Peculiar activities

Saturday 21st December

Preparations for carol services included trying to take a photograph of a bell before printing an order of service

Christmas Tree Festival

Wednesday 11th December 2019

Carol singers from Bellingham Middle School arrive at St Cuthbert's during the Christmas Tree Festival

Festive Falstone

Advent Sunday 1st December 2019
began with normal church services.  Then...

...the singing begins in Falstone's Jubilee Park after I have lit the first candle on the Advent wreath  --  just near the bus shelter which has been turned into Santa Claus's grotto!

Santa's local helpers:

And now, back to Bellingham for formal Evensong.

St Andrew's day

Saturday 30th November 2019

This is the kind of terrain which seemed bleak and forbidding to me when I came as a stranger to see the area where I might be appointed to minister as Team Rector.  Now, after 13 years to the day, this is a familiar part of my home landscape.  St Andrew's Day is an ideal time to begin a new phase in ministry.  When Andrew heard that Jesus was nearby, the first thing he did was to go and get his brother so that he could also meet Jesus.  That brother became St Peter.  We hope that all Christians will work to draw people in to know God's love for them.  That's our task, starting afresh on the first day of the Church's year  which is tomorrow, Advent Sunday.