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.

Upcoming Services: 

Wednesday, 28th October 2026 - Said Holy Communion (BCP) at 10:00am 

Sunday, 1st November 2026 - Sung Parish Eucharist (Common Worship) on the Feast of All Saints at 11:00am, and Choral Evensong (BCP) for the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed on the Eve of the Feast of All Souls at 6:00pm

All are very welcome.

***Please note that we are currently experiencing an issue with our heating system in church, so please wrap up warmly when visiting us. Hot water bottles are currently available for use by those attending any of our services, or if you'd like to bring your own, we can fill them for you. We apologize for any inconvenience that this issue may cause.***

Monday, 26th October 2026 - Ordinary Time: Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899 [Lesser Festival]; St Cedd, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664 [Commemoration]

The Collect of the Day:

Amen.

Common Worship 

The Gospel Reading:

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’

Nehemiah , New Revised Standard Version - Anglicized Edition 

A Sonnet for Bible Sunday:

The Lectern 

Some rise on eagles’ wings, this one is plain,
Plain English workmanship in solid oak.
Age gracefully it says, go with the grain.
You walk towards an always open book,
Open as every life to every light,
Open to shade and shadow, day and night,
The changeless witness of your changing pain.
Be still the Lectern says, stand here and read.
Here are your mysteries, your love and fear,
And, running through them all, the slender thread
Of God’s strange grace, red as these ribbons, red
As your own blood when reading reads you here
And pierces joint and marrow… So you stand,
The lectern still beneath your trembling hand.

Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year, Canterbury Press Norwich, 2012

The Post Communion:

Most gracious God, whose Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom: renew thy people with thy heavenly grace and in all our weakness sustain us by thy true and living bread; who liveth and reigneth, now and for ever.

Amen.

Common Worship 

A Collect following the Announcement of His Majesty the King's Approval of the Nomination of the Reverend Dr Jitesh Krisnakant Patel, MA, MPhys, PhD, to the Suffragan See of Jarrow, in our Diocese (on Friday, 23rd October 2026):

Almighty God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst give to thy holy Apostles many excellent gifts, and didst charge them to feed thy flock: Give grace, we beseech thee, to all Bishops, the Pastors of thy Church, that they may diligently preach thy Word, and duly administer the godly discipline thereof; and grant to the people, that they may obediently follow the same; that all may receive the crown of everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Collect for the Form of Ordaining or Consecrating of an Archbishop or Bishop, The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

We congratulate Jitesh, and keep he and his family in our prayers at this time.

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), 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)