September 2021 ————-BENEFICE NEWS————- September 2021
For enquiries please contact Revd Dr Robert Brown
Priest-in-Charge, Bewcastle, Stapleton and Kirklinton with Hethersgill
A: Greenholme, Bewcastle, Cumbria, CA6 6PW
T: 016977 48438 email: Robert.Brown@BewcastleHouseOfPrayer.org.uk
From the Registers
Weddings 23rd July 2021, Grace Story and Jake Woodhouse at St Cuthbert’s, Kirklinton
Burial of Ashes 30th July 2021, Annie Kennedy at St Cuthbert’s, Bewcastle
Services for September:
Sunday 5th September 6pm Holy Communion, St Cuthbert’s Bewcastle
Sunday 12th September 10am Holy Baptism, St Cuthbert’s Kirklinton
Sunday 19th September 10am Harvest Thanksgiving, St Mary’s Stapleton
Sunday 26th September10am Holy Communion, St Mary’s Hethersgill
Sunday 3rd October 10am Holy Baptism and Harvest Thanksgiving, St Cuthbert’s Bewcastle
We are now singing again in all our services – why not come and join in!
Our churches continue to remain open for private prayer (except Hethersgill).
Funerals, Weddings and Baptisms: Life event services (Occasional Offices) may now take place with unrestricted numbers but still with advisory distancing. This means we are still asking that numbers invited to services respect social distancing capacities. If attending an event at church where a large number of people are likely to be present, please be aware of others, and try to keep to a minimum of 1m distant from others, if possible. Masks may be worn but are not compulsory.
Monday 20th September 7pm Nether House, Hethersgill Kirklinton and Hethersgill PCC
Tuesday 28th September 7 pm for 7.30 Admission of Church Wardens at St Cuthbert’s Kirklinton
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Saturday 4th September 7.30 pm Stapleton Public Hall Dance with Denis Westmorland.
Friday 17th September 7 pm Stapleton PCC Harvest Supper and Fair at Stapleton Public Hall. Shepherd’s Pie and pudding, tea & coffee. Bar available Tickets £10 (under 12s free) in advance from 016977 48337/48833 Please bring plate, cutlery, mug. Bring & Buy table for produce and homemade preserves. All welcome.
Saturday 2nd October 7 pm Bewcastle Harvest Supper to be held in Roadhead Village Hall on
Tickets £12.50 with under 10’s free. Please bring own crockery and cutlery. There will be a limited bar and some entertainment. All welcome.
Saturday 27th November 2 pm Stapleton PCC Christmas Fair at Stapleton Public Hall
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Knowe United Reformed Church, Bewcastle
Services first Sunday in month 2.15pm Harvest Festival 19th September 2.15pm
From all at the Knowe Church thank you for the support at the bazaar. It was much appreciated.
Kirklinton Church yard up keep .We would all like to appreciate and enjoy seeing this community space kept tidy, however the only way regular up keep is possible is through voluntary help from the whole community! Volunteers would be very welcome for strimming, mowing grass etc. Please contact Margaret on 01228675652 or Sandra 01228675510
Bewcastle Scouts Contact. Simon Barrett 01228 497970 or David Harding 07935172942 bewcastlescouts@gmail.com
Newsletters can be picked up from: Kirklinton Church porch, Hethersgill Church porch, Stapleton Church, Bewcastle Church, Stapleton Public Hall Porch, Smithfield Garage office, Garry Phillip’s Garage. Or downloaded : www.Bewcastle.com/news-events, www.BewcastleHouseOfPrayer.org.uk/parish-notices
Deadline for the October 2021 issue is 1pm on Saturday 18th September to Tricia Coombe, Damhead, Lyneholmeford, Roweltown, CA6 6LQ. 016977 48833 or triciacoombe@damhead.me
September 2021———-BENEFICE NEWS———–September 2021
70 years ago our family was driving to Aberdovey in Wales for our annual summer holiday. We were in a big black Wolseley car borrowed from our Granny because we had so much luggage. Shortly before we arrived (and my two sisters and I had asked for the umpteenth time “Are we nearly there?”) there was a sudden loud bang. “Gracious!” said Mum “whatever was that? Sounds as if we have a pheasant under the bonnet” “Not good news” said Dad. “We are going to need help. I’ll pull into that cafe over there and ring the AA.”
An hour later help arrived in the form of a smiling AA patrolman called Eric, astride his motor bike and sidecar decked out in the familiar yellow and black colours. He solved the problem and off we went…………
We are going to need help…… yes we are. Let me explain – the architect responsible for keeping Bewcastle church in good nick has just given us some alarming news. Recent adverse weather has taken its toll, so the roof and guttering are in urgent need of repair. The hard reality is that we need to find some £30,000 to put things right. And no smiley AA patrolman to help!
Such news is not just devastating. It’s divisive. Certainly there will be those who say “Well good luck! But God is not my thing. That’s Life.” I understand and respect that. I also understand those who say that such sums are beyond a tiny community like ours.
But this is Bewcastle, where certainly for at least 1,200 years’ faith and community have overlapped and entwined, as our unique Bewcastle Cross and our treasured little museum remind us. For all those years the six acres at the heart of our community with our Roman camp and castle have had a church at their heart, central to peoples’ lives. Within its walls generations have met to mark great occasions of family, community or national life – a wedding, a birth, a funeral, or special festivals like Christmas, Easter, Harvest and Remembrance, a coronation, the outbreak or cessation of war. Our loved ones are laid to rest here in the churchyard. Within it, Sunday by Sunday worship has taken place.
Here (because it is so special a spiritual home) people have come – pilgrims, passers-by, the curious, those carrying heavy burdens, because they sense that here is a holy place; peace and hope are to be found. Take a look at the Visitors’ book and you’ll see what I mean.
It’s a heritage which has been entrusted to us, which we in our turn not only treasure but want to pass on to those coming after us. That’s why I believe we should rise to this challenge, whatever our beliefs – “All hands to the pump.”
But as my old dad said on that fateful journey, “We are going to need help.” A small group of people have been given the task of finding the necessary funds. There are plans to contact those in “high places” (MPs, eminent historians, archaeologists and the like), whose love for and interest in Bewcastle is nearly as deep as ours. All sorts of ideas are in the mix -sponsored walks with celebrities, lectures, concerts, hound trails, coffee mornings, supper parties. In this way we spread the load, grateful to so many well wishers in and beyond our beloved Bewcastle.
One of the most imaginative ideas (which confidently I suspect will interest the media) is to ask each of the local farmers to “bring a lamb” as in the well known Christmas carol – “If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb”.
Intriguing! The purpose of this letter is to put you in the picture and to ask for your help. We really would be so grateful. Let me end with another picture, this time of a war memorial in France where round its base are written the Words “They thought it was impossible SO THEY DID IT.”
In many ways I think that that same spirit is true here in Bewcastle. Perhaps it’s just one reason why I love it so Bishop John
“If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb.”
There must be tens of thousands of lambs in Bewcastle! This year’s lamb sales have started. Prices are good this year. If every farm who sells lambs from now till Christmas donated just the price of one lamb to Bishop John’s idea the Bewcastle church repairs would be well funded. So far every farmer I’ve approached to sound out the idea has volunteered at least one lamb. It’s easy to gift the price of a lamb. You can make an online payment into the church account with the Cumberland Building Society, Brampton, account number 52418901, sort code 16-52-21 quoting reference I will bring a lamb or you can go to the JustGiving.com page called Bewcastle Church.
A list of everyone who donates will be posted on the Bewcastle.com website and on the Bit o’ Crack Facebook page as acknowledgement of our thanks and gratitude.