More than 500 bags of food and gifts were distributed to families across the Harrogate district after an annual Christmas appeal run by the Salvation Army in Ripon.
Each year the church and charity takes part in the nationwide Salvation Army appeal, which provides food and festive gifts anonymously to people recommended by agencies in the community.
Church leader Pat Clark said:
“This year, with the cost of living crisis, we faced a tsunami of need and we would like to say a big thank you on behalf of all the families supported by the appeal.”
Approximately 250 bags of gifts and 300 bags of food were provided, with each family member receiving a main present, chocolates and several small gifts. The food bags contained basic non-perishable foodstuffs and festive goods – mince pies, cake and puddings.
Ms Clark said:
“The huge effort was only made possible through the work of volunteer packers and sorters, donations from the public and other churches , schools and businesses.
“Planning for next Christmas is already underway, as arrangements have to be made to store cans and packets of food ready for the huge demand in December.”
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Details of warm spaces in Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon
The first blast of winter has left many Harrogate district people worried about the cost of staying warm.
We have therefore compiled information about warm spaces available in Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon. If you know of any others in these places or in Boroughbridge, Pateley Bridge and Masham let us know and we will add them. Email contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.
The information has been provided by community groups across the district.
Netmakers, formerly known as Harrogate Hub, is a movement of local churches working together to make a difference in the community.
Its website has details of the following places in Harrogate, Starbeck and Knaresborough offering, warm and welcoming safe places to go.
Information provided by Netmakers
Further details are available here on the Netmakers website.
The community benefit society Knaresborough Connectors has also devised details of warm spaces in Knaresborough. ]
Knaresborough Connectors’ list
More details of the locations, known as public living rooms, are available here.
Numerous public buildings in and around Ripon are throwing open their doors for free in Ripon each day, including Ripon Library and Allhallowgate Methodist Church.
Ripon Cathedral has compiled details here.
Wynn James, senior pastor of Life Destiny Church in Starbeck and trustee of Harrogate District Foodbank said:
“Our doors are open. We want our community to know that we are here to help. By working together across our area we hope to offer spaces in every corner of our community.
“I urge people to use the warm spaces and not to feel alone at this tough time.”
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- Grants up to £3,000 available to Harrogate district community groups
Links to all of the organisations providing warm spaces, along with details of voluntary organisations that are at the forefront of the campaign to help people who are struggling this winter, are available on the Harrogate & District Community Action website.
Frances Elliot, chief executive of HADCA, said:
“Please do check out where to turn in your area, through churches or through other community organisations and encourage anyone you come across who feels reluctant about speaking up to do so, this particularly hard winter”
Harrogate district churches win grants for repairs
Two churches in the Harrogate district have been awarded grants worth a total of more than £9,000 for repairs.
Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust gave grants totalling £78,000 to 19 churches for repairs, conservation and maintenance work in its latest funding round.
Successful Harrogate district applicants were St Mary’s in Great Ouseburn, which was awarded £6,000 for boundary wall repairs and St John’s in Minskip, near Boroughbridge, which received £3,300 to tackle damp.
Robert Beaumont, churchwarden at St John’s, said the grant “means the world to our little church”,
Mr Beaumont said damp threatened the structure of the church, and was also damaging the interior. He added:
“Specifically, faulty drains and a broken bell tower are causing peeling walls and discolouration inside, as well as a damp exterior.
“In addition, a couple of windows are broken and the floor is uneven in places. Whilst we are able to hold and enjoy our services, the structure of the church has been worrying us for some time.
“We have undertaken some serious fundraising which, together with this grant, will enable us to pay for the whole regeneration project. We have a very strong and committed church council and we have already raised £3,000 towards this specific project.
He added work carried out by local builder Tim Wilkinson will begin in January.
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- 150-year-old Harrogate church could be turned into house
Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust provides funds for churches, chapels and meeting houses of all Christian denominations within the county of Yorkshire.
Trust chairman Tom Ramsden said:
“Our latest grant awards support a wide variety of churches and projects.
“They range from helping to repair the roof of the Grade II listed St James in Slaithwaite built in 1796, through to helping make watertight Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic chapel in Headingley, built in the 1930s
“We are also delighted to support St John’s Church in Minskip, which is a lovely little church that serves its community so well. It is very rewarding to see at first hand the structural problems that will be tackled and solved, thanks in part to our grant.”
Full list of churches receiving grants
Great Ouseburn, St Mary, £6000 for boundary wall repairs
Minskip, St John, £3300 for bell tower repairs
Leeds, All Hallows, £10,000 for roof repairs
Leeds, Our Lady of Lourdes, £3000 for roof repairs
Leeds, Cathedral Church of St Anne, £3000 for stonework repairs
Leeds, Holy Rosary, £1500 for roof repairs
Clifford, St Edward King and Confessor, £3500 for roof repairs
Baildon, St James £2000, for tower repairs
Bierley, St John the Evangelist, £5000 for clock repairs
Skipwith, St Helen, £7000 for drainage works
Golcar, Providence Methodist, £3500 for window repairs
Slaithwaite, St James, £5000 for roof repairs
Ripponden, Stones Methodist, £5000 for roof repairs
Thornaby, St Peter, £1000 for stonework repairs
Gargrave, St Andrew £1358 for clock repairs
Golcar, St John the Evangelist, £5000 for internal decorations
Goole, St John £4500, for roof repairs
Harome, St Saviour, £3000 for bell turret repairs
Slingsby, All Saints, £4500 for window repairs
Harrogate district churches urge people to light up their windows for ChristmasHarrogate district churches are urging people to light their windows to spread a message of love and hope at Christmas.
Harrogate Hub, which represents churches across the town, started the initiative, called The Light Shines, last Christmas.
It encourages people to decorate one of their windows and display it during the dark Advent nights, and include the the words ’The Light Shines John 1:5′ somewhere in it.
The displays are plotted onto a Google map and shared online so people can see them as they walk around different neighbourhoods, such as Jennyfields, Oatlands and Bilton. There were also displays in Ripon and Spofforth last year.
The trails will be lit up from December 12 to 19 between 5pm and 8pm.
More than 140 homes took part in the initiative last year.
Anyone can get involved with #thelightshines by decorating a window or walking a trail. To register visit www.theharrogatehub.org/thelightshines.
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The Revd Alan Garrow, vicar of St Peter’s Church in Harrogate, said:
“In the past couple of years we have been reminded that many of the things we take for granted as permanent and normal are in fact temporary and provisional.
“The Light Shines is about focusing on something that doesn’t change: God calls us home.”
The project was developed by trustees of Harrogate Hub, who are mainly church leaders. They include; Alan Garrow, St Peter’s Church; Ben Askew, Kairos Network Church; Adam Price, Hope Church; Wynn James, Life Destiny Church; Ben Clowes, Nidd Valley Methodist Circuit; Nick Gee, Harrogate Vineyard Church and Michelle Hayes, Resurrected Bites.
Clergy reach out to Nidderdale Show flock through YouTube
Clergy are going virtual to make up for the loss of a service that traditionally takes place on the eve of the Nidderdale Show.
The agricultural show, which was due to take place in Pateley Bridge tomorrow, was cancelled in June for the second year running due to covid.
An open air ecumenical service has been held at the Bewerley Park showground for many years on the Sunday before the show.
This prompted Nidderdale vicars the Rev. Alastair Ferneley and the Rev. Darryl Hall, along with Methodist minister the Rev. Mike Poole and Jean Marshall, a member of the congregation at Providence United Reformed Church in Dacre, to produce their ‘No Show Service’.
Rev Ferneley, Vicar of Dacre with Hartwith and Darley with Thornthwaite, told the Stray Ferret:
“This Sunday is when we would have held the open air service but in the absence of the show for the second year running, a number of members of The Church in the Dale decided to produce a video.
“We hope that as many people as possible will watch it.”
The Rev. Alastair Ferneley plays guitar and sings in the video.
The video, recorded at St Michael and All Angels in Wilsill, opens with a view of the Nidderdale countryside and the sound of a guitar being played by the Rev. Poole, who is then joined by fellow guitarist the Rev. Fernley
Rev Hall, Vicar of St Cuthbert, Pateley Bridge, which covers six parishes, said:
“Though this year we again sadly have no Show due to the pandemic, the churches of Church in the Dale are still very much praying for our local
area and farming community.”
The 15-minute ‘No Show Service’ can be seen on Youtube here.
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Launched in 2007, The Church in the Dale is an alliance of churches of different denominations across Nidderdale.
It includes the Pateley Bridge Methodist Circuit, the Anglican parish of Upper Nidderdale, the Anglican parish of Dacre with Hartwith and Darley with Thornthwaite, Providence United Reformed Church, the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Immaculate, and Holy Family RC parish at RAF Menwith Hill.
Holy smoke at Ripon Cathedral lights the path out of darkness
A persistent breeze whipping its way around the western entrance of Ripon Cathedral on Saturday evening, could not extinguish the new light of hope being carried into this ancient place of worship.
The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt. Rev. Nick Baines (pictured right) in a ceremony designed for the whole of the diocese, marked the return of public prayer to churches. Only private prayer has recently been allowed in buildings which were shut for weeks because of the coronavirus crisis.
The Easter candle was lit from a brazier of burning twigs, before it was carried into the cathedral by Canon Michael Gisborne.
The Bishop, said:
“May the light of Christ, rising in glory, banish all darkness from our hearts and minds.”
The lockdown that forced the closure of churches and places of worship of all religions across the UK, meant that the Paschal candle could not be lit in the cathedral on Easter Sunday.
Its use in the ceremony added to the symbolism of the event, which was followed by a service attended by dozens of parishioners and guests – all of whom were asked to sanitise their hands, give name and contact details to assist the NHS Test and Trace programme and observe social distancing.
The cathedral opened for private prayer on June 15 and since then has seen a steady flow of people across its threshold, coming to pray, light candles and speak with its priests.
Ripon Cathedral now open for public prayer
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The Dean of Ripon, the Very Rev John Dobson, said:
“We are encouraged by the positive response to our opening for private prayer; notwithstanding all the necessary demands to ensure the public are kept as safe as possible, it is clearly the case that there is a significant need both amongst regular worshippers and the wider community to cross the thresholds of our churches and cathedrals both for private prayer and public worship.
“At Ripon Cathedral we are very keen to respond to the heightened awareness that many now have of God’s presence and activity in their lives.”
Some services and reflections will continue to be streamed on YouTube and these can all be accessed via the cathedral’s website.