winter continues keep looking for those signs of Spring around us, that lovely Spring cleaning metaphorically and physically is always there and who knows, maybe we will discover things we may have lost and now re-found. A time to get back to basics physically and spiritually?
Blessings and love
Liz
Post expires at 7:14pm on Saturday February 4th, 2023
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Worship with us today, the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany, as we celebrate God’s radical hospitality.
This week’s service comes from churches across the Diocese of Bristol, and the Tea House Network, and is led by Rev. Mark Nam, United Church Longwell Green and St. Anne’s Oldland Common, and other clergy of Chinese heritage from the Diocese.
Click the read more link to go to the service on the Church of England Website.
Post expires at 7:28am on Monday February 6th, 2023
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Dear Friends,
This email is arriving in your inbox a little earlier than normal as we have friends staying this weekend.
January often seems like a very long month, but for me this year it has flown by as I’ve spent much of it upside down in a long forgotten cupboard or with numerous trips to the charity shop – anyone want a wooden shaker style linen basket!? No matter how you have spent January 2022 we are nearly into February and celebrating with the Capel Christingle service.
Rev Liz has worked particularly hard on this service to make it suitable for adults as well as children. So it will be a celebration of Candlemas and the presentation of Christ at the temple. There will be Holy Communion to commemorate this but we will also make the traditional Christingles and the collection will be donated to Save the Children. Do come and join us. After the service we will be serving coffee and tea, but we would ask you to remain seated and we will bring this to you.
Our services for Sunday are therefore as follows:
9.30am Matins Ockley
10.30am Christingle with Holy communion Capel
Looking forward to March, St Peter’s Newdigate will be running a Lent course on Prayer. The Course is an opportunity to process life’s most painful questions. Using video followed by discussion each session is led by Pete Greig of 24/7 and stands alone. The course will take place online 8-9pm on a Monday evening from 7 March for 5 weeks. There is a poster attached which gives details of who to email if you would like to join in. Last year a number of the Newdigate congregation joined us for our Lent course on ‘Creation matters’, so it would be good to return the favour.
The photo this week is of the snowdrops at St John, Ockley’s graveyard, which Gill Christie was kind enough to show me this week – what a lovely quiet spot. I look forward to taking more pictures there as spring progresses.
With love and prayers
Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008
Post expires at 1:44pm on Saturday January 28th, 2023
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“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Desmond Tutu In this issue we celebrate the life of the Rev Desmond Tutu with
tributes from church leaders and some of his best known quotation. We have an article by Dr Herbert McGonigle which is the second in a series of words of encouragement in difficult times and we celebrate St Valentine’s day on 14th. There is also an article on preparing for Lent: We consider the disciplines of contemplation, prayer and self-assessment.
Post expires at 6:54pm on Friday January 27th, 2023
The post Issue 58 February 2022 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Dear Friends
It’s been a glorious week of sunshine with deep frost each morning – a walkers dream weather, where you need to keep moving to stay warm. My thermals and fleece lined walking trousers have certainly come in useful.
In between long walks I have been finishing the first draft of the church accounts for 2021. We have a PCC meeting on Monday evening at which I will be presenting them before they go to our independent examiner for her to check them over. Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting is on Sunday 3 April after the church service at Capel – everyone is invited to attend, but only those on the church electoral roll can vote, so if you would like to be added please contact me and I can pass you onto our Electoral Roll secretary.
This week we have the following services:
9.30am Holy Communion BCP St Margarets, Ockley Rev Liz Richardson
10.30am Morning Worship St John the Baptist, Capel Rev Jo Elvidge
Capel’s Christingle service will be held at 10.30am next Sunday (30th). This service will be for all ages and you will be handed a ‘make your own’ pack when you come into church. It has also been agreed that with the easing of restrictions we will again be able to serve coffee after the service.
For those who knew Peggy Barnett, John Ashwood has supplied details of her funeral which will be at Randalls Park Crematorium on 3 February at 12.30pm followed by the wake at Denbies. If you would like to go, please contact John on 07967 566372 jwoodash@gmail.com. It has been asked that you do a lateral flow test before attending and the family have requested ’no flowers’ but to wear something green.
You will have seen recently that the Community Fridge team have won an award for all their hardworking during the Covid crisis. They are however there whether we are in lockdown or not and anyone is welcome to come and see what fresh produce they have each week. They have four stops in Beare Green/Capel on a Friday afternoon:
12.15 Turner House Car park
13.00 Rickwood Park
13.45 Capel Memorial Hall
15.00 The Weald School
The food is free, you are just asked to make a donation if you can, and everyone is welcome. They love to save food from landfill!
The readings for this week are attached along with our weekly sheet which has a lot more information about church and village activities.
Lastly, photo of the week is a sunny picture of the tree at Leith Hill tower, long dead but making a lovely sculpture.
With love and prayers
Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008
Post expires at 4:13pm on Sunday January 22nd, 2023
The post Weekly news sheet for Sunday 23 January 2022 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.
Dear friends,
I can’t believe how quickly January seems to be speeding by, this week luckily we have had lovely crisp sunny weather, and we’ve done some wonderful walks enjoying the winter beauty all around us.
When I’m not outside walking or gardening (we have a lot of roses to prune) I have been continuing the decluttering we started about 18 months ago. This time the process has some urgency about it as we plan to put our house on the market in March. The trips to the recycling bins at the dump have become more frequent and I am delighted to hear that the Capel WI will once again be doing it’s jumble sale which is booked for 5 March. However there are some items that I’m hoping to find homes for locally, so if anyone would like a list of larger items that we will be disposing of that are in good condition do let me know.
This week we have the following services:
9.30am Matins at Ockley
10.30am Family Communion at Capel.
The weekly sheets are attached along with the readings for the week. There is a section on the weekly sheets showing some dates for your diary. One I would like to bring your attention to is the 19 March when we will be having our first working party to clear some ground in Capel churchyard to create a Remembrance garden for those who would like to have their ashes interred there. The idea is to have a lovely quiet space at the far left corner of the churchyard where the ashes can be buried, a plaque displayed on the wall, and where relatives and friends can sit and remember their loved ones. The working party will start at 9am with the aim of clearing the ground, so do come suitably dressed and with strimmers/secateurs. Coffee and cake will be provided.
Lastly, our photo of the week is St Margaret’s looking lovely in the winter sunshine this week.
With love and prayers
Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008
Post expires at 8:02pm on Sunday January 15th, 2023
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Cafe Church: Grab yourself a coffee and a Danish, and get ready for some new melodies and fine harmonies.
Cafe Church from inside St John’s due to COVID measures.
Are you ready to donate with Givt? Here’s our QR Code. Following the code on your mobile phone will allow you to start your donation and the rest of the instructions will follow in an email.
Post expires at 5:27pm on Monday December 12th, 2022
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Dear friends,
Welcome to this week’s weekly sheets email on a rather miserable Saturday. None of us are at our best in this grey dark weather, we would all much rather have the bright cold sunshine of earlier in the week, but still it is January, a time for contemplation and indoor jobs. My job this week is to work on the church accounts ready for our first Standing Committee meeting on Monday. I quite enjoy it once a get going (I know, I need to get out more!), but I can procrastinate a lot before I start. In the end a deadline always spurs me on.
For those who haven’t been involved with how the church is run, we have a main committee called the Parochial Church Council (PCC for short) which meets 6 times a year and a Standing Committee which consists of the vicar, churchwardens, treasurers and 2 others from the PCC which meets on the months that the PCC doesn’t meet. It’s these two committees that oversee the running of the church. Once a year we have an Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) to which everyone on the church electoral roll is invited. This normally happens in late March or April. It is at this meeting that the accounts are discussed and hopefully formally passed! Anyone can ask questions about them and once they are passed they are a public document and filed with the Charities Commission.
I’m sure many of you know this already, in fact many of you have served on the PCC over the years, and I was grateful to everyone who helped me when I first started as I had never been involved with church finances before. I have so enjoyed being part of the decision making body of our local church, it’s given me a much deeper insight into all the work the vicar and church wardens do.
Onto this week’s services, tomorrow we have the following:
9.30am. Holy Communion CW at Ockley
10.30am Cafe Church at Capel
The Cafe Church at Capel will look slightly different this month. We will still be serving coffee and croissants, but these will be brought to your seat in a pew, so that we socially distance as much as possible. Please do remember to wear your masks at all times apart from when you are eating/drinking.
Incidentally you will be pleased to hear that both our church services that were recorded over the Christmas period had more than 100 views. If you would like to see them do go to the link below:
www.capelandockleychurch.org.uk/2021/12/25/christmas-day-service-2021/
Last week I wrote about our bible groups that meet both weekly and monthly, this week I’d like to mention our prayer group that meets on Friday afternoons at 5pm in Capel Church. It’s a lovely way to start the weekend in the peace and quiet of the church, we say the daily prayers and pray for those who are in need. Do come if you would like to join us, we are there every Friday for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, do let us know if you would like a prayer said on your behalf for yourself or those you know.
Lastly, the photo of the week was taken on Holmbury hill on a very cold icy morning with the sun streaming down – a delight for all the senses!
With love and prayers
Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008
Post expires at 7:04am on Monday January 9th, 2023
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Readings-6.02.22.pdf