Dear Friends.
Now some eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that the by-line at the end of this missive is different to the usual one. Not ‘John Baxter’ but ‘Martyn and Sue Egerton’. No, we’re not planning a takeover, just augmenting the team. Let’s introduce ourselves.
We’ve lived in Capel off and on for just over 13 years and in or around Dorking for over 34. During much of this time, we were very involved with Churches Together in Dorking and through this got to know some of the folk in Capel and it’s church and village. Since we returned from Tunbridge Wells when Sue retired from physiotherapy, we’ve been part of the church at St John the Baptist and have begun to appreciate the intricacies, joys and challenges of village life. For the last 3 years we’ve been training with the Guildford Diocese for ministry in the Church of England. So what are we and what do we do?
We are part of the ministry team in Capel with John Baxter, the vicar, and will both share in many aspects of church life in the parish. This will include leading some of the services in the church.
Sue was ordained Deacon on 5th July at Guildford Cathedral and is now the Reverend Sue Egerton. She is the Associate Curate in Capel. This means that she wears a clerical collar (when working) and will be exploring the ramifications of her new role over the next few months. Initially this is a training role and there are some services that she can’t yet take, such as Baptism’s and Weddings, This will change next summer when she should be ordained as a priest and will continue to serve in Capel.
Martyn is a Licensed Lay Minister (Reader) (LLM), the new name for a Lay Reader in the Church of England. He still has a busy ‘day job’ as a scientist with Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust so is mainly only around at weekends. He is hoping to explore the churches work with younger folk in the parish.
Because of our training, we have been less involved than we would have liked to be in the village, but we hope to rectify this and look forward to meeting and getting to know as many of you as possible. It would be great if you were able to invite us to some of your meetings for this to happen. If you don’t happen to see us around, you could always try popping into the church one Sunday morning and saying ‘hello’ in person, we’d love to welcome you, we can even stretch to a cup of coffee!
Yours in Christ,
MARTYN AND SUE EGERTON