Holy Trinity Church

25th December. Communion by Extension for Christmas Day.

If you will be coming on Christmas Day please contact PCC Secretary, Teresa Onions on (01539) 735 373.

This year, as you will appreciate, we have to follow Government guidance in our churches to keep everyone safe. This means we are unable to sing carols indoors although we can listen to them, that you kindly wear a mask and that numbers will be limited.

In order to help us manage the difficult balance of warm welcome with the necessary restrictions, if you know you will be coming or if you have any queries please do contact the PCC Secretary.

The Church Council met up with us last week (in a socially distanced way of course), and on your behalf presented us with the most lovely wooden bowl, hand-crafted from local oak by George Brown, together with a very generous cheque. We were very moved and thank each one of you for your contribution. The bowl will be a lasting reminder of our many happy years in Langdale, and the many people there whom we’ve been blessed to get to know.

The good thing about retiring to Ambleside is that these friendships will not be severed by distance!

Many thanks again from us both.

With our love and prayers
George and Rosemary

We have said our farewells to the local church at a final, very moving, socially distanced, (but physical!) Service in Holy Trinity, and also to the wider valley community through the pages of The Langdalian; but Langdale Church has a far wider reach than that. As a much-loved previous Vicar, Graham Hartley, used to say: “When you’re vicar of this parish you don’t just minister to those resident in the valley, but to half the world!” And indeed visitors have come to worship with us from all corners of the UK, Europe, America and Australia… in several cases on quite a regular basis. So may I take this opportunity to say goodbye to all you far-flung members of the congregation, and to thank you for blessing us over the years with your company in worship, your fellowship in praise and prayer, your giving and, in many cases over the past twelve years, your friendship? You have played a key role in sustaining the viability of Langdale church when so many rural churches have been forced to close. Thank you all so much.

We shall not be replaced like for like; but the Ambleside Rector, Rev’d Beverley Lock, aided by her able Ministry team, will have oversight and responsibility for the parish in the future. You could not be in safer hands; she is determined to continue and build on existing good practice both in the 10.30 am traditional church congregation, and also with the Fresh Expression of church of families who have been meeting monthly at Little Langdale. Obviously, this comes at a time when churches throughout the world are reviewing the advisability of opening up churches in as near as possible pre-Covid way. We all need to be open to new possibilities at this time, but I’m sure God will bring something good out of the apparent confusion.

Do keep in touch if you’d like to – our email remains the same: georgewrig@hotmail.com. We’ve only moved just down the road into Ambleside.

May God bless you richly as you journey on with our wonderful Saviour!

George & Rosemary Wrigley

26^th February            Ash Wednesday. We join brothers and sisters in St Mary’s Ambleside for a service to mark the beginning of this season.  There will be Communion and the imposition of ashes

1^st   March                 First Sunday in Lent. Luke 4: 1 – 13.  The temptations in the wilderness. 

How typical are they of our temptations?  Is there such a being as the Devil or is this just a shorthand 1^st century way of describing the absence of good? Are fasting and mortification still relevant in the 21^st Century?

8^th March                    Second Sunday in Lent. Luke 13: 31 – end.  The lament over Jerusalem. This is a Communion Service.

15^th March                  Third Sunday in Lent.  Luke 13: 1 – 9.  The parable of the barren fig tree.  Repent or perish.  This is a Communion Service.

22^nd March                 Mothering Sunday.  All-age service celebrating the gift of life, and the loving parenthood of God.  As is traditional here a posy will be given during the service to all ladies present at the service. This is not a Communion Service.

29^th March                  Fifth Sunday in Lent (Passion Sunday).  John 12: 1 – 8.  The anointing of Jesus’ feet with oil. This is a Communion Service.

1st April 9:45-12 noon. Easter-themed craft day in Holy Trinity for primary age children.

5^th April                       Sixth Sunday in Lent (Palm Sunday).  Liturgy of the Palms, and focus on the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem.  This is a Baptismal Service.

9^th April.  Maundy Thursday.  Commemoration of the Last Supper of Christ.  John chapters 13 – 17 in a Tenebrae service with Communion.

10^th April. Good Friday.  Meet up by High Close Youth Hostel at 9am to carry the cross over to Ambleside.  It is mainly downhill and there are several pauses for a reflection on the events of that day.  At 11am we join in with a Churches Together act of united witness.

12 April.  EASTER DAY – Hallelujah!  Dawn Communion service at 6am followed by breakfast in the Vicarage.

10.30 am. All age praise and communion service, followed by Easter egg hunt in the churchyard.

Soon we shall be hosting our wonderful visiting singers from the Harrogate Festival Choral Course. They are a vibrant and exciting group of singers who sing a great variety of Christmas-themed songs, old and new… interspersed with thought-provoking seasonal poetry. After the performance all are invited for a cup of tea/glass of wine and refreshments. This is a very popular annual event held this year at 3pm on Sunday, December 1st. Come early to avoid disappointment. There is no ticket price, but we welcome any donations towards the work and maintenance of the church.

Services continue as usual each week at 10.30am each Sunday for the rest of Advent until:

• Sunday 22nd
  • 10.30am Communion Service
  • 3pm: Carols by candlelight (followed by mince pies)
• Tuesday 24th
  • 11pm Midnight Communion by candle light
• Christmas Day
  • 10.30am All Age Praise followed by a brief, said Communion.

All welcome to any of the above – do come and join us.

On Friday 25th there’ll be a Fun Day at Holy Trinity Church, open to all children of Primary School age. The theme will be “journey” and children will walk into an imaginary world in which they go on an exciting journey, making passports, packing all the right things, travelling long distances for new adventures… and finally arriving back safely!

It’s from 9.45am to 2.45pm. Parents are invited to drop off children and have a bit of time to themselves before returning to pick them up at the end – all details are on the Fun Day Information sheet, and it is important that a Booking Form is completed whether hard copy or electronic, and returned to guarantee your place.

See you there!

Download booking form

At this bleakest time of the year, when apparently suicides rise – the days are short, sunlight scarce, and the festivities of Christmas a world away, the Church celebrates six weeks of “Epiphany” which means Christ’s “shining out”.  Christmas saw the Light come into the world, in the six weeks of Epiphany we see that light beginning to shine life-giving rays to all around.  So join us at 10.30am for any of the Sundays up until 20th January – but not then!  The 20th is the one Sunday of the year when we have no service at Langdale and instead join our brother and sister Christians of all denominations in the whole neighbourhood and come together for joint worship in St Mary’s parish church, Ambleside.  On the 25th January (a Friday) there will be an additional short service in Holy Trinity at 3pm followed by refreshments.  Do come and join us then to pray for increasing unity between the denominations.

Sunday 23rd December

10.30am       Brief said service of Holy Communion

3pm               Community Carol Service by candle-light, followed by light refreshments

Monday 24th December

11pm              Candlelit Midnight Communion

Tuesday 25th December

10.30am        All Age Christmas Praise, followed by a brief said Communion