Sunday 8th December The Second Sunday of Advent11:00am Parish Eucharist1:30pm Baptism6pm EvensongTuesday 2pm Christmas Coffee at the InstituteSunday 15th December The Third Sunday of Advent11:00am Parish Eucharist6pm Christmas Carol ServiceMid-week service: Wednesday 10am Holy Communion.Please see the Calendar for the services in Advent and Christmas.Parish Magazine. The latest issue of the Parish magazine is now available.Regular subscribers will have their copies delivered shortly, with extra copies available from the back of church for £1:50 each.Foodbank – Weekly message from Lynda Delf:On 1st December £50 and 7kg of food was donated in Church, this food will provide meals for 10 people and the money used to replenish stocks, many thanks for your generosity.We are still in need of rice, sugar, biscuits, jam, coffee, as well as tins of fruit, custard, rice pudding, and kettle food such as instant soup and noodles. 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 people who use our foodbanks.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.Christmas/ Epiphany Lunch: This year the parish Christmas lunch will be on Sunday January 5th after the Parish Eucharist. The cost of this festive lunch will be £7, please let Jenifer or Sondra know if you can come by December 15th. We look forward to a happy celebration of Epiphany that day.Confirmation: 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 is not yet known.Concerts: There are several concerts ongoing at Church at the end of term. Do come to one or more of these concerts, they are always very enjoyable occasions.6th DU Gospel Choir Michaelmas Showcase 7:30pm7th DU Orchestral Society 7:30PM10th Footnotes Acapella Choir 8pmA message from Charlie Moscrop, our bass scholar last year:Hello everyone, We would like to invite you to attend our festive a cappella concert: 'All I want for Christmas'! Situated in the gorgeous St Oswald’s Church Parish Church at 8pm on the 10th of December, we will deliver a night of festive classics, contemporary chart-toppers, and choral masterpieces, including hits by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the lyrical melodies of Eleanor Daley, and much more! Returning off the high of a 5* Edinburgh Fringe run, we have gathered a new generation of Foot Notes for what promises to be an unforgettable night. Tickets are £8 at the standard rate and can be purchased through the following link: https://durhamstudentmusic.org/whats-on/all-i-want-for-christmas. We look forward to seeing you all there!11th Grey College Carol Service 5:30pm13th DUCE (details to follow) TBC14th Northern Spirit Singers 7:30PMWith All Good Wishes and Prayers, Peter
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.
