washburnmidwharfe

The Washburn and Mid-Wharfe Benefice is currently in a vacancy. The regular weekly bulletins will cease while a new Rector is sought.Read More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia! From the stillness and gloom of the tomb we burst forth into songs of praise as we celebrate the day of Resurrection. Easter Day is simply the greatest day of all creation. That is hard to comprehend but everything hinges on this day. Christ has risen from the dead so death itself is destroyed. We are saved, set free, made new. So let’s celebrate our freedom from sin and death, not just with chocolate or the odd glass of fizz but with acts of love and kindness, with smiling faces and withRead More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters As a friend of mine said recently, ‘I have given up enough this past year, I am not giving anything else up for Lent.’ I think we can all sympathise with this point of view. Our lives have been curtailed in so many ways that the thought of cutting something else out of our lives, even on a voluntary basis, seems hard to take. But Lent, which starts on Wednesday, isn’t about fasting and giving stuff up (well it is a bit) it is really about preparing for Easter. That is the key thing. We spent last Easter in lockdown, ThisRead More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters As a young man Tom Moore fought in one of the most difficult campaigns of the Second World War. He came home and got on with his life, raising a family along the way. In what was to be the last year of his long life he set out to raise a modest amount for charity; his plan was to raise £1000 for the NHS. But he was taken to the nation’s heart and his daily walk round his garden raised almost £40 million. But more than that he raised the morale of our Nation as we all struggled in lockdown.Read More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters Some memories are not dimmed by the passage of time. Many decades ago, I stood in the Memorial to the Children, in Yad Vashem; the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, and wept. The Memorial remembers the one and a half million children who were killed during the Holocaust. That figure is just too much to take in isn’t it? To understand the loss a little better think about just one child, perhaps Uziel Speigel, who was killed in Auschwitz when he was two and a half years old. His parents survived the war, and they funded the building of the Memorial. TheRead More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters One of the many things that I love about praying using the Daily Office; the prayers of Morning and Evening Prayer that Church of England clergy say each day, is that it is such a good way for God to keep an eye on me. If I am feeling a bit down the psalms to be prayed are invariably happy ones. If I’m feeling a bit smug or self-congratulatory then the psalms will be ones to take me down a peg or two.  Often morning and evening prayer show me God’s sense of humour. On Wednesday evening as the rain fromRead More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters I’ve discovered that turning 60 brings with it a slew of cards saying ’60 is the new 40’ and things like that. My counter to this sentiment is that 9.30pm. is the new midnight! I’ve been a night owl all of my life, but these past few months have seen me struggling to stay awake to listen to the 10 o’clock news. This current lockdown is so very different from the first one last Spring. The shorter days and poorer weather may make it easier to stay at home, but I can’t be the only one of us who feels aRead More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters When I was a wee boy in Scotland it was traditional to wish a Guid New Year to everyone on first meeting them after Hogmanay. This was fine with those that one met regularly. A New Year’s greeting in the first few days of January was fine. But we were supposed to give the greeting to all so as the days and weeks and sometimes months went by it became increasingly ridiculous. My personal record for being wished a Happy New Year by a friend was just before Easter one year. That said it is a good New Year full ofRead More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters A very Happy New Year to you all. As we begin this year of Grace 2021 we do so in the company of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Whatever this year brings to us we will meet it in his presence, we will meet it under his protection, we will meet it with Faith and Hope and above all with Love. With the Love that God has for each of us, with the Love that we are called on to share with each other. The Old Year has gone, the New Year lies ahead of us. Today is the dayRead More →

Dear Brothers and Sisters The ‘big day’ is almost upon us. Some of us will be able to meet up for worship, some will be worshipping at home. Many of us will be spending the day alone or with very few of our family and friends around us. Let’s hold each other in our hearts and prayers over the next few days. 10 years ago I was in Afghanistan. Many of the young men and women I served with then are back in Kabul just now and will be working far from their homes and families this Christmas. Spare a prayer for them and theirRead More →