About Us

Welcome to Holy Cross Church. We hope you can find the information you need. Please get in touch if we can help further, and we look forward to sharing worship and fellowship together. Holy Cross Church is part of a family of four churches (benefice), each around two miles apart. We share a vibrant common life and meet together often for worship and other activities. There is a benefice Eucharist every second Sunday, which rotates around the churches. Holy Cross Church is a beautiful place of worship with some very special memorials. It attracts several hundred visitors each year. We also have a weekend in September of concerts and events as part of our title festival weekend of the Holy Cross.

The village of Gilling East stands at the eastern end of the Gilling–Coxwold Gap between the Hambleton Hills to the north and the Howardian Hills to the south. It also commands a pass through the Howardian Hills carrying the B1363 to York. The parish includes the villages of Gilling East, Cawton, and Grimston. The Church is dedicated to the Holy Cross, but has, in the past, been referred to as St. Mary’s or St. Helena’s. The latter has a link with the Holy Cross as Queen Helena is reputed to have found the True Cross.