St Aidan's throws a Northumbrian party

Friday 28th June 2013

A cake-map of Tarset parish...
but the church of St Aidan, Thorneyburn, has been eaten from the left of the picture.

  The supper break after music by local parishioners and a quick explanation of what the Church tries to offer to the local community  --  along with the help we need in order to keep going

 The dancing begins

The children have a go at devising a dance until

the adults try to teach them some traditional steps

 the adults try to teach them some traditional steps.

A Church celebration

Thursday 27th June 2013

Outside All Saints' Church (West Woodburn), Corsenside

after the licensing of the new Assistant Priest in the North Tyne and Redesdale Team:

she is with the Bishop who conducted the service and the Archdeacon of   Lindisfarne.

                                  

With a happy Team Rector, delighted to have this new colleague

Dog show at West Woodburn

Saturday 23rd June 2013


The terrier class

The rain held off for the Corsenside churches "Raise the Roof" fund-raising fun Dog Show.  There was a happy informal atmosphere as we laughed at the antics of each others pets.

[More pictures on the Events page]

The next round of PCC meetings

Wednesday 19th June 2013

Sky on the way home from Corsenside PCC

The Parable of the "Prodigal son"

Tuesday 18th June 2013

"Let us celebrate with a feast!"

Day off

Monday 17th June 2013

After Morning Prayer in church, I took a day off to go and look at two stallions with a view to sending Molly to visit.  Here is an example of the offspring of one of them.

Safely through the weekend

Sunday 16th June 2013

On the way to check that Molly's all right  --
which she is; and so is everything else now that we've had a smooth wedding between the showers of rain and managed to conduct Sunday services in all the scheduled churches despite the sudden indisposition of one of the clergy due to officiate (which occasioned several phone calls at 8 in the morning, luckily just between my finishing preparations for the 9.30 service and setting out to check Molly).

Wednesday 12th June 2013


After the wedding rehearsal

On Saturday the people in front of the church porch will be in all their finery.

     Today I struggled to finish my contribution to the parish magazine and to re-write an important document that the computer had destroyed.  Somehow both were finished, if not on time then at least before all was lost.

St Barnabas' Day

Tuesday 11th June 2013

 

St Barnabas was known for his generosity and encouragement, an apt thought when after the rigors of a four-hour meeting of Area Deans with the Archdeacon, I spotted these abundant bluebells on the way home.

Elsdon past, present and future

Sunday 9th June 2013

Wedding preparations include grass cutting

I was up at 6 o'clock to finish preparing for today's church services uninterrupted.  After the 9.00 a.m. Parish Communion at Horsley, I drove down the valley to Corsenside to deliver their bundle of diocesan newspapers to All Saints' church at West Woodburn and continued via East Woodburn to Elsdon for the Parish Communion (and grass cutting) there.

     There was a very good turnout of parishioners for the day in the village hall on "Elsdon past, present and future" with a wonderful exhibition covering local life from the carboniferous period to the present day...  and what next?

 

 



Photographs, artefacts, letters etc record the life of Elsdon
This deserves to be a permanent exhibition.  If parishioners wanted it, we should adapt a transept of the church to house the display, the church being a significant part of the story.

After this, it was off to Thorneyburn for Evensong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday strains

Saturday 8th June 2013

Across the North Tyne valley to the top of the Rede valley
Saturday is a day with no appointments but unrelenting organisational matters, a day of informing clergy who are taking services in various churches about publicity and arrangements and requests for christenings, a day of delivering letters and papers and magazines, a day of phone calls to check whether housebound people wish to receive Holy Communion at home, a day of liasing with three organists about the choices of hymns and with Churchwardens about events further in the future, a day of collecting items to pack into my suitcase for visits to four different parishes tomorrow.  It is late afternoon before I begin any serious sermon preparation.

St Aidan's club

Friday 7th June 2013

Having made themselves crowns, the children "eat the flag" in the week of the 60th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation.

Lindisfarne Gospels visit

Thursday 6th June2013

A slightly precarious summer's afternoon

This was the scene at Greenhaugh when I went to the First School to conduct assembly there.  In the morning, Holy Communion was followed by a visit from the County archivist bringing materials in preparation for our hosting the official facsimile of the Lindisfarne Gospels during our Flower Festival at St Cuthbert's Elsdon during July.  Later in the afternoon a couple came to prepare for marriage

Clergy visit the Forestry Commission

Wednesday 5th June 2013

An outdoor classroom

Preparing to visit a harvesting site

An area of clear felling

A load of timber being brought up for stacking

Impressively deft handling

 

whilst felling continues



and here are the fruits of their labours

We moved on to an area of selective felling and regeneration

 

 Then on to a vantage point near Skyspace, a remarkable place to enter and contemplate the sky through the open dome.                      

Imagine this sky through the opening and the way in which you might feel drawn up to be a part of something greater.  Then the freedom and scale of the whole landscape made accessible by the recreational policies.                      

 Next a visit to Kielder Observatory:

This state of the art observatory belongs in its landscape, built of local materials harvested in Kielder Forest, serene as a ship floating in its natural environment, offering security and adventure.

 

Not exactly George Stubbs

Tuesday 4th June 2013

Molly visits some friends

If there's no time to ride, it seems only fair on Molly to send her off to enjoy herself.  Meanwhile, I take an assembly at Bellingham First School, go over to Elsdon to plan the "Floral Evensong" for Sunday 23rd July at the end of the Flower Festival at which the official facsimile of the Lindisfarne Gospels will be on display, and travel up to Falstone for a PCC meeting.

Monday 3rd June 2013

There seems just too much to do and it's a good moment when I look out of the window to see light on the horizon.

Sunday 2nd June 2013

The River Rede from Otterburn Mill Bridge