The Priory Church, St. Bees

The Priory had a service of mixed emotions yesterday.  On the one hand we witnessed Jim’s ordination to the diaconate.  This service is part of a long process of prayer, consideration, meetings, and theological education.  Jim began to get involved as a Reader following his participation in an Alpha course, and one thing has led to another.  The parish has been unflinching in its support for Jim through this process.  It was a wonderful service of worship and celebration.  The Bishop of Penrith (James Newcome, pictured in the background of the photo below) presided over the service.  The archdeacon of Westmorland and Furness (George Howe) preached.  The church was full and a sense of joy was palpable as people sang and participated in the service.  The ‘mixed emotions’ come into it because now that Jim is ordained he is leaving the Priory to begin ministry in a neighbouring parish.  He’ll be missed.  We pray God’s blessing on Jim and Sheila as they begin life in ordained ministry.  We pray that as Jim seeks to be faithful to his calling God will draw him closer in relationship and dependance upon the Holy Spirit.

Jim Marshall

Hail the new ‘clergy spouse’ Sheila.

Jim being presented with a present by one of the church wardens, Rosalie.  The vicar

Lars is providing background music by quietly singing into the microphone… 

Not to be put-off by what has become a terrible British summer, members of our parish went and played in the mud on the latest parish walk.  Clearly  you can see that they are enjoying themselves nonetheless…

Sorry.  Now you clearly can see they are enjoying themselves…

St. Bees Parochial Church Council 

Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 1^st September 2008 at 7.30pm in New College Hall.

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Please click on the images to get a larger look at our upcoming schedule of services, midweek events, and study groups.

programme – september-to-november-08-2

programme – september-to-november-08-1 

Please click on the link to view the poster for this course.

lives-of-great-christians

I wasn’t brought up Anglican. I became a Christian in my last year of secondary school and attended a pentecostal church until my early to mid twenties. I joined the Anglican Church mid-way through my graduate studies in philosophy. When people hear this one of their first remarks is how strange a transition it is to move to a church that has liturgy (prayers printed out in a book) from a non-liturgical church. They are often baffled when I express my love not merely for liturgy, but for the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer (it is one of the most biblically faithful, theologically thoughtful, and poetically beautiful books in the English language). Read the rest of this entry »

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’.