A warm welcome to St. Cuthbert’s Church. We would love to see you at any of our services and events. We hope you find the information you are looking for here, but if there’s anything we’ve missed, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our churchwardens.

St. Cuthbert’s Church was built under the patronage of the Bishop of Durham (William Van Mildert), and opened on May 20th, 1832. Revd. George Watson became the first Rector. (We have lots of information available about the church if you are interested in its history, so please contact the churchwardens for more details).

Currently, Revd. Claire Gibbs is our Priest-in-Charge, having responsibility for the Escomb Group of Churches (The Saxon church in Escomb, St. Cuthbert’s in Etherley, St. James’ in Hamsterley and St. Philip and St. James’ in Witton-le-Wear). We have some group services, and work closely together, but each church has its own special features and events. Visit us all! We also have links with Etherley Methodist Church and come together for the Good Friday Walk of Witness, Harvest and Remembrance Sunday.

Please see our What’s On page for more details of monthly events. There is a Holy Communion service every Sunday (except 5th Sundays) at 9.15 a.m. We use our audiovisual system to display the Order of Service and to play hymns with lyrics on screen and show videos when appropriate.

We have a Messy Church on the second Tuesday of each month (open to anyone of primary school age accompanied by an adult) which comprises themed craft activities, a short worship session and then a shared meal. This is free, but we welcome any donations. It begins after school (around 3.35 p.m) and runs until about 5.00 p.m.

We hold a Coffee Morning on the first Saturday of every month. This is a great opportunity to enjoy a hot drink and some delicious cake. Try your luck on our raffle, and, if you knit or crochet, bring it along with you and create as you chatter. Don’t worry if you don’t, quite a few of us are unskilled in crafts and just go for the cake and company!

The churchyard contains Commonwealth War Graves, and the village War Memorial. We are developing a wild area to encourage biodiversity . The churchyard is large and contains many plants, animals, fungi and lichens to capture your interest as you walk around. Please let us know what you discover, as we keep a log of our species, and upload them to a national database.