The Flying Scotsman steams through the Wiske Benefice
Benefice of the Wiske
Safeguarding
Diocese of Leeds
News and Updates
Trinity Sunday Service
We are exploring how to show our services on the webpage. This is our first attempt. The Video will not work till 9.00am on the 30th May.
Joint Churches Meeting
Due to Covid regulations the date for the Benefice meeting is 20th July at 7-9pm, at All Saints’, East Cowton. It is hoped that all PCC members will be able to attend, but also anyone from the wider church and community.
The 2 questions to look at are: -
What might worship look like in the autumn and beyond, both Sundays and midweek?
What is the best way to organise ourselves to enable the local churches to flourish and the Benefice to grow?
Look out for a short survey for people to fill in to help us in our thinking
No decisions will be made at the meeting, but proposals might go to individual PCC’s for decision making soon after.
David’s Induction
Monday 27th September 7.00pm All Saints, East Cowton with Bishop Helen-Ann.
Letter from our Clergy
July 2021
I'm taking great pleasure in looking across my front garden. A few weeks ago, we decided to leave it alone and to see what grows. From a plain green expanse, it is now full of flowers and grasses gently moving in the wind. Birds are playing, butterflies and dragonfly flitting around, and other helpful insects are appearing and all I had to do, was nothing!
Doing nothing is sometimes hard. We like to be in control, we like to manage and organise. I have to resist the temptation of fiddling, tidying and directing.
Part of its beauty is variety of flowers and grasses, insects, birds and animals in just a small area, which we would never have noticed. I wonder sometimes about church, is it like a neatly mown lawn, controlled, tidy, but lacking something of the variety and vitality that God intended, and perhaps vicars and church leaders like me, keep cutting the grass rather than letting the people of God flourish and flower as Father God intended.
I love the phrase in the Narnia Books, Aslan is not a “tame lion”. But a wild lion is unpredictable and just slightly worrying. It is the same with my wild patch. I know it’s good for the environment and its less work, but part of me worries about what is (and isn’t) there and I worry about what others might think.
I remembered this morning, when Jesus invited the crowd to consider the flowers of the field. “Who neither toil nor labour” but look so wonderful He was talking about trusting God for the things which are God’s responsibility, (and doing the things we should do)
Perhaps over the summer as part of our recreation we could take a little to time to stop, look and wonder.
Have a good summer
Blessings
David
A prayer for looking
Living God, open our eyes to the goodness of your creation.
Help us to care for it like a gardener
with times for planting, watering, harvesting and rest.
Help us to live in the rhythms of nature, treading lightly
and hearing your voice call softly in the evening
The Benefice of the Wiske is a group of 5 churches, located in the NE corner of the Diocese of Leeds. Our Benefice comprises several small villages and hamlets near the River Wiske which are largely rural in character, but are also commuter villages, as agriculture, though still important, no longer employs many people and most work in Northallerton, Darlington or Teesside. The population has a high percentage of retired people. There is a Church of England (VC) Primary School in East Cowton and primary schools in Great Smeaton, North Cowton and Appleton Wiske. A Youth Group meets every other Friday during term time at All Saints. The Benefice has a Priest in Charge, supported by retired priests and lay readers.
Church Information
St Peter - Birkby
Priest in Charge: Revd. David Bartlett
Lay Chair:
Secretary: Margaret Owens
Treasurer:
The Church is open several times a week.
Services twice a month. BCP
Contact Us
Revd. David Bartlett
Benefice of the Wiske
01609 765323