Candlemas Bells

Well I hope this letter finds you well?! January was a really nasty winter month for those pesky winter germs, coughs, and all sorts, as well as the cold weather. As we come into February I am sure we will be encouraged by the growth of the early flowering spring bulbs and blossoms. February for us at church looks to be quite a busy month. The season of Lent is early this year beginning with Ash Wednesday on the 14th of this month and of course it is also Valentine’s Day! This year we are invited for a special service of Holy Communion with what is called the Imposition of Ashes (you get a lovely black mark on your forehead!) at St Peter’s Church Newdigate. Then we will be running a Lent Course this year called ‘Be Still’. The course is about prayer and explains how we don’t necessarily have to be physically still in order for our hearts to be still and how even in the midst of a full, busy life, we can all spend quiet time with God. I am really looking forward to doing this course! Each of the five sessions takes about an hour and… Read More

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Hope...

In our churches as the year drew to an end and we begin the new year there have been some small booklets published by the Church of England called ‘Follow the Star – Join the Song – 12 Days of Reflections for Christmas and the New Year. The booklet invites you to hear and respond to the angels’ invitation to gather in the presence of the newborn Jesus. Well as you read this you may well be thinking about or have already put away the Christmas decs for another year but of course the Christmas story goes on leading us through Jesus’ childhood with the story of Simeon and Anna – people who recognised him in the Jerusalem Temple when he was brought by his parents to be presented to God as was the Jewish custom. The Christmas child grew up and began his ministry at the age of thirty. A ministry that lasted only three years before the authorities found a way to silence him or so they thought! Our church year soon turns from Jesus’ birth to adulthood and his experience in the wilderness, led by God’s Holy Spirit. Lent begins in earnest as we follow Jesus to… Read More

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Travelling on - following the star!

Dear all Happy New Year! As I write this early on a very dark December morning – or is it still night(?)! it feels hard to believe that yes, another year is about to finish and we begin again and enter 2020. In one sense we begin again at the start of the year, with our usual round, the familiarity of routine, the predictability or not of the seasons as our weather patterns seem to change. Perhaps new years’ resolutions are made; ways to make our lives work better for us, for others, as our lives return to normal after the riches of the Christmas season. Yet in another sense we don’t begin again because we are travelling on into the future, into the unknown, with a whole wealth of experience to take our bearings from as we negotiate the way ahead. For most of us our lives begun a long time ago now! For some the new year will bring or has already brought about great changes. These may be exciting new things in which to engage ourselves with all sorts of new opportunities and we rejoice with you and wish you God speed! For others change will be… Read More

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A True Sabbath

Dear all There is a much loved hymn which has often been claimed to be one of the country’s favourite which is called ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’ … ‘forgive our foolish ways’. It is a beautiful hymn with lovely words which are very gentle and calming. One of the lines I really like begins ‘O Sabbath rest by Galilee, O calm of hills above’ to me sounds perfect! I will be taking some time off the first part of this month of August and am looking forward at some point to some rest and relaxation. I say at some point, because the first part of the holiday involves going to Eurodisney with our grandchildren! Well they say a change is as good as a rest don’t they, despite the fact that the temperatures are once again set to soar here and in France. I am hoping Disney have installed some innovative ways of keeping their visitors cool whilst standing and waiting in the heat for the next ride. Or even perhaps there will be a welcome water spray. I like the idea of Sabbath time though and this is meant to be taken on a regular basis, not… Read More

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Team Work

Dear all When you read this our annual vicarage fete will have taken place and hopefully we will have raised lots of funds for our local schools. The day itself it rather like a whirlwind when everyone arrives to set up their stalls and attractions; our lovely visitors arrive, our children dance and entertain us, yummy refreshments are prepared and eaten and if the weather is good much ice cream will be sold! Three hours later and the garden is back to normal just like magic. It’s amazing! How does this happen so quickly and so effectively? Its team work! It all begins with a wonderful team who start planning the fete earlier in the year so that on the day everything falls easily into place. Then there are teams who come the day before and set up all the gazebos etc. Then on the morning a team pick up all the tables and chairs they can lay their hands on and deliver them to the Vicarage. The same team gather them up at the end of the day and return them to hall and church! Team work is so vital isn’t it and it struck me that our villages… Read More

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A joyous June!

Dear all It’s getting to that time of the year when some people’s thoughts are turning to holidays and with that in mind I would like to draw your attention to a very special sort of holiday that our parish is planning for Autumn 2020. It is some years since there was a pilgrimage to any of the Holy sites in Israel or the Mediterranean and so we have invited someone who has been leading tour groups to the Holy Land or as he puts it ‘The land of the Holy one’ for over 30 years. His name is Haydon Wilcox and he is an ordained priest in the Church of England. The pilgrimage will be 12 days in all visiting Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Judean Desert and the region of the Dead Sea, Samaria, The Galilee and Northern Israel. The trip will be very much focussed on listening to the many different voices in The Holy Land and experiencing the diverse culture in Jerusalem. We will be experiencing contrasts between the different districts in the city, Hasidic, Arab and secular plus meeting with the Palestinian community. We shall celebrate Shabbat and learn about the issues of the Palestinian Christian Church… Read More

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Extraordinary times

Dear all Writing this month’s letter just a week before we were originally due to leave Europe I am minded to wonder just how the recent weeks and months before that will be seen in the course of time. How will history view these extraordinary times, of a divided nation, parliament and government as well as our prime minister, as our nation seeks to go it alone somewhat? This time will pass as all these things do; but what I wonder will be the legacy that is left behind? We will have to wait and see…. This month we celebrate Easter and I am reminded of how things didn’t turn out as the disciples and others wished when the person they thought was going to free them from foreign occupation; someone who could perform extraordinary miracles, was put to death in the cruellest of ways alongside criminals. Where had it all gone wrong they must have wondered? As the people watching on jibed Jesus saying ‘He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, the chosen one!’ no one could really understand or know what would happen next. Luke’s gospel tells of how two of… Read More

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One year on...

March is here and I cannot believe it is now just over a year that our new united parish of Capel and Ockley has been in effect and that later this month we will be holding our first Annual Parochial Church Meeting together to review our first twelve months and set our sights to imagining the future. Just as nature around us is greening so too we are hoping that lots of new shoots and some young tender plants of church growth will begin to flourish and take root around our two communities. As I prepare to write my report for the APCM I can look back and reflect on all that we have achieved – the highs and lows, joys and challenges we have faced. Everyone has worked so hard to enable ministry to flourish in both villages and we are grateful for all the support both communities have given us. Each church has been able to hold a regular Sunday morning service three out of four Sundays in the month and then on the fourth Sunday we take turns to worship together at either Ockley or Capel. It has worked very well and for me it has been… Read More

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Looking back and looking forwards

Dear all Well hello from ‘panto-land’ – three performances down and three to go. So far, so good; it seems everyone who has seen Ali Baba and the forty thieves has thoroughly enjoyed it and so too are we performers I think! I have really enjoyed how the Ockley Dramatic Society production encourages people of all ages and abilities to tread the boards and especially the children who really make the pantomime special by their acting and dancing. It has been great fun. As I write this letter I am looking forward to Candlemas next Sunday which brings to a close the season of Christmas and Epiphany. Epiphany means revelation and all the themes of our services in January are all about revelation from God about whom Jesus was and is. St Margaret’s decided to keep their Christmas tree and other festive decorations up for the whole of January in church at Ockley – something which maybe has not been done before. This is perfectly in order as many churches all over the world do the same as technically Christmas doesn’t end until the beginning of this month. I can hear some of you scream in horror at the thought!!… Read More

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Let there be light!

Dear all Happy New Year! I hope you had a good Christmas and are now raring to go into 2019?! Oh dear, January is a tough month isn’t it. The Spring seems a long way away but at least the nights are already drawing out which is amazing. Light is such a marvellous thing isn’t it – we long for it in the darkness of these winter days and in the darkness of some areas of life too. So light is my theme for this month’s letter because before Christmas I went on a family trip up to the West End in London to see the Christmas lights. This turned out to be very exciting as I haven’t been to see the lights in town for many, many years and I had forgotten just how magical they are. The trip included a visit to Hamley’s toy store in Regent Street, which was suitably manic, with Christmas elves singing Jingle bells outside the store and being bombarded by bubble machines as we entered the shop. Never mind we survived even that! There were Christmas lights everywhere – more than I ever remember – but perhaps that’s because of LED now? The… Read More

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Strange preparations

Dear all On putting pen to paper so to speak, as I write, the weather has turned very cold! What a shock to the system after our beautiful autumn and the generally mild temperatures we have enjoyed. The central heating is definitely being turned up a bit! I wonder what this next month of December will bring? It is such a busy time of the year, although I think it’s busy in Capel and Ockley all year round with the amazing range of activities, events and groups that offer such a wide and varied programme. However, as we approach Christmas it always seems there is virtually no time in December before the 25th and so this month we I hope will enjoy the various Christmassy events on offer. The churches in Capel and Ockley will be hosting and supporting much of these so do study the December services and events list in this magazine to find the detail. Everything is also on our Capel and Ockley website too. If you haven’t visited it yet here is the address www.capelandockleychurch.org.uk So if your Christmas has to include donkeys, carols, Christmas trees, excited children, nativities, cribs, Father Christmas, mulled wine and mince… Read More

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Seven year review!

Dear all This month I will have been your vicar here for seven years which I can hardly believe. Where has all the time gone?! It certainly doesn’t seem like seven years; the time has literally flown by, yet these seven years have shaped our parish of Capel from one where I was appointed as a self-supporting minister under an arrangement of ‘House for Duty’ to a new united Parish and a full time Stipendiary role. (A Stipend is the ecclesiastical word for regular payment to clergy). Basically it means I am now paid! I was extremely happy to come here under House for Duty arrangements as I had other family commitments to honour as well as serving the church and community here. Those of you who know me and the work of clergy also know that ministry is rarely part time, so it was with great thankfulness that a couple of years ago Capel PCC agreed that they could fund a half stipend for the ministry I do. Now with the opportunity to join with St Margaret’s at Ockley, all agreed that this should be a full time stipendiary position which is wonderful. It is good for me of… Read More

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