THE Diocese of Carlisle is partnering with a Christian charity to provide free retreats for people who were frontline carers during the Covid pandemic. Barrow and Furness MP, Simon Fell has put his support behind the scheme and is asking the public to get behind the Crowdfunder that is hoping to raise £20,000.This project is hoped to achieve some much-needed respite for carers.Mr Fell said “This is a fantastic project which will help some of the people who have had a harder job than others over the past year.“It is so important to recognise that people who care for others need time to be able to look after themselves, and this project will give carers an opportunity to switch off and relax.”Caring for the Carers is the idea of the Rev Prof Stephen Wright, spiritual director of the Sacred Space Foundation, a non-profit, non-denominational retreat centre and charitable trust located in the Lake District National Park. The proposals would see free retreats offered for 45 NHS staff members and others from the county at Rydal Hall (see photo) the Diocese’s Christian Conference and Retreat Centre, near Ambleside.Stephen said: “We’ve all clapped for our carers and now it’s time we proactively cared for them too. That is what this project is all about. “We’re well aware of the burnout and exhaustion that so many are facing and so we just want to do our best to help their recovery in some small way. It will be an opportunity for individuals to recharge their batteries in whatever way they want to: to read, to walk, to enjoy Rydal’s grounds, to talk one-to-one or in groups. It would be completely up to them.”
A Christmas celebration, complete with carols and mince pies, has taken place in the middle of the summer for people who missed out on traditional services in December.It was organised by the Reverend Rachel Phillips (see photo) at the Priory Church of St Peter in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.The Church of England rector maintains that "Christmas is not just for Christmas"."We celebrated as Dunstable has never done before," she said.The outdoor event included traditional carols, a small nativity play and a visit from Father Christmas."He's not that busy at this time of year," Ms Phillips said.The event was not just to make up for the church not being able to hold its usual carol service in December because of coronavirus regulations."Last December we weren't able to celebrate as we normally would, so we're doing it now," Ms Phillips said."But there is a serious point here, which is, that what Christians celebrate at Christmas is not just for Christmas - it's not just for one day."About 100 people turned up wearing their Christmas jumpers and sporting Santa hats. Children dressed as their favourite "nativity character" and picnics were eaten - complete with turkey sandwiches and mince pies."The weather was a lot more Christmas jumper friendly than the hot temperatures we had last week," Ms Phillips said."The children were so excited, seeing their faces when Father Christmas appeared was just lovely. It made their Christmas."
Book the date. It will be great fun when Messy Church is staged at Hascombe Village Hall on Wednesday, August 25 from 3pm to 5pm.
SOME people may panic when their library book is few days overdue, but a volume recently returned to Sheffield Cathedral is more than two centuries past its return date.“I did joke with the owner that we wouldn’t be demanding any charges,” the Vice-Dean, Canon Keith Farrow (see photo), told the Church Times, “but then someone said we could have got a new roof.”The cathedral library closed about 200 years ago; so Canon Farrow was surprised to receive an email from the goddaughter of a recently deceased woman in south Wales who had left instructions in her will for the book to be returned.The book, The Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man, a treatise for the laity, was first published in 1688. The Sheffield copy is a seventh edition dating from 1704. Inside is the handwritten inscription: This Book belongs to ye Lending Library in Sheffield Church 1709.”“In our archives, there is talk of a very renowned lending library which we think was dispersed in the late Georgian period during a reordering,” Canon Farrow said. “Where in the building it was, we’re not sure. We still have a few books from that period in our archives.“Back in those days, it was probably quite a pioneering thing to have a lending library in church. This building wasn’t made a cathedral until 1914; so it would have been the parish church, with just the vicar and a couple of curates. It would have been for the public generally rather than just the clergy. Some cathedrals have chained libraries, but this was one where people could take them out.”The book, which, Canon Farrow believes, has little financial value, will go on display in the cathedral. “It gives a sense of past times when Sheffield was a village emerging into the industrial revolution,” he said. “The person who borrowed this book would simply not recognise Sheffield, even 100 years later. I felt as if I was holding something that had a story to tell. It’s a sort of ready reckoner to maintain you on the straight and narrow.”The volume contains sermons by leading churchmen of the time, and essays on correct behaviour. One quote intrigued Canon Farrow: “It can never be improper or unreasonable for the most private man to give an account of himself and his beliefs and practices, especially at a time when religion is so much contraverted.”“Nothing changes,” Canon Farrow said. “The Church had its back against the wall, as it does today.”
