Sunday 5th October, Dedication Festival11:00am Parish Eucharist6pm Come & Sing Choral EvensongSunday 12th October, The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity11:00am Parish Eucharist6pm EvensongOn Wednesdays 10am Holy CommunionPlease see the Calendar of services attached.Coffee Morning at St. Helen’s Kelloe: The Mayor’s coffee morning will take place on Saturday 4th October at St Helen’s, proceeds to St. Cuthbert’s Hospice.Harvest Collections: Foodbank – Weekly message from Lynda Delf : The foodbank van collected 270kg of donated tins and dried food from Church on 2nd October, (directly after the school harvest service) additionally a Parishioner gave £10 and 7kg of food earlier in the week. This will provide meals for 345 people, Roz has just delivered a sealed envelope which she says contains £200 this was raised at the Harvest tea on Sunday from the sale of produce and donations. Many thanks for your incredible genorisity.Our current shortages are longlife milk and fruit juice, household cleaning materials, tiolet rolls and personal toiletries. As well as sugar, rice, coffee, jam, biscuits and tinned fruit, potatoes and tomatoes.Thanks again for all the ways you support our local foodbanks.PS: When people give money in sealed envelopes these are always opened at the foodbank by a member of staff in front of me and a recept is givenThey will be so pleased 0n Monday Parish Magazine: The Autumn issue of the magazine will shortly be delivered to all regular subscribers, and copies are also available (price £2) from the back of church.This Friday 10th October, the Durham Union Society, will again hold a debate at St. Oswald’s Church. The motion is “This House has no confidence in His Majesty’s Government” and will begin around 8:30pm, you are welcome to attend. These debates are taking place here whilst their usual premises are being refurbished.Amongst the sick please pray for Angie Robley. Please pray for the repose of the soul of Andrew Perry RIP; and for his family and brother David, and sister Gillian.With All Good Wishes and Prayers, Peter
There has been a bonfire every year in the churchyard for hundreds of years, and this year's bonfire took place, for once, on 5th November itself. Our usual crowd was even bigger than previously, with St. Oswald's schoolkids, students, and longstanding residents enjoying the fire, the sparklers, and the refreshments. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a lovely evening, to Roz Layton for organising everything brilliantly, to everyone who contributed toffee, biscuits and sweets, and to Giles Radford, Scout Leader extraordinaire, silhouetted in the photo, for building and superintending the magnificent fire.
Oswald, King of Northumbria 634–642ᴀᴅ, was instrumental in bringing Christianity to this region, and is celebrated on 5th August every year with a choral evensong at the cathedral in which we traditionally join to celebrate our patron saint. Generally, we meet in church for a short prequel, and then peregrinate the 715 yds. (0.65 km) across Kingsgate Bridge to the mother church, though this year for a variety of reasons we made our own ways there. Nonetheless, we were very graciously welcomed by the Dean as the 'pilgrims' from St. Oswald's, and three of our younger members made a fine job of processing His Northumbrian Majesty's banner to the high altar.The banner party is pictured here with other members of the congregation, in an image that has been watercolourised to try and rescue a truly dreadful snap.
ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ᴄʀᴇᴅɪᴛ: ᴛʀᴇᴠᴏʀ ꜱᴍɪᴛʜCongratulations to David Harris, our much-loved organist and choirmaster, who is joint winner of the 2024 Laudemus! competition with his setting of the anthem Hail, Gladdening Light! for SATB and organ. Laudemus!, an adult choir which meets annually to sing evensong in churches down in Dorset, will be singing the winning anthems at Wimborne Minster on 10th August, which by happy coincidence is also David's birthday.The Royal School of Church Music will be publishing both winning pieces, and our choir at St. Oswald's will be singing Hail, Gladdening Light! just as soon as it has been premièred.David has been Director of Music at St. Oswald's since his second year at Durham University in 2014. Before that, he was an organ scholar at Portsmouth Cathedral, and works as a performer, teacher, and church musician.
