We are a Church of England parish with a strong tradition of music in worship, where all are very welcome. As an ancient Church in the centre of Durham, St Oswald's is a reservoir of peace for all who enter it.

The Sunday Eucharist is at 11:00am, and we have a play and books corner by the font for any younger worshipper who feels a parent or carer would enjoy it there. Evensong is at 6:00pm on Sundays, either in the chancel, or roughly every other week during term time when the usual hymns expand to a full choral setting, in the body of the church. Midweek Holy Communion is at 10:00am on Wednesdays, and the church is usually open from 9:30am till round about 5:00pm (or dusk, if earlier) on weekdays.

Wednesday, 18th March 2026 - Lenten Season: The Commemoration of St Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem and Teacher of the Faith, 386

And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God’, and since then has been waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 

Hebrews 10:11-14, New Revised Standard Version - Anglicized Edition

The Collect of the Day:

O Lord, we beseech thee, absolve thy people from their offences, that through thy bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the bands of those sins which by our frailty we have committed; grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

Common Worship 

A Prayer for Peace Throughout the World:

Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed; Kindle, we pray thee, in every heart the true love of peace; and guide with thy pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth; that in tranquillity thy kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of thy love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Book of Common Prayer 2004 (The Church of Ireland)

Durham Diocesan Prayer Cycle Monthly Deanery Intention - March 2026:

Lanchester Deanery

A Prayer for Lententide:

Hanging as a vine upon the Wood,
O Christ our Saviour,
Thou hast made the ends of the earth
to drink from the wine of incorruption.
Therefore do I cry aloud:
I am darkened always by the hateful drunkenness of sin;
Give me to drink from the sweet wine of true compunction,
and grant me now the strength, O Saviour,
to fast from sensual pleasures,
for Thou art good and lovest mankind.

Amen.

St Joseph of Thessalonica, The Lenten Triodion - The Eastern Orthodox Church 

A Lenten Sonnet:

That we might come at last to his true light
We turn again to him, when all things turn;
The year returns to growth and spring. Our sight
Is blessed with tender green. We learn
To hold the gospel plough, to follow him
And not look back. Our Lenten discipline
Opens deep furrows in the frozen soul
And sheers through the obstruction of our sin,
Harrows our hearts and opens us to him,
Till Christ the Sower finds in us good soil.
Seeds of his kingdom deep in our dark clay
Will stir with hidden growth through Holy Lent,
Will share with him Good Friday’s dark descent
And rise to life with him on Easter Day.

Malcolm Guite

The Prayer of St Oswald of Northumbria:

Let us together implore the living and true and almighty God in his mercy to defend us against the pride and fierceness of our enemy; for that God knows our cause is just, and that we fight for the salvation of our nation.

Amen.

Prayed by King Oswald with his Army on the Battlefield on the Eve of the Battle of Heavenfield, AD634