Dear friends,

This is a first of several: posting to the PCC website only and doing so from a laptop away from my desk. Let’s hope it all goes well!

This Sunday is the first of our two Harvest Festivals. Our Harvest collection moneys will go to a very good cause (see notes) and food donations are for the local foodbank. Please consult the attached DAF flier for goods most required.

The picture is of a tiny froglet (15mm or half an inch) finding a hiding place to overwinter. It will rest and grow to emerge in early spring to ensure the next generation of this beautiful native species.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

Readings-20230924-Creation.pdf

Weekly Reading – Capel
Readings-20230924Harvest.pdf

Readings Harvest Festival – Ockley
notes-20230820-24th-September.pdf

Weekly Notes
DAF-Harvest-2023-flier.pdf

This month begins with final week of our season of Creationtide. Five weeks where we have explored our role as human beings in the story of creation, our relationship to the earth, and the earth’s relationship with the Creator God. It has been a fascinating time of discovery and one which as a parish we hope to continue as well as aiming to cut our carbon footprint in our church buildings and churchyards. We shall be celebrating and giving thanks for God’s creation at our Harvest Festivals, and Capel’s Harvest Festival is the very first day of this lovely month of October.
We will be welcoming your donations of food that is suitable to take to Dorking Foodbank for their distribution as well as LeatherHEAD START who provide emergency housing for homeless people in the local area.

As well as donations of foodstuff we will be collecting monetary donations and offering our Harvest collections from both churches (St Margaret’s Ockley and St John’s Capel) to the charity ShelterBox. This charity based in Cornwall exists to ensure no one is without shelter after disaster. Providing tents, shelter kits, and other essential equipment ShelterBox works to support thousands of people affected by disasters all over the world. Currently their teams in Morocco have been visiting villages in the mountains where homes have collapsed leaving people with very little in the way of shelter and belongings. As winter approaches they are looking to support people affected by the earthquake with tents, blankets, solar lights and kitchen sets. ShelterBox is also responding to the humanitarian needs in Libya in partnership with ACTED another humanitarian organisation who are already working in Derna before Storm Daniel and have a good presence there. Do support these or any other humanitarian support agencies as they try to support those affected by these devastating so called natural disasters. If you would like to add to our ShelterBox donation this Harvest, please come to one of our Harvest festival Services or pop it through my Vicarage door in an envelope marked Harvest Donation.

On a lighter note (really?!) we have the opportunity to become amateur sleuths as another Murder Mystery play and supper is performed. Two performances, two villages, two suppers! Hurry and book your tickets for either Friday 13th October for Ockley or Saturday 14th for Capel. Should be great fun!!

Finally, at the end of the month we will be holding our annual service of comfort for those who are bereaved. Lists for names of loved ones will be put inside churches towards the middle of this month. This peaceful service will be followed by teas as usual.

In the meantime enjoy the colours and textures of Autumn, do visit your lovely parish churches and enjoy our harvest flowers, a fitting tribute to the glorious creation that God has given us.

With my love and prayers

Liz

Dear friends,

The last days of summer are here and what an Indian summer it has been!
The weather will be turning and we are looking forward to harvest with rosehips and haws nearly ready to pick. Sloes will need a bit longer and blackberries, apples and plums are nearly over. The picture today is of my rhubarb vodka that has been stewing for several months. I am looking forward to sampling it one cold winter evening.

Only those of you who have signed up to receive these notes via the church website will be receiving them for the next three weeks: I will not be able to access my computer and data protection rules prevents me from copying all your email addresses to my mobile phone. Please follow the link below if you would like to keep receiving these notes. It’s great that more than 50 people have already signed up in the last year.
Just one person has informed me that they would like to receive these from my personal account and, having received their permission, I will forward the notes to them as they go out.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20230917.pdf

weekly Notes
Readings-20230917.pdf

Dear friends,

Most urgently, please note that due to poor health of our vicar, the service in St Margaret’s tomorrow has been cancelled. All are welcome to come to café church in the garden of the Crown in Capel at 10:30, where Bob and the Band will be making beautiful music and challenging our pre-conceived ideas. The order of service (menu) is attached.
Please remember Rev Liz in your prayers as she has had a rough time of it this summer and we pray that she will be restored to full health soon.

Many thanks to all who have so far signed up to receive these notes via our website. If for any reason you can’t sign up this way (see foot note) please let me know by return email so I can make sure you keep receiving the notes after I close down the current system by the end of this month. If in doubt please get in touch.

I hope you can all stay cool in these record temperatures.
The picture today is of the back of our house (the open windows are next door’s). For many years now I have followed the South American system (inspired by novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) of keeping cool by closing all windows, doors and curtains and covering windows with white sheets before the sun hits the house. Only when the outside temperature falls below the inside (around 7pm at the moment) do I open everything so the house can cool down.
Do try to enjoy the balmy evenings before autumn settles in.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20230910.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-20230910.pdf

Weekly Readings
cafe-church-Sept-2023-MENU.pdf

Dear friends,

My stint as editor of the weekly notes has come to an end. Rev Liz has already edited some last month, when I was too busy with the Capel Show, and will continue until someone else is prepared to take it on. Please contact her if you have any questions or are considering to take it on.

I will keep sending these emails but after begging for a year there are still around 50 people who haven’t signed up to receive these notes via the church website. If that is you, please read the following carefully:

* If you have no alternative but to receive these notes directly from me. Please let me know by return email and I will make sure you keep receiving them.
* If you can sign up, please do so as soon as possible using the link at the bottom of the page.
* If you have tried to sign up but struggled to make it work, please let me know and I will help you.
* If I don’t hear from you either way in the next month I assume you no longer wish to receive the notes and I will respect your wishes and delete you from the list (in accordance with data protection rules).

The picture today is of the bridge I made for the Capel Show. It enables access to the show by disabled people who are now required to park in the public car park field (kindly offered for the day by Marilyn and Ollie Turner). It is wide (and sturdy) enough for a mobility scooter or wheelchair and reusable for many shows to come.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20230820-3rd-September.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-20230903.pdf

‘The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ Psalm 24:1

The issue is celebrationg ‘Creationtide’ which runs from 1st September – 4th October this year.  Do see Rev Liz’s letter for more details.  There are all the regular features plus details of the Harvest play and supper, the upcoming Pet Service on 17th September at Capel and much more!

September_2023_autocol.pdf

Dear friends,

Quite late this week but yours truly has been occupied on the Capel Rec these last days.
With the Capel show behind us I can find some time to post the notes that Rev Liz has so kindly offered to make. I couldn’t resist sharing the counter showing the visitor number through the Capel Show gate: 400 up from last year.

We hope that the results coming out from the church stall are good and hope to hear soon.

We are still looking for someone to take on editing the weekly notes. Please let me know if you are interested or would like to learn more before deciding.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20230820.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-202308020.pdf

September and Autumn beckons once more. I always say this is a favourite time of year for me. Apart from the beautiful Autumn colours, I enjoy the changing of the seasons but I like that September is very much a season of new beginnings too. A new academic term begins and children and young people everywhere will be starting new schools, new classes or college for the first time. Our eldest granddaughter is starting secondary school this year which seems unbelievable! So lots of new things begin in the Autumn don’t they and I am sure there is a lot going on in our community groups and organisations to encourage us all to do something new perhaps?

Talking of which… we are doing something new this Autumn in our churches. We are recognising properly for the first time ever, the season known as Creationtide. The season begins on September 1st, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, to October 4th, the feast of St Francis of Assisi. In order to assist our celebration of this season we are using resources from an annual ecumenical global movement to pray and act to protect our world. This global movement has a different creation theme each year and for this year, 2023, the theme is ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow’ for which you will see the logo below. The theme is based on the words of the prophet Amos who cried out to the people of his time ‘let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream’. (Amos 5.24) So too we are called to join the river of justice and peace, to embrace climate and ecological justice. Our prayers must call out for justice not only for human beings but for all creation. I wonder if we ever think of justice for creation? A mighty river is chosen as well because it represents biodiversity at risk. The urgency of these matters is growing as we all know and we are called to make peace with the earth. I love that idea of making peace with our earth….

Anyway, challenging stuff, but in our own way we are going to reflect on these issues through different readings from scripture about creation throughout the month. We will be including a special Pet Service this month at Ockley plus we will be celebrating two Harvest Festivals as well! I’m hoping there will be some creativity to look at too! Another prophet Isaiah also said this. ‘listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.’ (Isaiah 43.19). Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could find a way forward to really help our planet and protect the future for our children and grandchildren? Do come and join us in our celebrations, help us bring in the harvest, pray blessings on our beloved animals or just come and let the river of justice and peace flow over you!
With my love and prayers as ever

Revd Liz

Dear friends,

Nest week, on Saturday 19 august, is the Capel show and I am very pleased that Rev Liz will once again be stepping in to edit the notes as I will be very busy this week preparing for my part in it. I hope many of you will look in on what promises to be a fabulous show at the bargain price of £5 pp (children 12 and under go free). The car show is full with 700 classic exhibits and the horticultural show will be brimming with entries.

The main picture today is of a Gatekeeper. One of the more common butterflies and my butterfly book informs me that it is most active and abundant at the hight of summer. There were loads of them on my walk last week. The second picture was taken from a motorway in the Netherlands last weekend. It doesn’t do the sky justice and it reminded me of two of the things I miss living in the UK: wide open spaces and water.

I am coming to the end of a year of editing the weekly news sheets and this email and I am hoping one of you will be taking on this fulfilling task. Please get in touch if you feel so inclined.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20230813.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-202308013.pdf

Weekly Readings