Sunday 19th January, The Second Sunday of Epiphany11:00am Parish Communion6pm Choral EvensongSunday 26th January, The Third Sunday of Epiphany11:00am Parish Communion6pm EvensongMid-week service: Wednesday 10am Holy CommunionPlease see the Calendar for the services during this season of Epiphany.Evensong continues every Sunday, with Choral Evensong on January 19th, February 2nd (Candlemas), February 16th, March 16thFoodbank – Weekly message from Lynda Delf: On 13th January 4kg of food was collected in Church and another Parishioner gave 6kg of food and £10, in total this will provide meals for 13 people and the money will be used to buy more food.We currently are in need of instant soup and noodles, jam, sugar, rice, squash as well as tinned fruit, rice pudding, fish, spaghetti hoops and potatoes. We always need longlife milk and fruit juice as well as household cleaning materials and toilet rolls. Many thanks for all you do to support our local foodbanks.Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Lunch: Tuesday 21st January at 12 noon to 1.30pm, the Durham Churches Together lunch for The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is at Waddington Street United Reformed Church. All welcome. Please let Alan Middleton know if you will be going.Parish magazineThere are still a few copies of the current issue available from the back of the church at £1:50 each.Thanks to those who have already submitted articles or ideas for the next issue. The copy deadline for the next issue is Sunday Jan 26th. Please let Sarah Knight or Stevie Taylor have any contributions by that date. Thank you.Advent Appeal: The Disaster Emergency Committee Middle East Humanitarian Appeal. The DEC is a committee with 15 member charities. The funds raised by its Middle East appeal will be mainly spent in aid to Gaza and Lebanon, but with some spent in the surrounding region including the West Bank. The UK Government has undertaken to match donations received by the Committee up to ten million pounds. This is a different Gaza charity to the one we supported last year. Please see the attached paper for more information about this work.Young Vocations: The next Young Vocations Breakfast is on Saturday 25th January, meeting for morning prayer at St. Oswald's at 10.30am before heading into the city for breakfast. Please see here the link for people to sign up: https://forms.gle/BNfhcLvPS1JEScHd7Confirmation: The Deanery Confirmation will take place on Saturday 7th June 2025 (The Eve of Pentecost). At this service adults, including students, as well as children from throughout Durham Deanery will be confirmed. Please let Peter know if you would like to be confirmed next year. The venue for the Deanery Confirmation this year will be St. Luke’s Ferryhill.Amongst the sick please pray for Margaret Perry, and for Angie Robley.Please pray for the repose of the soul of Julian Chadwick RIP. Julian died peacefully on Friday December 20th. His funeral is expected to be on Monday 27 January at 1130 at Holy Trinity Church, Church Road, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, BS9 3EQWith All Good Wishes and Prayers, PeterThe Reverend Peter Kashouris
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.
