Sunday, December 29, 2013

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Carol services

Monday 23rd December 2013
One window sill at Thorneyburn
representing a "secular Christmas"...

...whilst all the others are decorated for the
traditional candlelit St Aidan's Carol Service

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Hundreds of people at countless services

Friday 20th December 2013
 
Sunshine and showers, sorrow and joy, as the eleven o'clock funeral was followed by the 2 o'clock end-of-term service for Bellingham First School.  The day before in the same church we had had the Middle School Carol Service (140 children and 20 adults) in the morning and the Village Carol Service in the evening.  The register of services (which we are required to keep) shows that 365 people came to worship in St Cuthbert's church in those 48 hours  --  but not one of those people will show up in the national statistics for the Church of England because they weren't coming to Sunday services.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

One more school perfomance

Wednesday 18th December 2013
Kielder First School prepare for a performance of drumming
after local guests have joined them for Christmas Lunch (with all the trimmings)

Monday, December 16, 2013

Time to draw breath

Monday 16th December 2013
"The British Skies" ?
I looked up a few days ago and saw this island in the sky.
In the intervening ten days there  hasn't been much time for looking up  --  a very poor state of affairs: one should never fail to look outwards beyond oneself to greater things.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Northumberland Dark Sky Park

Tuesday 10th December 2013
The backcloth to the stable scene at the Christmas Play by Greenhaugh First School, the only school in the world which could have the topical line from Joseph: "Let's take the baby outside, Mary, and look at that enormous star.  It's lucky we're in a Dark Sky Park."
This is the day after the announcement of the recognition of our Dark Sky Park, the third in the world:
"http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/update/2013-12-09/northumberland-granted-dark-skies-status/

Monday, December 2, 2013

Bellingham Christmas Tree Festival

Monday 2nd December
A wonderful variety of Christmas Trees presented by many different local groups.  [More pictures on Events page]