Dear Friends,

We went to see the Archbishop of Canterbury speak this morning at Dorking Halls. It was a really interesting occasion, he speaks well, has a lovely sense of humour, and wasn’t afraid to tackle some of the more difficult questions posed by the audience who were a mix of both believers and non-believers.

His overriding message was to keep asking questions, keep seeking the answers and see where that path leads you. God wants us to enter into discussions with him about the difficulties we face. The Archbishop used the book of Job to illustrate this – a brave choice, as poor Job loses everything, family, possessions, and his health, however he continues to talk to God throughout, lamenting his losses.

I do hope you have also had a chance to hear him speak during his visit to our diocese.

Sadly, Dick Girling died this week, for those that knew him and want to write Eileen has given permission for me to pass on her address, which is: Capella, 44 Ashburton Road
Ickburgh, Thetford Norfolk IP26 5JA.

This coming week also sees the funeral service at Capel of Bill Ball, who was the organist for many years. The service will be at 12.30 on Tuesday followed by refreshments in the church.

Tomorrow is Ockley’s Harvest Festival at 9.30am which will be followed by a ploughman’s lunch from 12 noon. If you would like to attend the lunch but haven’t yet booked your place, please phone Shirley Dean Webster on 01403 822967. Capel will have morning worship at 10.30am.

The photo of the week is from a lovely walk from Newlands Corner to St Martha’s church, the weather was fine with just a touch of Autumn in the air, the perfect day for walking, I do hope you too have managed to enjoy the gentle change in our seasons.

With love and prayers

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

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Post expires at 7:30am on Monday September 26th, 2022

The post weekly news sheet 26 September 2021 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.

Dear Friends,

What a glorious day for a wedding, the sun is out and the church at Capel looks amazing. Congratulations to Corinne and Michael who are ‘tying the knot’ early this afternoon. The flower arranging team at Capel have done an outstanding job, not only with the normal decorations but the stairs leading to the bell tower as well. For those who don’t know, Corinne and Michael are both bell ringers and will ring the bells at their wedding! A huge thank you to Joy Harman, Helen Berry and Betty Mitchell for such a beautiful display. Do go and have a look even if you can’t make it to our service tomorrow morning. Today’s photo is just one of many I took this morning.

Harvest Festival will soon be upon us. This year St Margaret’s will celebrate it next Sunday with a service at 9.30am followed by a ploughman’s lunch at 12 noon. There is no need to bring anything all food will be supplied, but please let Shirley know if you are coming so that she has an idea of numbers. Her phone number is: 01403 822967
Capel’s harvest festival will be a week later on the 3 October. The service will be at 10.30 and Harvest teas will be served from 3-5pm.
In both cases the collection will go to Compassion UK for their appeal for Haiti. Food donations will go to Dorking Foodbank who have produced a list of items they would like. This was given out with the weekly sheets last week but I have attached it again to this email and there are a few fliers left in each church.

Thank you to the select few who walked the Rotary club walk last weekend to raise some money for our churches. The four who walked were: Buzz Warner, Dineke van den Bogard and Debbie and Hugh von Bergen. If anyone would like to do retrospective sponsorship, your donations would be most welcome!

Our services tomorrow are as follows:
9.30am Morning worship with baptism at Ockley
10.30am Family communion at Capel
We would like to extend a warm welcome to David Grant who will be preaching at Capel this week.

Please don’t forget that you can sign up to see the Archbishop of Canterbury at Dorking Halls next Saturday at 11.30. The link is here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/big-questions-with-the-archbishop-of-canterbury-dorking-tickets-162238043355

17 October Songs of praise service 10.30am at Capel: Please write your choice of hymn down on the sheet at the back of the church. Anthea can’t promise to do all of them, but she will try!

Lastly, whilst Capel Church was being cleaned yesterday a gentleman’s signet ring was found. It has no crest or name on it, but if you know who it might belong to please contact Rev Liz or Joy Harman.

With Love and prayers

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

Blue-19-SEP21.pdf
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Post expires at 6:17am on Thursday September 22nd, 2022

The post Weekly news sheet 19 September 2021 appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.

Join us to pray for those impacted by global warming and other extreme weather events in this week’s service. Led by Rev Canon Giles Goddard, the service focuses on the climate emergency. 

Click the read more link to go to the service on the Church of England Website.

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Dear Friends,

After the glorious weather during the early part of this week, we are now back to the grey skies we have been so used to this summer. The weather has meant that our gardens continue to look glorious – the plants have loved the damp weather, and most of the flowering plants here are much taller than normal.

We cut our wild flower areas in August, and continue to cut them until the end of October to reduce fertility as much as possible on our rich soil. Some of the areas have been treated like this for 20 years now and we are beginning to see increasing populations of orchids along with the typical native plants of this area. These sections of the garden are a joy to me and have revolutionised the way I garden.

I’ve been a keen gardener since my early twenties and have gardened organically since we moved here almost 25 years ago. The increase in the bird population over that time has been enormous, but it wasn’t until we put more and more of the lawns to long grass that we noticed a real explosion in insect life. We’re lucky to have a couple of acres to play with so can incorporate large areas of long grass and a wildlife pond (which has all three of our native newt species), but even when we move to a much smaller garden I will continue to look for ways to increase diversity and I will never buy pesticides or insecticides again. As you can tell I’m an enthusiast!

We all have our own areas that we enjoy, for me gardening and being in nature are fundamental to my being, for others that joy can be found in painting, music or needlework or looking after their animals or even their cars! Whatever it is, it helps to bring us closer to the essence of fulfilment that we all crave and for which many of us find is complete when we affirm our faith.

You will have heard much talk about the Archbishop’s visit to our diocese on the weekend of 24-26 September. We have now been told that anyone can come along to hear him answer questions on Saturday 25 September 11.30-12.15 at the Dorking Halls. So please do book a ticket here: <www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/big-questions-with-the-archbishop-of-canterbury-dorking-tickets-162238043355>

This week we have the following services:
9.30am Matins at Ockley
10.30am Cafe church at the Crown Capel

The Friends of Capel church are also holding the AGM and an EGM to change the articles of association at 11.45am in Capel church. Please do come to hear what it is all about – this meeting is open to everyone in the parish.

Harvest Festival will soon be upon us. Ockley will be celebrating their harvest on 26 September and Capel a week later on 3 October. This years collection from these services will go to Compassion UK for their appeal for Haiti. Food donations will go to the Dorking Foodbank, please see the attached flier to see what they would like.

I hope you will include Ella and Tom who are getting married at Ockley on Sunday at 1pm in your prayers, they have had to wait such a long time, may their marriage be full of joy and love.

Lastly, photo of the week this week is from a sunny walk on Leith Hill on Monday.

With love and prayers

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

Post expires at 12:48pm on Sunday September 11th, 2022

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A unique opportunity to put questions to the Archbishop of Canterbury and hear him speak on how to find security and hope in uncertain times

You can also connect online by following this link and registering: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/big-questions-with-the-archbishop-of-canterbury-dorking-tickets-162238043355

Post expires at 11:59pm on Monday September 26th, 2022

The post Come and join us at a Big Questions event on 25-26th September appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.

A Service of the Word for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. Led by Rev Tiffer Robinson, our online church service comes from The churches of Rattlesden, Hitcham, Brettenham and Thorpe Morieux, Suffolk.

Click the read more link to go to the service on the Church of England Website.
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The post Taking a radical new perspective on the world appeared first on The Parish of Capel and Ockley.

Dear Friends,

I do hope you have had a good week and have managed to find some sunshine whilst out and about. I have spent the week starting the next decluttering phase here at home.

As most of you know we are aiming to downsize next year, and so much of the last 25 years worth of possessions are gradually being discarded. For September I have taken on the task of decluttering a number of items every day starting with one on September 1st, two on the 2nd, and so on until you declutter thirty on the 30th. That should result in 465 items in total! The decluttering for me isn’t the difficult part it’s finding new homes for them all, as I want to try and keep as many out of landfill as possible – so watch out, I may be arriving on your doorstep with ‘gifts’! On a serious note I do have a long list of organisations who would like our discarded items that are still in good condition, so do let me know if you are trying to find a new home for something.

This week we have two Sunday services:
Matins BCP at Ockley 9.30am
Family Communion at Capel 10.30am

We also have church teas at Ockley on Sunday 3-5pm – do go along and sample their wonderful cake!

Next Saturday sees Capel market back in action again 8.30-11.30am in The Crown carpark, Capel.

The Crown are also hosting a coffee morning on the 8th in aid of McMillan cancer, so do visit and donate to this wonderful organisation.

The readings and weekly sheet are attached as normal along with the flier for the Capel Christmas Fair which I forgot to include last week. Please mark the date 20 November in your diaries and if you can volunteer to help on the front desk, or selling raffle tickets or serving coffee and tea please do reply to this email.

Lastly two photos this week from a lovely circular walk from Betchworth church to Brockham which is great at this time of the year but to be avoided in the winter!

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

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Liz’s Letter

September – a lovely month! I do like the Autumn and especially after the rather tricky summer we have been experiencing. I have spent quite a lot of time growing from seed some vegetables this year but I’m sorry to have to report that they have not borne much fruit. We dug in loads of potatoes and discovered just before we needed some dug up for our Sunday lunch, unbelievably underneath all that earlier growth and covering it up repeatedly, there were none there! Not one potato! Where had they gone to? I guess they just didn’t form at all, so that was a bit of a disaster. Then my tomatoes appear to have suffered from too much rain and some are looking rather sickly. The courgettes grew into enormous marrows while we were on holiday and the broad beans covered in Black Fly deteriorated somewhat as well! Oh dear – well I think the pumpkins are still growing although there now seems to be one missing… But at least we live in a part of the world where we can easily get what we need from the shops. If our crops are ruined by rain or drought it’s not really a disaster like it is in many other parts of the globe.
Because for others a failure in their crops or a shortage of labourers (the Coronavirus Delta variant has affected many smaller villages in poorer countries) is truly a disaster. Climate change has contributed to the terrible earthquake and tropical storm in Haiti this August leaving many dead and bereaved, homeless and more poverty stricken than before. The charity Compassion UK who organises sponsorship of many vulnerable children in these countries have reported that ten of their sponsored children died in the earthquake along with several caregivers. Some of us in the village support children through Compassion and this news really brings it home as we pray that our sponsored child or children will be safe . So do join us for one of our Harvest Festivals this year or leave donations in the churches. There will be information published as to how to do this. In the meantime let us hope and pray that the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November really can achieve and accelerate plans to get what they call this ‘runaway climate change’ under control.

Closer to home and on a happier note I am sure we all want to wish our wonderful Editor Corinne and her husband to be, Michael, a wonderful wedding day this month and a very happy married life together forever! Corinne and Michael will also be ringing the bells following their service. This seems to be a bit of a theme this year! Also we have another lovely couple who like Corinne and Michael and so many other engaged couples have had to wait a long time for their special day; Ella and Tom who are marrying at St Margaret’s this month. We wish them all God’s blessings as they begin the adventure of married life together.

With my love and prayers
Rev Liz

Post expires at 9:23pm on Wednesday August 31st, 2022

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A Service of the Word for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. Led by Rev Suzanne Vernon-Yorke, our online church service comes from St Christopher’s Church, Hanwell, and explores the theme ‘living inside out’.

Click the read more link to go to the service on the Church of England Website.
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Dear Friends,

I hope like me you’ve had a chance to appreciate the drier weather this last week or so. I’ve managed to garden without having to wear waterproofs and walk the dog without constantly consulting the ‘rain today’ app on my phone.

This weekend is a busy one for our churches. Bernie Osborne’s thanksgiving service is this afternoon (28 August) with refreshments afterwards. Then there are our Sunday services:
9.30 communion at Ockley
10.30 morning worship at Capel.
Capel is also hosting church teas both Sunday and bank holiday Monday 3-5pm, please do come if you can.

The Crown in Capel is hosting the ‘Capel Blues Festival’ this weekend, featuring Alan Glenn today and our very own Bob Cranham with the British Bluescasting Corporation on Sunday. Tickets can be bought on Capel box office www.capelboxoffice.co.uk

Next week sees the start of September (where has the time gone!) and a number of special events to put in your calendar:
5 September – church teas at Ockley 3-5pm
11 September Jacqui McShee in concert at Capel church
12 September – sponsored walk for our churches around Holmwood Common – last chance to register, just reply to this email
24-25 Visit by the Archbishop of Canterbury to our diocese – see the separate flier

Lastly, whilst you have your diary open please put in the date of the first Capel Christmas Fair 20 November 12-4pm. I attach a flier for you to see what wonderful stalls we have coming, but we are also asking for your help to man the front door, serve coffee/tea help on the raffle etc etc. Please let Suzanne or I know if you could spare some time.

Photo of the week, taken this morning at the fish ponds at Green Farm – a tranquil summer scene.

With love and prayers

Debbie von Bergen
debbievonbergen@icloud.com
07774 784008

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