Welcome to the website of the parish of Capel and Ockley. We are part of the Surrey Weald Team of parishes close to the south Surrey border with West Sussex. The other parishes in the team are St Peter’s, Newdigate, and St Mary Magdelene, South Holmwood. Our church offers a variety of worship, both separate and as part of the Weald Team.
We are a two small friendly village churches joined in one parish. The churches remain rural, but are located in the busy commuter belt south of London.
We serve first and foremost God, our father in heaven, but serving God also means offering help and comfort to all around us. Love your neighbour as yourself. We therefore feel we must be at the heart of our community. We extend a welcome to all in the village and those visiting, all people of faith and all who have not had faith for some time.
Monthly Newsletter from Rev. Liz Richardson:
Mellow October
Dear all My favourite month is here – October! I love the colours of Autumn, the mellowness of the season and it happens to be my birthday month – what’s not to like? Plus, at last I will receive my state pension!! I can definitely say I’m a pensioner now and that feels strange… How things have thankfully changed since I was a child and now no one acts and feels like the traditional ‘pensioner’ – or perhaps they never did? However, back to now and we continue living through the pandemic with the new rule of six. How this will work out with regards to Christmas remains to be seen but I am hopeful that most of our church seasonal activities will go ahead albeit with some different seating arrangements but more of that in the next month or two. It is hard to plan too far ahead at the moment but there may be an exciting new idea for December afoot! This month we celebrate Harvest and to be able to accommodate safely our two church communities we are going to hopefully gather outside in the Crown pub garden and worship Cafe Church style. If you don’t know… Read More
Latest news from the Church of England
COVID-19 Briefing 13/10
It was a challenge I set myself as a young adult – to learn Romans chapter 8 by heart. Compared with the old Jewish practice of learning the whole Pentateuch (or the Muslim memorisation of the Koran) it should have been a stroll in the park, though it still took this bear-of-little-brain a while to achieve it. But even now, those rolling phrases from that great chapter frequently come to mind just when I need them: ‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’. ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his good purpose’. ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ Christian hope is at the heart of this chapter – not some false cheerfulness or mindless optimism, but a hope that is set against the darkest backdrop of suffering and persecution, and is inextricably linked with the life, death and resurrection of God’s Son and the coming of His Spirit. There is plenty of groaning along the way: the whole creation is groaning, we are groaning, the Spirit is groaning – but groaning ‘as in the pains… Read MoreRead More »