During the current crisis, despite our churches being closed, the work of our clergy has continued and has been giving support to our communities through personal contacts, group tele-meetings and maintaining an active prayer-life for the whole community.
Our income comes solely from you, both regular and occasional visitors and the regular attenders at our local churches.
The collections at weekly services have stopped and will possibly not re-start in its current form. We are fortunate that some of our income comes from regular donations through bank-transfer but the loss of our weekly collections will have a financial impact on us.
To that end we are introducing an Online Giving system, in place of the weekly collection, so that those wanting to give money to us occasionally have a safe means of so doing.
As each Parish will be organising its own method of Online Giving you can be assured that your donation will be received by the parish that you wish to support.
Please click on one of the buttons below for the Church to which you wish to donate. Only one is active as yet. Thank you.
North Lakes Foodbank, Lorton St Methodist Church Lorton St, Cockermouth, CA13 9RH Tel -Mob: 07502 311 452 Tel:-Landline 01900 823854
There may be a food collection Point near you the contents of which are taken up to Cockermouth regularly by volunteers. If so, please purchase your food donations from the shops local to you so that we also support our local communities.(St Bega’s Church in Eskdale) is one collection point that is not yet on the Foodbank website) Otherwise, the website gives full details of how you can support them and also has a map of the food Collection Points and Distribution Centres in the North Lakes. Our centres are all open as their normal hours with the exception of Whitehaven which is closed on a Wednesday for the foreseeable future.
The new guidelines we are now operating under allow the clergy to enter Church buildings for the purpose of private prayer or the live streaming of worship. The intention is that only one person, or a second from the same household if necessary, may enter church to prevent cross contamination and the rest of the time sadly they are to remain locked. Since it would be unrealistic to try to get around all the churches in the Benefice. I have invited someone from each parish to be the designated responsible person for that building. There visits will include inspecting the building for insurance purposes. Over the next couple of weeks we will re-establish the pattern of prayer in the Churches: Angela Overton Benge will go into Bootle Church on Thursday and Whicham on Sunday to pray for Black Combe.
St Peter’s Drigg: Robert and Wendy Bracegirdle will go into Church every Sunday at 10am and celebrate Holy Communion on behalf of the Benefice.
Eskdale: also on a Sunday Charles Browne will go into St Bega’s and Jackie Oakes will go into St Catherine’s to pray for the Parish.
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St Michael and All Angels Muncaster: Peter Frost-Pennington will read the morning service in the Parish Church.
St Paul’s Irton: I will celebrate Holy Communion in Irton Church at 9.30am on Sundays
St John’s Waberthwaite: I will say the morning office at Waberthwaite at 11am every Sunday.
Holy Communion for Ascension Day will be celebrated at Irton at 7.30pm.
All of us, as we are going into the Churches are painfully aware of how much you are all missing being there and it’s a great sadness that we cannot as yet welcome you back into Church. I hope that it is some encouragement to know that the Churches are being prayed in again. It is a small step but at least we are now moving in the right direction.
If there are specific prayer needs please be in touch, either with myself or the people going into your parish church. Finally I thought I would tell you about some of the good things that our parishes are doing during this time, simply as an encouragement and to share some ideas of things that are possible under lockdown. Waberthwaite Parish has set up a Just Giving Page and is writing to all their supporters to let them know about it and highlight other ways in which the Sunday offerings can still be given.
Eskdale’s Food Bank collection continues to be well supported and is delivered weekly to the Hub in Egremont for distribution.
Ravenglass had a socially distanced street party for VE Day and have organised ways of practically helping one another with shopping.
Irton has a Zoom Coffee Morning and for Ascension Day have decided to have a service together on line.
Drigg celebrated ‘bluebell time’ by delivering a Scone and Jam to the members of Drigg Chat and talked briefly with them from the gate.
Church of England Service on July 5th : go to https://www.churchofengland.org
There will be Services at Waberthwaite at 9.30 am and Drigg at 11 am
St Mary's, Gosforth is running an online Service at 10 am. For an invitation get in touch withSaint Marys
The latest edition of the magazine is out!
Training Opportunities St Cuthbert’s Seascale,
The mission community held a gathering to explore the training opportunities available to local people through the Church. This took place at St Cuthbert’s Seascale on Wednesday 17th July at 7.30pm. We are hoping to be able to host more training locally and to ensure this is as effective as it can be we want to hear from you. What would you be interested in? What would help you in your Christian life and service?
We have held a couple of short courses locally helping us to grow in our understanding of the Christian faith. These have been stimulating but not academic and have helped us get to know one another from across the local churches. Do you want more of these kind of events or more practical skill based opportunities, like the training on offer to PCC Treasurer’s from the Diocesan Stewardship Advisor at St Mary’s Gosforth? Some people have expressed an interest in prayer retreats whilst others have requested Safeguarding Training. Whatever your interest or perceived need arranging training through the mission community makes it easier to bring in trainers and create viable groups with content that fits our needs, hopefully improving the effectiveness of the training and reducing participants travel time.
We have invited Cumbria Christian Learning to create a market place of opportunities and resources and to send along a trainer to help explain what is involved in the various courses. If you are interested in coming along to Seascale and taking part in the discussions you would be very welcome. There should be something for everyone, from one off events to short courses of a few weeks, day retreats to vocational training.
If you are interested give me a ring; Gill on 019467 24724
There are many different kinds of partnerships that we may enter into over the course of our lives, from marriages to businesses arrangements; some short-term others life-long. What they all have in common if they are going to achieve their agreed goal is mutual respect about what each partner brings to the relationship. The Church cannot claim an unblemished record in Education but it has also, throughout its history, done a great deal to positively foster learning. The Church provided the first free schools in this country and that commitment to education being available for everyone remains the foundation of the partnership we enjoy locally between the Church and Church Schools today. Recently the Church of England has produced a document entitled Vision for Education. This document is not just for those involved with Church Schools but is intended to contribute to a much wider conversation within our society. What should education for life in the 21st century look like?
Not surprisingly, for a Church Vision Statement at its centre is the promise Jesus made, that he had come to give us ‘life in all its fulness’. The vision unpacks what this abundant life might look like for people in Britain today by focusing on four goals for education which it suggests will equip people to live well. It says that education should be;
•for wisdom, knowledge and skills
•for hope and aspiration
•for community and living well together
•for dignity and respect.
This ‘vision document’ is being very positively received both in Church and state schools throughout the country. It articulates what many good teachers believe and is finally affirming the importance of what they do, by creating the bigger picture in which education debates can be understood.
In the coming months both the Church and our Church Schools hope to be able to engage in a conversation with our local communities about what excites us about teaching and learning today and what values our communities believe important enough to pass on to our children to equip them for life both now and in the years to come. Rev Gill Hart