4:00pm: Dramatic Performance - 'Entry Into Jerusalem'; please see note below
Sunday, 29th March 2026 - Palm Sunday; The Sunday next before Easter
***Please note - British Summer Time begins today; clocks go forward one hour!***
11:00am: Parish Eucharist, Procession of Palms and Proclaiming of the Passion, commencing in the Institute (CW)
6:00pm: Said Evensong with Hymns (BCP)
Holy Tuesday
9:30am: Holy Communion at St Mary’s, Coxhoe
Holy Wednesday
9:00am: Oasis
10:00am: Midweek Holy Communion (BCP)
Maundy Thursday
6:00pm: Eucharist, Stripping of the Altars and Watch
Good Friday
11:15am: Durham Churches Together Act of Witness at Millennium Square, Durham
2:00pm: Liturgy of the Day and Sung Passion
Holy Saturday
8:00pm: The Vigil and Service of Light
Sunday, 5th April 2026 - Easter Sunday
11:00am: Parish Eucharist (CW)
6:00pm: No Evensong Today
Wednesday
10:00am: Midweek Matins (BCP)
***Please see the Calendar of services attached.***
***Please see also David’s Music Notes attached.***
I am very grateful to Gavin for taking most of the services during this holy period. I am also grateful to Alan and to John for all their ministry in leading worship. It will remain the case throughout April that I will again not be much at St Oswald’s on a Sunday morning. However, with Brian Close now available to help at Coxhoe and with the possibility of a priest coming to help at Kelloe, it looks like I will be able to be here on most Sunday mornings again soon. Keith Lumsden has now completed his treatment and is looking well.
'The Scena Mundi Theatre Company and Durham University students will be performing the medieval play of the York Skinners' 'Entry into Jerusalem' at St Oswald's. This free performance will take place at 4:00pm on Saturday 28th March. The performance should last about half an hour. All are welcome.
Deanery Confirmation Service 2026: The Confirmation Service this year will take place on Saturday 6th June at 6:00pm at St Nics, Durham. Please let Peter know if you would like to be Confirmed or indeed Baptised and Confirmed at this service. It will be taken by Bishop Frank White.
Setting up for Services: Could you help set up for services once a month? We have a beautiful but currently too small rota to clean the candlesticks, find the passages in the Lectionary and prepare for communion - count the wafers, set up the water and wine. It takes around an hour once a month on either the Friday or Saturday. Obviously we'd show you how to do it until you are comfortable with the tasks. And it's more fun and quicker to do it with a friend, so do think about offering with someone else!
Please speak to Beth, Sarah, Alison, Judy or Roz to learn more about it and see whether it's for you; it certainly isn't a ladies only club!
Thank you for thinking about it.
Lent Outreach Appeal 2026: Cornerstone Supported Housing & Counselling - Our appeal runs until Sunday 12th April. Many thanks to Nicky Morson for coming last Sunday to tell us more about Cornerstone’s work. To donate to the appeal please make cheques payable to Cornerstone Supported Housing & Counselling Ltd, put them in an envelope labelled St Oswald’s Easter Homelessness Appeal, and post them into the secure Institute letter box (across the road from the church) or place them in the collection plate at a Sunday morning Parish Eucharist.
Trip to Lindisfarne: Durham Churches Together is hoping to organise a day trip to Lindisfarne, on Saturday 6 June this year, similar to those run, pre-Covid, by Churches Together in Elvet and Shincliffe. A decision depends on enough participants at a price not exceeding £20.00 per head for the coach. If you would be interested please let Boyd Sims-Williams or Stevie Taylor know as soon as possible. ([email protected]; [email protected])
Foodbank: Weekly message from Lynda Delf - On 22nd March, 5kg of food was donated in Church; this will provide meals for 6 people. Many thanks for your kindness and support.
This week our shortages include rice, sugar, jam, biscuits tinned meat, fish, tomatoes, potatoes, rice pudding, and fruit. We always need long life milk, juice, household cleaning materials, toilet rolls and nappies (size 6 and 7).
Thank you so much.
Durham Singers Concert: Saturday evening (28th March), 7:30pm at Ushaw College; a message from David Harris - There will be a semi-staged performance of Oliver Tarney's setting of the St Mark Passion, complete with orchestra, semi-chorus (including me!), and some world-class soloists who perform at some of the most prestigious venues in the world (New York Met, La Scala, Covent Garden). It's a really powerful piece, and the choir have worked incredibly hard this term on this very ambitious project - please do come along if you can! Tickets (£20.00) and further info can be found at https://www.durham-singers.org/dbpage.php?pg=view&dbase=events&id=196951
Murder Mystery Evening: On Saturday 18th April at 7:00pm, the Hallgarth Book Group will kindly present their Murder Mystery Play in the Institute. This will be followed by cheese and wine. Tickets will be available from Sunday 29th March in the Institute after the service, either from Sondra (Tel: 0777 1633 269) or at the door, and cost £7.50.
Baptism on the Feast of the Annunciation: Colin Pemberton was baptised on Wednesday before the mid-week Communion service. Here is a message from him about the occasion.
Dear Father Peter and to all at St Oswald’s,
I am writing to express my sincere thanks for welcoming me into the Church of St Oswald, Durham City, and for your part in my baptism on 25 March at the age of forty‑seven. It was a day of profound significance for me personally, and I am deeply grateful for the care, reverence and warmth with which the sacrament was celebrated.
Being baptised on 25 March, a notable day within Lent, has a particular spiritual resonance. It is traditionally kept as the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Church remembers the angel Gabriel’s message to Mary and her faithful “yes” to God. On this day, the mystery of the Incarnation is honoured: the eternal Son of God taking flesh and beginning his earthly life among us. For me, receiving baptism on this feast links my own new beginning in Christ with that great moment of God’s initiative and grace.
Although Lent is a penitential season, the Annunciation stands within it as a moment of joy and hope, reminding us that our repentance and turning back to God are only possible because God first came to us in Christ. To be baptised on such a day has helped me to see my own conversion and renewal as part of that larger story of salvation. In a very real sense, on the day the Church recalls Christ’s conception and the start of his earthly life, I have been given a new life in him.
I am also conscious of how this date has been cherished in Christian tradition as a kind of “hinge” in the history of salvation, associated not only with the Annunciation but with other key moments that mark God’s work of creation and redemption. To receive baptism on such a day, and in a church dedicated to St Oswald in the ancient Christian heart of Durham, has impressed upon me that I am being joined not only to Christ, but also to the long, living tradition of the Church in this region and beyond.
I want to thank you for the ministry, preparation and pastoral support that made this possible: for the teachings, the prayers, and the welcome I have received. Your faithfulness in your daily work has contributed directly to this turning point in my life, and I am very grateful. Please be assured of my prayers for the continuing life and witness of St Oswald’s, and for all those whose service quietly helps others, like me, to come to faith and to begin again.
With gratitude and every good wish,
Colin Pemberton
For your Prayers: Amongst the sick, Angie Robley and Carol Simmons.
Of your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of Chloe May Galliers RIP, Margaret Adams’ grand-daughter who died of an epileptic seizure aged 25. A message from Margaret - Chloe’s funeral took place on Friday 27th March at St. Mary’s Church, High Street, Haverhill, CB9 8AX.
And please pray for the repose of the soul of Fleur Coppock RIP. Fleur’s funeral is scheduled for Thursday 23rd April at 11:45am.
With All Good Wishes and Prayers, Peter
The Reverend Peter Kashouris
St Oswald's Vicarage, Church Street, Durham [email protected]
True and humble king, hailed by the crowd as Messiah: grant us the faith to know you and love you, that we may be found beside you on the way of the cross, which is the path of glory.
Amen.
A Collect for Palm Sunday, Common Worship