The Priory Church, St. Bees

Today we wished Tim all the best as he prepares for his ordination and curacy in the neighbouring parish of Egremont.  Tim has been at the heart of ministry in St. Bees for many years and so he will be missed. Helen, thankfully, is going to continue to support the Priory as often as she is able in the years to come. We pray God’s blessing upon them as they prepare for this new chapter in their lives.

Here are some photos following our 8am Christmas Day candlelight communion service.  We hope you have a blessed Christmas and a joyful new year.

This year saw us explore a new way of celebrating harvest.  We had a very child oriented service (thanks to all the children’s workers and children’s talk people for coordinating this).  Afterward we all had a picnic lunch along with activities for the children.  Below is a photo from the day.  Click the link to see more.

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Bega to Bega Pilgrimage: July 8 – July 10, 2009

Five members of the Priory Church, St. Bees, undertook a pilgrimage from The Priory Church of St. Mary and St. Bega to St. Bega’s Church, Bassenthwaite.  Information regarding the route of the walk can be found here. Chris Robson (one of our Readers) has developed draft pilgrimage notes to help make the 3 day walk intentionally prayerful and reflective.

Day 1

“Gracious God, you are the journey

and the journey’s end.  Open our eyes to your presence, open our minds to your peace,

open our lives to your power.  Guide on this pilgrimage, and on our pilgrimage through life,

that we may walk in the way of peace and find our freedom in your service as we follow Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

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This year Bishop James Newcombe came and presided over a wonderful confirmation service.  Four of the six candidates were from the Priory (three of them also attend St. Bees School).  Pictured with James are Daniel, Jamie, Rowan, Lucy, John and Tracey.  Let us pray God’s blessing upon them as they begin this new chapter of their life with Christ.

Tim Taylor planned and led a special service with an emphasis on youth last Sunday.  We had a local youth worship band join us at our 10:30 service.  They played very well and were well received, leading in worship and singing some songs for the congregation.  Thanks to Tim and to Waymark for coming along.  We’re going to have them back again.  You can visit their web site by clicking on this sentence.  

A photo of the sun shining through the west windows and the chancel screen on a crisp sunny autumn evening.  Please click on the thumbnail for to enlarge the photo.

It’s called  ’back to school’.  We kick off our autumn programme with a service of Holy Communion with prayers for healing this coming Sunday.  Lars and Claire had a great time on the west coast of Canada visiting family and friends, and have come back refreshed.  There are some exciting things planned for this autumn: we have a course on the Lives of Great Christians, A Life Worth Living (a follow up to the Alpha Course), and the continuation of the Amazing Collection (which runs at the Methodist Church).  Above are the links to our programme card if you wish to see what is coming up or what services are happening when.  Here are a couple of photos taken Monday afternoon (to prove that the sun does actually shine around here, just not during August).  

 ’Fight the good fight’.

Here are a couple of photos from our midnight holy Communion service (click on each photo for a larger version). We did something a bit different this year. We read the Christmas Gospel (John 1.1-14) from the middle of the church by candlelight. David (our new assistant priest–more on this to follow when we get a photo of him) read the Gospel while Jim and Tim helped with lighting. Lars held the lectern Bible. Overall the Christmas services have gone very well this year so far. They were well attended and everyone enjoyed themselves (and nobody accidentally set themselves on fire).