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.

Thursday, 18th June 2026 - Ordinary Time: Bernard Mizeki, Apostle of the MaShona, Martyr, 1896 [Commemoration]; Refugee Week

Jesus Heals the Man with Dropsy

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?’ But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?’ And they could not reply to this.

Luke 14:1-6, 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 Prayer for the Commemoration of Bernard Mizeki:

Lord of all nations
by the conversion of Bernard Mizeki
You raised up from the people of Africa
a missionary faithful even unto death:
Fill us your people with love
in the face of hatred and fear
and make us ready to live or die
for the name of Jesus;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
One God, now and for ever. 

Amen.

The Prayer of the St Bernard Mizeki Men's Guild (An Official Lay Organization within the Anglican Church of Southern Africa)

A Prayer for Refugee Week, 15th-21st June 2026:

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. The theme for this year's Refugee Week is courage.)

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