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St Wilfrid's ChurchDuchy Road
Harrogate
HG1 2EY
North Yorkshire
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Fr Mark Sowerby to be Bishop of Horsham
Fr Mark is leaving Harrogate to become the Bishop of Horsham in West Sussex.
It was announced by 10 Downing Street at 11am on June 19th, that Her Majesty The Queen has approved the appointment of The Reverend Mark Sowerby, Team Rector of St Wilfrid's, as the Suffragan and Area Bishop of Horsham in the Diocese of Chichester.
Fr Mark was ordained deacon and then priest in Ripon Cathedral where he was also baptised. He was curate first in Knaresborough and then in Darwen with Tockholes in the Blackburn Diocese. He remained in that diocese to become vicar of St Mary Magdalen's, Accrington as well as chaplain to St Christopher's CE High School and Accrington Victoria Hospital. From 1993-1996 he was also Assistant Diocesan Director of Ordinands in Blackburn Diocese. In 1997, Fr Mark moved to London, serving as a Selection Secretary, running Selection Conferences (now called Advisory Panels) on behalf of the House of Bishops. He was also the Church of England's principal Vocations Officer, supporting the dioceses of the Church of England in their work to foster vocations to ordained ministry and authorised lay ministries.
In 2001, Fr Mark returned to this diocese and to St Wilfrid's, Harrogate, where he became Team Rector in the newly established Team Ministry in 2004. Over the same period he has served on the Diocesan Synod, the General Synod, and the Ministry Council of the Church of England as well as on the Council of the College of The Resurrection, Mirfield, where he was a student from 1985-1987. For the last five years, he has also served as one of the House of Bishops' Inspectors of Theological Colleges and courses.
The Area Bishop of Horsham is responsible to The Bishop of Chichester for the care of West Sussex except for the areas around Brighton, Hove and Chichester which remain in the personal care of the diocesan bishop. The Bishop of Horsham works closely with the Archdeacons of Horsham and Chichester to provide for the needs of the deaneries in their care. The vacancy arose with the resignation of The Right Reverend Lindsay Urwin upon his appointment as Administrator of The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will ordain Fr Mark bishop on Saturday 25th July in Chichester Cathedral and his Episcopal ministry will begin in September. Fr Mark's last service as Rector of St Wilfrid's will be The Parish Mass on Sunday July 19th at 10.00 am.
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June 2009
June brings a number of dates for our diaries, one way or another. On June 7th we keep Trinity Sunday and on the Thursday following we keep the Feast of Corpus Christi. The Feast of Corpus Christi is a day of thanksgiving to God for the sacrament of Holy Communion, in which Jesus makes himself present to us in bread and wine. We shall be celebrating this feast with a Sung Mass at 7.00 pm and with a procession of the Blessed Sacrament over the herb carpet.
On June 28th, we celebrate St Peter & St Paul's Day, traditionally the day on which candidates are ordained deacon or priest. On Monday, June 29th, The Revd Nicholas Buxton, who was with us as a placement student from St Stephen's House Oxford, will be ordained priest in Ripon Cathedral where he is serving as curate in the cathedral parish and Minor Canon.
Ordination of The Revd Dr Nicholas Buxton Monday June 29th
Ripon Cathedral (Further details from the Parish Office)
The diocese of Chelmsford is holding its ordinations, the following week and so it will be on Sunday July 5th that Sally Lodge will be ordained deacon by The Right Revd John Gladwin, The Bishop of Guildford. Please remember Sally and all who will be ordained with her in your prayers. Those who come along to St Wilfrid's Summer Lunch the same morning, will be able to raise a glass in their honour!
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May 2009
Apart from our observance of Holy Week and celebration of Easter, perhaps the most important thing in the life of St Wilfrid's has been the Annual Parochial Meeting. This year a new churchwarden, Mr Tim Rhodes, was elected to serve with Mr Brian Thornley and I am sure you will want to join me in congratulating both men upon their election. The vacancy, of course, occurred with the retirement of Mrs Shirley Morris who had been elected for six successive years, the maximum now permitted under Church Representation Rules. Shirley's term of office has been quite extraordinary – and it is with real reverence that Brian Thornley occasionally calls her 'Super-woman'.
Shirley has expertise in so many areas of life that it is hard to list them all; she knows more than I knew that there was to know about health and safety, Disability Discrimination legislation, Fire Safety; electrical safeguards; child protection; and risk assessments. Shirley knows her way around the minefield of legislation that only archdeacons know that we ought to be complying with in the first place - and the quiet, confident and generous way in which time and again Shirley has shouldered these responsibilities on our behalf is humbling. All of this she has managed whilst retaining all her other activities with Brownies, bell ringers and, the Mothers' Union among others. Shirley has served this church with remarkable distinction and we owe her a huge debt of gratitude.
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Welcome to Saint Wilfrid's Church Harrogate
We hope that you will enjoy this on-line visit and explore our pages to learn a little more about Saint Wilfrid's and its people. If travel permits, we hope that one day you will pay a “reality visit” to Saint Wilfrid's and join us for worship. A Visitors' & Newcomers' Pack is available in Church.
Saint Wilfrid's Harrogate, is a Parish Church serving the Jennyfield, Killinghall Moor and Duchy areas of the town. The very fine Grade I listed building by the distinguished architect, Temple Moore, and its tradition of Anglo-Catholic worship also draw people from beyond the parish boundaries.
A wide range of ages, professions and trades is represented among the people who gather Sunday by Sunday to worship God at the Parish Mass, which is our principle act of worship. See the Worship & Young People pages to learn more about the Young Wilf's Sunday School and other things going on each Sunday.
Whilst Saint Wilfrid's has a long-established catholic tradition, it is not aligned with either Affirming Catholicism or Forward in Faith. People of differing outlook are able to worship together in this parish which has passed Resolutions A & B under the Ordination of Women measure but has not opted for alternative Episcopal oversight.
The Parish Church of St Wilfrid, Harrogate is one of the finest modern churches in the North of England. In 1903 the eminent ecclesiastical architect, Temple Moore, was invited to design "a fine Early English church of great dignity and beauty, to be built of stone and to accommodate 900 worshippers". This "exceeding magnifical" building was consecrated in June 1914, and completed by the addition of the Holy Spirit Chapel (1928) and the Lady Chapel (1935) - these two were the work of Leslie Moore, son-in-law of the original architect.
Architect and son-in-law had soaked themselves in the Gothic style of the 13th Century, and the whole building conveys an unerring sense of scale and proportion, with a wonderful power to create vistas and an impression of great space. The glory and majesty of God are truly proclaimed in St Wilfrid's where the Holy Eucharist, the central act of Christian worship, has been celebrated every day for seventy or more years. It is now the only Grade 1 listed building in Harrogate.
Mark Sowerby,
(Rector)