Church News for Sunday 17 January 2021

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Sunday 17^th January  Epiphany 2

09:00 Prayer & PraiseSr Dora
10:00 Holy Communion(Plough Sunday) Special Plough Sunday Booklet
16:00 BCP EvensongSr Dora

Sunday 24^th January Epiphany 3

09:00 Holy Communion
10:00 BCP Morning Prayer
16:00 Simply Together in the Afternoon – Zoom

From Rev’d Chris

Well – the new year is here and halfway through January it almost feels like a reboot of 2020.  With another national lockdown, Church buildings empty and congregations meeting online and in our case on the Phone, and most of all uncertainty as to when this may all end! 
However, I would like to start looking forward to ways that we might celebrate our faith and our beautiful setting here in Lower Wensleydale.  For the last few years, we have marked both the agricultural and Church calendar with special services and I propose that even though we are dispersed we will go back to marking them again this year.  And so we start with a double celebration this Sunday as we mark Plough Sunday and the Birthday of Sr Dora.

We will be remembering Sr Dora at both the 09:00 and 16:00 PhoneChurch services  Dorothy Pattison (Sister Dora) who was born in Hauxwell as her father was the vicar of St Oswald’s for around 40 years in the mid-Victorian era.  She became a significant pioneer of the modern nursing profession specialising in traumatic industrial injuries. 

Plough Sunday is a traditional English celebration of the beginning of the agricultural year that has seen some revival over recent years. Plough Sunday celebrations usually involve bringing a ploughshare into a church with prayers for the blessing of the land. It is traditionally held on the Sunday after Epiphany, the Sunday between 7^th January and 14^th January.  Accordingly, work in the fields did not begin until the day after Plough Sunday: Plough Monday. Although the nature of farming has changed over the centuries, Plough Sunday is seen as a way of generally celebrating farming and the work of farmers.

With an early Easter this year Lent is just a month away and we are working hard to prepare material to help you keep Lent in lockdown – more news in the next edition, until then stay safe and may God speed the plough.