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, 11th June 2026 - Ordinary Time: The Feast of St Barnabas the Apostle

Alleluia, alleluia.

I do not call you servants but friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

John 15:15

Alleluia. 

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 15:12-17, New Revised Standard Version - Anglicized Edition

The Collect of the Day:

O God, the giver of all good gifts, who didst pour out thy Spirit upon thy servant Barnabas and gavest him grace to strengthen others: grant us, by his example, to be generous in our judgements and faithful in our service; 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

A Poem for the Feast of St Barnabas:

St Barnabas

The world's a room of sickness, where each heart
Knows its own anguish and unrest;
The truest wisdom there, and noblest art,
Is his, who skills of comfort best;
Whom by the softest step and gentlest tone
Enfeebled spirits own,
And love to raise the languid eye,
When, like an angel's wing, they feel him fleeting by:-

FEEL only--for in silence gently gliding
Fain would he shun both ear and sight,
'Twixt Prayer and watchful Love his heart dividing,
A nursing-father day and night.
Such were the tender arms, where cradled lay,
In her sweet natal day,
The Church of JESUS; such the love
He to His chosen taught for His dear widowed Dove.

Warmed underneath the Comforter's safe wing
They spread th' endearing warmth around:
Mourners, speed here your broken hearts to bring,
Here healing dews and balms abound:
Here are soft hands that cannot bless in vain,
By trial taught your pain:
Here loving hearts, that daily know
The heavenly consolations they on you bestow.

Sweet thoughts are theirs, that breathe serenest calms,
Of holy offerings timely paid,
Of fire from heaven to bless their votive alms
And passions on GOD'S altar laid.
The world to them is closed, and now they shine
With rays of love divine,
Through darkest nooks of this dull earth
Pouring, in showery times, their glow of "quiet mirth."

New hearts before their Saviour's feet to lay,
This is their first, their dearest joy:
Their next from heart to heart to clear the way
For mutual love without alloy:
Never so blest as when in JESUS' roll
They write some hero-soul,
More pleased upon his brightening road
To wait, than if their own with all his radiance glowed.

O happy spirits, marked by God and man
Their messages of love to bear,
What though long since in Heaven your brows began,
The genial amarant wreath to wear,
And in th' eternal leisure of calm love
Ye banquet there above;
Yet in your sympathetic heart
We and our earthly griefs may ask and hope a part.

Comfort's true sons! amid the thoughts of down
That strew your pillow of repose,
Sure 'tis one joy to muse, how ye unknown
By sweet remembrance soothe our woes;
And how the spark ye lit, of heavenly cheer,
Lives in our embers here,
Where'er the cross is borne with smiles,
Or lightened secretly by Love's endearing wiles:

Where'er one Levite in the temple keeps
The watch-fire of his midnight prayer,
Or issuing thence, the eyes of mourners steeps
In heavenly balm, fresh gathered there;
Thus saints, that seem to die in earth's rude strife,
Only win double life:
They have but left our weary ways
To live in memory here, in Heaven by love and praise.

John Keble

A Collect for the Right Reverend Rick Simpson who was Installed as Bishop of Durham on Sunday, 7th June 2026 at Durham Cathedral:

Almighty God, the light of the faithful and shepherd of souls, who didst call thy servant Rick to be a bishop in the Church, to feed thy sheep by the word of Christ and to guide them by his godly example: give us grace to abide by the faith of the Church and to follow in the footsteps of 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 

A Prayer for all who are Affected by the Outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda:

Heavenly Father,

You are our healer. You restore the sick and comfort people in their suffering.

We bring before you the Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo and Uganda. Please be with the local authorities and the World Health Organisation as they seek to respond rapidly and effectively. Give them wisdom as they make decisions, provide them with the resources needed for treatment, and help them contain the spread. Protect health workers from the virus and keep them healthy.

For those who are sick, we ask that you would heal them. Give them access to treatment and skilled medical staff. Comfort them in their pain. For those who are suffering the loss of a loved one, be with them in their grief. Make your love known and provide for their daily needs.

We also pray for the church in the regions of DR Congo and Uganda affected by this outbreak. Please give your people opportunities to share Christ’s love as they help the sick and comfort those who are living in fear of being infected.

Lastly, we ask for peace and stability in the region. End political conflict and put people in power that will govern wisely.

Lord God, we ask all this knowing that you can do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine.

In Jesus’ name we pray, 

Amen.

The National Council of Churches in Australia (Adapted from Anglican Aid)

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