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.
The latest editions of the weekly news-sheet and music notes are in the 'News' tab, and please ask if you'd like to join the mailing list. Here are links to bell ringing and
choir and concert info. We have a strong connection with
St Oswald's Primary and Nursery School, and with our neighbouring parishes within The Benefice of the Three Saints—
St Mary's (Shincliffe),
St Mary's (Coxhoe) and
St Helen's (Kelloe).
Monday, 15th June 2026 - Ordinary Time: Evelyn Underhill, Spiritual Writer, 1941 [Commemoration]; Refugee Week
God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament.
Evelyn Underhill
Repent or Perish
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’
Luke 13:1-5, New Revised Standard Version - Anglicized Edition
The Collect of the Day:
O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: send thy Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee; grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Common Worship
A Poem in Commemoration of Evelyn Underhill:
Prayer
When the soul yields to prayer
The gate made of jacinth
Swings, stands ajar.
Scents out of heavenly places
Storm the sad air
On the gale that blows in the unmeasured spaces
Which link star to star.
Eyes shut to the landscape here where we are
Open elsewhere
When the soul yields to prayer.
The soul deep in prayer
As a hyacinth
Stretcheth forth from its pillar of bloom
Feelers of fragrance unseen
To the edge of the room.
So, held still and serene,
Of its outpouring gift unaware,
With radiance redeeming the gloom,
With sweetness assaulting the air,
Is the soul deep in prayer.
In the triumph of prayer
Twofold is the spell.
With the folding of hands
There's a spreading of wings.
And the soul's lifted up to invisible lands
And ineffable peace. Yet it knows, being there,
That it's close to the heart of all pitiful things;
And it loses and finds, and it gives and demands;
For its life is divine, it must love, it must share
In the triumph of prayer.
In the anguish of prayer
It is well! it is well!
Then only the victory of love is complete,
When the soul on the cross
Dies to all save its loss.
When in utmost defeat
The light that was fair
And the friend who was sweet
Flee away, then the truth of its love is laid bare
In the anguish of prayer. Evelyn Underhill
A Prayer for Refugee Week 2026 (15th-21st June):
Oh God our refuge, be with all who flee war, violence, and oppression. Help us be brave enough to step out of our comfort zone and be with them too. Give us grace to stand alongside them without being swayed by a world backsliding into xenophobia, racism, hatred, hostility and fear.
Let us see our neighbours as neighbours. Allow us to see it as a great privilege if like the Samaritan, we have any opportunity to offer help, to bind up the wounds of violence and to provide a safe place for someone to stay and heal. Help us to love our exiled neighbours as ourselves.
Give us courage to stand against violence in all its forms, and alongside widows, orphans and strangers, even if all the governments of this world turn against them. Let us your Church be those who never turn our backs on them.
Amen.
Bradon Muilenberg - Anglican Refugee Support Lead based in Calais, Northern France
(The role of Anglican Refuge Support Lead was established from a joint partnership between the Diocese in Europe, the Diocese of Canterbury and the Anglican mission agency, USPG in a response to the growing numbers of migrants around the Channel ports in Northern France.)
A Prayer in Celebration of Diversity:
Almighty God, through your Holy Spirit you created unity in the midst of diversity;
We acknowledge that human diversity is an expression of your manifold love for your creation;
We confess that in our brokenness as human beings we turn diversity into a source of alienation, injustice, oppression, and wounding.
Empower us to recognize and celebrate differences as your great gift to the human family.
Enable us to be the architects of understanding, of respect and love;
Through the Lord, the ground of all unity, we pray.
Amen.
Author Unknown
Durham Diocesan Prayer Cycle Deanery Intention for the Month:
June 2026 - Jarrow Deanery
A Prayer of St Oswald of Northumbria:
Let us kneel together, and pray the true, the ever living and almighty God to protect us in his mercy from the arrogant savagery of our enemies, for he knows that we fight in a just cause for the preservation of our nation.
Amen.
(Prayed by King Oswald with his Army on the Battlefield on the Eve of the Battle of Heavenfield, AD634)
Saints of the North
St Oswald's, Durham Charity No. 1196296
