About Us
re the CORONA VIRUS
The church is now open for services and visitors from 10am to 4pm . Please read and follow the notices about covid secure measures to keep everyone safe.
All are welcome at any of our services or events.
Our Mission is:- "To know Christ better through worship, prayer, fellowship and discipleship.
To make Christ better known through caring service and sharing the good news of the gospel."
From 1st November 2017 - the Parish is Gosforth and Wasdale in the Benefice of Seatallan in the Deanery of Calder and the Archdeaconery of West Cumberland. This parish will have 3 parish churches - St Mary's Gosforth, St Michael and All Angels Nether Wasdale and St Olaf's Wasdale Head.
We are part of the South Calder Mission Community - 13 C of E parishes, 2 parts of the Methodist Western Fells Circuit and having 20 church buildings It aims to be Christ's people serving God together and growing his kingdom in this beautiful part of Cumbria by aiding the worshipping Christian Communities to work together and share resources in order to bring God to all people living in this area. see http://southcalder.org
This part of the website is about St Mary's Gosforth
St Mary's is a typical village church with several different styles of service. Our Sunday services are Parish Communion at 11 am on the third and fourth Sundays of the month, an All Age Service on the first Sunday and Morning Praise on the third Sunday at 11 am both of which are usually led by a team of lay people. There is always a Holy Communion service on those days at another of church in the Benefice. Since the closure of Gosforth Methodist Church there is a Methodist Evening Service at 6.30 pm in St Mary’s Room on the first and third Sunday of the month. Please see the services and events section for details of what is happening in the next month or so.
We work to 5 points of mission: 1 evangelism 2 discipleship 3 service to the local community 4 social justice 5 Care for creation Under 4 we donate to NISCU, Embrace and Crosslinks. Collect items for Mothers’ Union emergency toilet bags for West Cumberland Hospital, the local food bank and Calderwood House the local hostel for the homeless. Support the Fairtrade Group and facilitate money collections for Christian Aid, the Children’s Society and the Bishop of Carlisle’s Harvest Appeal
There has been a church building on this site since around 700 AD. In around 1100 AD a stone Norman church replaced the building then on the site and there have been changes since. There were two rebuilds in Victorian times and the current building dates from 1896 - 97. In 1995 St Mary's Room was built onto the North of the church and this provides us with a meeting room for Christian Fellowship after services, social events and courses such as the Lent course. The room has modern audio visual equipment and adjoining kitchen & toilets.</span>
The history of the site means that there are a few Norman artefacts inside the Grade 1 listed building, together with two exceptional Viking hogback tombs and the "Fishing Stone" which has both Viking and Christian symbolism. The most famous Anglo- Danish monument is the "Gosforth Cross" a High Cross which is a Scheduled Monument of National Importance and shows integration of Viking myth and Christian beliefs. ( there is a copy in the British Museum in London). As a result we have visitors from all over the world.