We are a Church of England parish with a strong tradition of music in worship, where all are very welcome. As an ancient Church in the centre of Durham, St Oswald's is a reservoir of peace for all who enter it.

The Sunday Eucharist is at 11:00am, and we have a play and books corner by the font for any younger worshipper who feels a parent or carer would enjoy it there. Evensong is at 6:00pm on Sundays, either in the chancel, or roughly every other week during term time when the usual hymns expand to a full choral setting, in the body of the church. Midweek Holy Communion is at 10:00am on Wednesdays, and the church is usually open from 9:30am till round about 5:00pm (or dusk, if earlier) on weekdays.

Tuesday, 13th October 2026 - Ordinary Time: The Feast of St Edward the Confessor, King of England, 1066 [Lesser Festival]

"I shall not die but shall live. Departing from the land of the dying, I hope to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living."

St Edward the Confessor 

The Collect of the Day:

O Sovereign God, who didst set thy servant Edward upon the throne of an earthly kingdom and didst inspire him with zeal for the kingdom of heaven: grant that we may so confess the faith of Christ by word and deed, that we may, with all thy saints, inherit thine eternal glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

Common Worship 

The Gospel Reading (in Exciting Holiness):

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written,

“My house shall be called a house of prayer”;
but you are making it a den of robbers.’

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read,

“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise for yourself”?’

He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Matthew 21:12-17, New Revised Standard Version - Anglicized Edition 

The Post Communion:

O God our redeemer, who didst inspire Edward to witness to thy love and to labour for the coming of thy kingdom: grant that we, who in this sacrament share the bread of heaven, may be fired by thy Spirit to proclaim the gospel in our daily lives and never to rest content until thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. 

Common Worship

A Prayer for Black History Month (October 2026):

Loving God, 

You have created all things and by your will they have their being.

We rage at a system that teaches and treats black people as if they are not made in the image of God and created equal.

We seek redress for the years of torment and trauma of being othered.

We repent of a system that still demands black people justify their place in every space.

We pray for your liberating kingdom and kin-dom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

The light of the Lord has come, the glory of the Lord is rising.

Lord, shine and arise within us, as we rise, we rise.

Amen.

The Right Reverend Dr Rosemarie Mallett - Bishop of Croydon (Diocese of Southwark) in Rage & Hope: 75 Prayers for a Better World (Christian Aid), ed. Chine McDonald and Wendy Lloyd, SPCK Publishing, 2021

Durham Diocesan Prayer Cycle Deanery Intention for the Month:

October 2026: Darlington Deanery

A Prayer of St Oswald of Northumbria:

Let us all kneel, and together beseech the true and living God Almighty in his mercy to defend us from the proud and cruel enemy; for he knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation.

Amen. 

(Prayed by King Oswald of Northumbria and his army on the battlefield on the eve of the Battle of Heavenfield)