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.

Saturday, 16th May 2026 - Ascensiontide: Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877 [Commemoration]; The Last Day of Christian Aid Week

Alleluia, alleluia.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Alleluia.

Gospel Acclamation, Ascension to Pentecost - Common Worship 

When the men had come to him, they said, ‘John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” ’ Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’

Luke 7:20-23, New Revised Standard Version - Anglicized Edition 

The Collect of the Day:

O God the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: we beseech thee, leave us not comfortless, but send to us thine Holy Spirit to comfort us and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

Common Worship

A Prayer for Ascensiontide:

We praise you and we bless you, our risen Lord Jesus, King of glory, for in your ascension you are crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. As we worship you on your heavenly throne, prepare our hearts for the coming of your Spirit. To you, Lord Jesus, who will come back in the same way you went up into heaven, be honour and glory, now and for ever.

Amen.

Seventeenth Station (XVII), The Ascension - Stations of the Resurrection (The Way of Light, Via Lucis), Common Worship 

A Prayer for a World free from Poverty:

God of justice, we pray for a world free from poverty,
where all people can live with dignity, hope and enough to thrive.

Be close to those facing hardship today.
Bring strength where there is struggle
and hope where there is uncertainty.

Open our eyes to injustice,
our hearts to compassion,
and our lives to action.

May we stand together in love
until poverty is no more.

Amen.

Christian Aid 

A Poem for the Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm:

Caroline Chisholm

THE PRIESTS and the Levites went forth, to feast at the courts of the Kings;
They were vain of their greatness and worth, and gladdened with glittering things;
They were fair in the favour of gold, and they walked on, with delicate feet,
Where, famished and faint with the cold, the women fell down in the street.

The Priests and the Levites looked round, all vexed and perplexed at the cries
Of the maiden who crouched to the ground with the madness of want in her eyes;
And they muttered—“Few praises are earned when good hath been wrought in the dark;
While the backs of the people are turned, we choose not to loiter nor hark.”

Moreover they said—“It is fair that our deeds in the daylight should shine:
If we feasted you, who would declare that we gave you our honey and wine.”
They gathered up garments of gold, and they stepped with their delicate feet,
And the women who famished with cold, were left with the snow in the street.

The winds and the rains were abroad—the homeless looked vainly for alms;
And they prayed in the dark to the Lord, with agony clenched in their palms,
“There is none of us left that is whole,” they cried, through their faltering breath,
“We are clothed with a sickness of soul, and the shape of the shadow of death.”

He heard them, and turned to the earth!—“I am pained,” said the Lord, “at the woe
Of my children so smitten with dearth; but the night of their trouble shall go.”
He called on His Chosen to come: she listened, and hastened to rise;
And He charged her to build them a home, where the tears should be dried from their eyes.

God’s servant came forth from the South: she told of a plentiful land;
And wisdom was set in her mouth, and strength in the thews of her hand.
She lifted them out of their fear, and they thought her their Moses and said:
“We shall follow you, sister, from here to the country of sunshine and bread.”

She fed them, and led them away, through tempest and tropical heat,
Till they reached the far regions of day, and sweet-scented spaces of wheat.
She hath made them a home with her hand, and they bloom like the summery vines;
For they eat of the fat of the land, and drink of its glittering wines.

Henry Kendall

Durham Diocesan Prayer Cycle Deanery Intention for the Month:

May 2026 - Gateshead and Gateshead West Deaneries

The Prayer of St Oswald of Northumbria:

Let us together implore the living and true and almighty God in his mercy to defend us against the pride and fierceness of our enemy; for that God knows our cause is just, and that we fight for the salvation of our nation.

Amen. 

Prayed by King Oswald with his Army on the Battlefield on the Eve of the Battle of Heavenfield, AD634