SITEZINE: HOLY ISLAND'S E-MAIL MAGAZINE - February 2024

Dear Reader,

A belated Happy New Year and welcome ('Failte' Irish/Gaelic ) to our first newsletter of 2024.

Greetings to those new subscribers who joined us over the Christmas period and a big "THANK YOU" to Scottish Power for maintaining island electricity supply throughout - despite the strongest winds seen in over 50 years.

I hope you were as fortunate as we on Holy Island with dedicated, hard-working clergy. Although, maybe you visited and saw the Church being decorated for Christmas, took part in the many special services of Christingle & Crib, Carol Service, Midnight Mass and Christmas day's Communion and Eucharist. Indeed, if stopping you may have been privileged to be visited by Sarah and her Christmas Carollers. Thank you to all those helping to maintain our traditions

It is raining at the moment with very few car park users. Those planning to visit will find that the council have completed repairs to the bridge's balustrade although storms seem to have escalated some pot holes into huge tarmac gashes. Filled with rain and sea water, some are not visible so do go slowly or your springs may well be at risk - especially as some areas flood when the tide turns.

Furthermore, this is definitely not the time of year to risk missing a tidal opening! Please doublecheck the safe causeway crossing times   and make sure that your mobile phone is fully charged in case you need to phone PHONE 999     for help. 

I am pleased to report that Frances (Marygate House) has written again and as usual, my gratitude to our authors who continue to fill our pages with their wondrous work.

We do hope you enjoy our February newsletter and look forward to getting in touch again in March.

God Bless,

Geoff Porter
editor@lindisfarne.org.uk
www.lindisfarne.org.uk/ezine
 

"AFLOAT", Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine claimed "Isha Was One Notch Away from 'Hurricane Force' in the Irish Sea - with Little Respite as Storm Jocelyn Sweeps In".

One of our local newspapers said that nearby 'Alnwick' reported wind speeds of 99mph had been experienced. Meanwhile, just up the A1 on Holy Island, winds didn't fall below gale force [wind force 8]. In fact Max's weather station indicates we experienced long periods at hurricane force [wind force 12] - some gusting at well over 100mph!

And as we were experiencing the awesome force of one of Nature's hurricanes, one of Max's Magnificent lenses was capturing her awesome beauty.

It's great to be back and to see the children again. They all enjoyed their Christmas holidays. Our term began on 8th January and it was good for the children to have that week after New Year to play with their toys and gifts and to see their families.

Just a few weeks before the end of last term, we received a call to say that Ofsted would be visiting our school. They stayed for two days and inspected both Holy Island and Lowick schools. They spent time in lessons, interviewing the children and staff and chatting to parents. We are all thrilled with our outcomes which are Good overall and Outstanding for personal development.

We are pleased that the inspectors understood our schools and their unique circumstances, as we are very different from other schools in the country. They wrote about how we "live out our vision of Journeying Together". We are particularly proud that they have noted our "remarkable sense of care and community throughout both schools", our "rich curriculum" and the "highly intelligent and detailed wider offer in the schools". They have recognised the pupils' development as people as "exceptional" and that "all members of the community are accepted and celebrated." We are delighted with the comments and would like to say thank you so much to the children, our lovely parents, and to the island community, for all of your support for the school.

Our new term has begun and the children have already been very busy! Our topic this term is Ice Explorers and we began by thinking about what explorers need to think about before they set off on an expedition. We decided to plan an expedition to Emmanuel Head here on Holy Island. First we used maps to decide which route we would take. We then worked out what we would need to bring with us. This took some discussion because the children were responsible for carrying their own backpack so needed to make sure it wouldn't be too heavy and that they'd have everything they need.

On the day of our expedition it was freezing cold and windy. But as usual, our children amazed us with their determination to complete the expedition. Everyone was wrapped up warm and after crunching through frozen puddles on the Crooked Lonnen we walked north towards the bird hide at the Lough. Here we stopped for a snack (always important to keep up our energy levels - especially with a double chocolate chip cookie!) After some bird-watching we decided that the Lough might be a good place to set up our wildlife camera. So, we organised that then headed on along the wagonway towards the nature reserve and on to Emmanuel Head. The children really enjoyed the expedition and we were delighted with their enthusiasm and interest in the wildlife and physical and human geographical features of the island.

Next week we will be travelling to Edinburgh to visit Dynamic Earth where the children will be taking part in Arctic Storytelling and a Plastic Smart workshop. There's lots to see there and when Faith came into school recently to interview the children, (the children really enjoyed Faith's visit) she was telling us that there's a huge iceberg that the children can touch. Very exciting. I'll let you know how we got on next time!

Heather Stiansen
Our website: www.lowickholyislandschools.org.uk

The Festive Season didn't go unnoticed in the Village Hall. The Xmas Dinner and subsequent carol-singing was appreciated by 36 Island residents and the hall itself was decorated and lit-up in its usual glory for all passers-by to enjoy throughout the Christmas period. Now into the new year, we can look forward to more hours of daylight, which our solar panels should be able to make good use of and that extra energy can then be stored in a new battery, coming courtesy of Max Whitby's assistance in accessing Northumberland's Climate & Environment Fund.

Meanwhile, ten new saplings (including rowan, crab apple and elder) having been donated by the 2050 group, have been planted (with protective sleeves), by Will Massey in the Village Hall's grounds. It may be a while until we see a leafy glade, but at least we can appreciate being witness to its origins.

As for the more energetic regular weekly activities taking place within the hall, they continue to attract participants and it is noticeable how both the skill level and enthusiasm seem to be growing in equal measure - as do the aches and pains on the days following.

It could be said that the wiser members of the local community have a trick up their sleeves, being content in attending the Warm Hub coffee mornings and whist drives.

The Village Hall does need to raise funds on a continuing basis in order to pay for its ongoing costs and bookings for its use from off the island are therefore encouraged. Whilst bookings for this purpose may not be so much in demand for this time of year, it does look like this will change once we get into March and beyond.

So if you know of anyone who may like to make use of our hall, or take up the unique opportunity of performing here, please feel free to get in touch.

Gary Reed
Crossman Hall Trustee

Whilst the word "Environment" encompasses a broad spectrum, the HI 2050 Environment Group has mainly been working on how we can mitigate the effects of Climate Change. The recent storms of "Isha" and "Jocelyn" with gusts of over 100 mph hitting the island, were preceded by 8 other major storms affecting the UK since September 2023. A stark warning for what may be to come?

Our two main branches of work have been:

1) how to become a "zero-carbon" community, which would also help to lower our energy bills
2) how to enhance "biodiversity" / growing to provide habitats for wildlife that would also improve our village environment.

Both of these goals will be a "WIN" - "WIN" for us all.

On the first objective, we have looked at ways to reduce dependence on expensive grid electricity at the Village Hall. We have been awarded a grant of £4,966 from Northumberland County Council's Environment and Climate Fund. This will be spent on an initial battery system that will allow excess power from the existing solar panels to be stored in summer. It will also provide resilience in the case of short power cuts. Longer term, when further funding can be raised (this is work in progress), the new system will allow us add additional batteries and extra solar panels so we can make greater use of low-cost, zero-carbon, renewable energy.

For the second objective, Biodiversity and Planting for Wildlife, "free trees" have been acquired from the NCC project and these have been planted around the village hall. There is also space around the hall and other areas of the village that could be planted to provide habitats for birds, bees, butterflies and our resident hedgehogs, whilst improving our village environment.

Anyone wishing to support/ be involved with any of our work will be welcome. We have been in contact with Andrew Craggs at Natural England who has offered to support our work where possible.

We are a small, friendly and enthusiastic group. We will be pleased to hear from anyone who wants to be kept in touch, has any suggestions, or be involved with any of our work. Please contact Lesley at Selby House for more information or at lesley@beangoose.co.uk / mob 07710621721

Lesley Andrews, George Hogarth, Max Whitby

HIGHLIGHTING OUR SPECTACULAR WILD FLOWERS

Winter is now half passed and like everyone else on the island I'm already looking forward to spring with its first birdsong and early flowers.

Although the days still seem short and the nights long, we're only three or four weeks to those early signs of better things to come.

By the end of the month and into early March, our resident Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Robins, Collared Doves and others will be singing. The first Wallflowers will be appearing on the sunny side of the Heugh followed later in the month and into April by other early spring favourites like Primroses in the dunes and the first brilliant yellow of Lesser Celandines in Sanctuary Close and other grassy areas.

I was reminded of these delights to come while reading the wonderfully illustrated new Plants of Holy Island by Chris and Hazel Metherell. The 234-page hardback has been published by NatureGuides Ltd, the company run by Max Whitby, whose regular contributions appear here monthly.

Chris is the recorder for North Northumberland for the Botanical Society of Great Britain and Ireland while Hazel is a retired biology teacher. They are regular visitors to the island, both to study its outstanding flora and to lead botanical walks.

Chris and Hazel have covered 110 plants in detail with several photographs each showing them at various stages. Another 70 species are dealt with more briefly with single pictures.

The book includes details of walks around our local floral hotspots, illustrated with landscape shots and maps for those less familiar with the island. The walks cover the Chare Ends, old lime kilns and Crackett House stretch, St Cuthbert's shore and the Heugh and the Castle, Quarry and Snook. The text provides step-by-step routes and details the plants to look out for along the way.

The Heugh is part of the Whin Sill, very hard volcanic rock which outcrops at various points across Northumberland. It provides the foundations for the most spectacular sections of the Roman Wall, the crags on which our castle and Bamburgh Castle stand and it rises offshore as the Farne Islands. The underlying rock provides a rare type of grassland with its own special flora.

Similarly, the Castle and its steep slopes has a rich flora as does the Quarry where piles of waste from 19th century limestone extraction provide an ideal home for many orchids and other flowers. The Snook and Chare Ends with their dunes and wet slacks have long been renowned as national botanical hotspots.

The front cover has a painting of Northern Marsh Orchids, one of the commonest but most beautiful of the ten species of orchids which grow on the island, an assemblage unrivalled in the region. They include, of course, the famous Lindisfarne Helleborine, unique to the island.

The superb full-page paintings of that unique orchid and the nine others have been provided by the renowned botanical artist Reinhild Raistrick who has visited the island annually. Her originals are currently on display at Kew Gardens where they will go into its permanent collection.

At £20, the book is available on the island from the Post Office and the Lindisfarne Centre or in Berwick from Slightly Foxed in Bridge Street and GC Grieve in Church Street. It's also available from the publishers at natureguides.com. I think that anyone who has bought a hardback book recently, particularly a textbook, will agree that with Plants of Holy Island you get a lot of book for your money!

I think we are all about ready for winter to be over and for Spring to get on with being ‘sprung'. Storm after storm have battered the island over the last few months and I can almost hear the castle saying "No more!". Hopefully we are through the worst of it now as I type at the end of January with Storm Jocelyn having thrown itself at the castle's western elevations for 24 hours or so. For me the worst one was probably Kathleen though, how would you feel about being in a storm with the same name as your mother-in-law?! I have to say though that unlike Storm Arwen the castle seems to have got off fairly lightly this time. One of the only notable bits of damage was just before Christmas (the last afternoon I was there in fact) when the flag halyard snapped. Despite me valiantly dangling off a parapet with an improvised barge pole-and-coathanger device, I was unable to grab the loose end which was flapping horizontally high above the Upper Battery. As darkness descended I gave up and went indoors to rub my shoulders back to life. When I popped up after Christmas to check the place over the rope was gone, and only a pile of shredded fibres were left. I have no idea where it ended up, so if anyone is walking around the site and sees it then please let me know. Given the direction of the wind though I might need to see what our readership numbers in Denmark are like.

The end of what is rapidly becoming storm season means we must be nearly open to the public again, and we certainly are on the 1st March. An awful lot has happened over the winter so I'll try to be brief. Phase four of five bits of internal painting have been completed and so the castle is nearing the end of that process - the final leftover from the 2016-18 major project. The last phase will be next winter but the difference is amazing. Even with this bad weather, having an appropriate paint like casein distemper on the walls allows all that rain to absorb and de-sorb without damaging the walls. We are redisplaying several rooms this season so to do so we welcomed back about 25 large collection items which have been in storage since before the 2016 work. Some of these need conservation work so that is ongoing, with a furniture conservator having already been to glue broken bits back on to their parent objects. We have acquired a few nice pieces of ‘set dressing' to help compliment the collection, and have new displays about the Lutyens remodelling of 1903-06 which will tell this story at the castle for the first time.

These new displays will themselves complement the work of Liz Gre, our artistic partner for the next two years, who you may remember me talking about last year. Liz will soon be installing her piece in the castle's Upper Gallery so everything will be ready for opening. There will be a launch event on Thursday 29th February and if any island residents want to come up you'd be most welcome. The event will run from 11:30 until 14:00 and Liz will be with us to answer questions. Please let us know if you intend to come.

Best wishes

Nick Lewis - Collections and House Officer
Lindisfarne Castle
nick.lewis @ nationaltrust.org.uk 
07918 335 471 / 01289 389903

awaited

Sophie Howard - Site Manager
Lindisfarne Priory

Happy New Year! We are already a month into 2024 and this year is a special one for Lindisfarne NNR as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the designation of the Reserve. On the 15th September 1964 the Reserve came into being and after many site wardens and managers later the NNR continues to enhance the nature and conservation of this special place. To mark this milestone we will be holding a series of events throughout the year so please keep your eyes peeled on our social media feeds for further information soon. The photo alongside the article is the first press release outlining the designation and offers an interesting insight into the origins of the Reserve.

The weather remained incredibly unsettled over the festive period with what seems like a conveyor belt of storms passing over the Reserve bringing strong winds and heavy rain. In both October and December the Reserve received almost 200% of the long term average monthly rainfall leaving large pools of standing water and overflowing slacks in the dunes. A brief cold spell earlier this month gave a dusting of snow and prompted us to put out severe weather signs at key locations. It is important at anytime but particularly during cold snaps to avoid disturbing any birds roosting and using the mudflats. During cold snaps many of the wintering birds are battling to survive, trying to feed up furiously on the mudflats while the tide is out and then roosting overnight in the cold using much of the energy from the food ingested just to keep warm. Any additional stress and disturbance can tip the fine balance and have a big impact on their survival.

There are still good numbers of wintering birds around. Wigeon peaked at just over 19,000 and Brent Geese at just over 4000 back in October. Geese and Wigeon numbers tend to drop into the New Year. There are still good numbers of waders such as Dunlin and Knot feeding on the mudflats

The wet weather prompted us to take the livestock off the Links and Snook before Christmas. It is always sad to see them go but they have done a fantastic job as usual ingesting the rank grasses and attacking some of the invasive species.

Our volunteers have also been doing a fantastic job clearing stands of Hawthorn, Scots Pine and Willow regeneration from the Snook. We have also been cutting and raking parts of the large expanse of Black Bog Rush that has formed a large monoculture in the slack next to Snook House and has been slowly expanding over the last few years. The areas cut will allow other species to flourish and should encourage some dune slack specialist species into the area.

Andy Denton - Reserve Manager
Lindisfarne & Newham NNRs
LindisfarneNNR Blogspot

Followers of this column may remember that we previously covered several new generation telescopes that have, or soon will, join the Hubble Space Telescope in exploring the Universe. JWST and Euclid operate in the special Lagrange orbit around one million miles from Earth. The Vera Rubin Observatory is under construction in Chile and is expected to become operational in a year or so. This month we'll take a look at another enormous telescope currently under construction high in the Chilean Andes: the Extremely Large Telescope or ELT.

The ELT is aptly named, as you can see from the accompanying illustration comparing it to Lindisfarne Castle - which it dwarfs. Its budget is similarly gargantuan at more than £1 billion, shared between 16 mainly European countries including the UK. Yes, we taxpayers are contributing. The project is co-ordinated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). First light, i.e. when the telescope becomes operational, is expected in 2028 or 2029.

The primary mirror of the Extremely Large Telescope will be an astonishing 39 metres (129 feet) across. See the tennis court for scale in the chart below, comparing mirror sizes of many telescopes including most of those mentioned here. 39 metres is far too large to cast as a single piece of glass. Instead, ELT's mirror will be made up from 798 smaller hexagonal mirrors, each 1.4 metres (4 feet 7 inches) in diameter. There will be plenty of spares, so ingeniously, two different segments will be swapped-out for cleaning every day while the EST is operational, maintaining optical quality.

The huge aperture of the ELT will give it phenomenal resolving power. It will be able to directly image planets orbiting nearby stars. ELT should even be able to analyse the atmosphere of such exoplanets, seeking signs of life. It will also have exceptional light-gathering capability, allowing it to observe the faintest and oldest galaxies.

The atmosphere of Earth presents a challenge. Even at an altitude of 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) turbulence causes images gathered by any terrestrial telescope to wobble and blur. To overcome this problem, the ELT will shoot spectacular orange lasers up into the sky overhead. These will excite sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere and their light will be measured by smaller, dedicated, secondary telescopes. The continuously changing motion of the upper atmosphere will thus be tracked and corrections made in real time to the main telescope. These Adaptive Optics should give the ELT up to ten times the resolving power of even the Hubble Space Telescope.

Ours is a marvellous era in which to be an astronomer. It is sometimes said that new instruments are the surest way to make progress in science. Galileo's invention of the telescope led to his discovery of Jupiter's Moons and by inference the insight that Earth orbits the Sun. In the same way, we can expect the two new giant telescopes that will soon commence operations in Chile to revolutionise our understanding of the heavens. I for one am happy for a portion of my taxes to be spent in this way.

Max Whitby, thevisibleuniverse.com

Nothing ever happens around here

Books and documentaries tell us it was very, very different back then but it's still hard to get your head around the fact that the landscape you see today hasn't always looked like this. While geologists might have spent years studying the evidence for these changes - and have irrefutable proof they really did happen - they often struggle to deal with the enormity of it all.

You've heard some of this from me before but it bears repeating. 425 million years ago Holy Island (and Northumberland and Britain and much of Europe) was at the bottom of a deep ocean which was progressively being squeezed between two colliding tectonic plates. A series of volcanoes were belching out molten lava in and around the Cheviots 25 million years later. 330 million years ago Lindisfarne (and Britain and Europe) basked in a tropical climate on the Equator and cycled between humid swamps, large sand filled rivers and deltas, and coral seas. 295 million years ago huge amounts of molten rock were being squeezed into the Earth beneath us. 250 million years ago the Island was a hot red desert and 20,000 years ago a white frozen waste. How do we know? The evidence is in the rocks around us. Smashed up and now petrified deep sea sediments in the Coquet Valley. Ancient lava and granite in the Cheviots. The coral limestones and ripples in the sandstone here on the Island. Without that molten rock 295 million years ago St Cuthbert would have had nowhere to put his hermitage or the barons their castle. Take a trip to Tynemouth Priory to see the desert sand dunes. And the white frozen wastes - look no further than the sticky stony boulder clay subsoil some of us try to grow vegetables in.

On a geological time scale big changes have happened and will happen again. We think of places - like Britain - as very stable and unchanging. Lindisfarne is a profound example that this is not so. Its status as an island (for some of the time) is incredibly young and fragile - a product of the height of the sea and land. 7000 years ago it was firmly joined to the rest of Northumberland. Sea level was many metres lower then. You could have walked to Belgium - and Stone Age people did.

But beyond the momentary effect of tides and storms the level of the sea is a product of the balance of the water locked into the ice at the Earth's poles and the water in the oceans. The last Ice Age and the subsequent melting had a profound effect on sea levels everywhere. Massive ice sheets locked up enormous quantities of the world's water, lowering global sea levels by as much as 120 metres below those today. The weight of ice had also depressed the land and so when the climate began to warm 15,000 years ago the release of ice pressure allowed the land to ‘rebound' (called isostatic change). The melting of the ice discharged huge amounts of water into the seas and oceans, raising their level (eustatic change). These opposing changes didn't happen equally everywhere, nor did they happen at the same time. Lindisfarne and northern England are effectively on the isostatic-eustatic ‘hinge'. For scientists, sea level fluctuations and their consequences for landscapes and human history are a fertile area of research and are acutely relevant in the face of our changing climate.

For people who live close to the sea they matter more than that.

Publishing a book is a whole new ball game these days. The publisher tells the author they must put news of it on Instagram, X, Facebook .... you name it. I am the opposite of a techy. Last year I had the help of a young man I met at the new Orthodox congregation in Berwick who got an I.T. qualification from uni but who has now emigrated to Cyprus.

This new monastic genesis owes much to Holy Island. I gestated the context for over twenty years.

Below is the cover and opening words.

Ray Simpson
Revd. Ray Simpson - Books, blogs, info: www.raysimpson.org
Founding Guardian, The international Community of Aidan and Hilda
http://www.raysimpson.org/

Any time now! At the end of last November Gary and I couldn't wait for the closing of Marygate House so that we could start to work on our ideas and plans, hopes and dreams for the coming year. By mid-January, we were heartily fed up, me in the office surrounded by filing and Gary with the House upside down and paint brush in hand!

We can't wait to reopen our doors! We're counting down the days until we can welcome guests again. I think you will find that we have used our time well. Thanks to those of you, friends, who helped make marmalade for the coming year in January. This, with the allotment we have marked out, are further ventures into becoming more self-sustaining and environmentally aware. We have seed potatoes, early broad beans and sweet peas ready to sow - like all gardeners, we're ticking off days on the calendar until we can be out again.

You may have heard that we have experienced damp problems in the House; you can probably see why if you look at the exterior of the House where the rendering has 'blown.' We are moving one of the bedrooms temporarily into what was the Common Room, whilst modifying the Library to be a more general 'Common Room' for guests (hence Gary and his paint brush!). Of course, the library/common room still has all the books the Rev. Kate Tristram catalogued for the House.

You may not be aware, but one of the purposes of the Trust for Marygate House is to provide an Arts venue, so we're thrilled to be offering two events over this Summer with this in mind.

On the 1st June, Stella Splendens features the Fountain Singers and their Director, a specialist in Medieval music, Anna Christoni- Apel. There will be a workshop at 3pm and concert at 7.30pm, both at St. Mary's church. Tickets for the concert and workshop are available through ticketsource.

Workshop: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/marygate-house/t-krlqrpa
Concert: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/marygate-house/t-dvxgqeg

Bookings to stay in Marygate House for this weekend limited; early booking suggested! From the 26th to 28th July, Fran Whiteside (Icon-writer) and Marc Elton (musician) will lead a weekend at Marygate House. On Saturday morning (27th June), from 10.30am, they will lead a session in St. Cuthbert's Centre, which will be open to everyone, with a Concert on the Saturday evening, also at St. Cuthbert's centre. More details to follow on this.

Our daily 'Island thoughts' posting goes out from Monday to Friday and, tri-weekly, a reflective video, Holy Ground on Thursdays at 7pm (and accessed any time after that). Our FB page is www.facebook.com/marygatehouse.org.uk/ If you're not a Facebook user, you can also access Holy Ground on our Space to Breathe YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UC_WHxQmjP9zGOvALfaUCbww/videos

All enquiries and bookings: marygate.house@gmail.com

We hope to see you in this new season!
Frances and Gary

As February starts, we start to look forward to the spring. We start to see beautiful snowdrops appearing in drifts in gardens, woods, parks, churchyards and by the roadside.

At this time of year it is worth making a trip to Howick Hall which is just along the coast from Craster to see them in great numbers.

The snowdrop is widely recognised as one of the first flowers of Spring. It is amazing that this small delicate flower can grow out of hard frozen soil to hearten us after a long dark January. That strength in fragility may be what inspired Kate Mcillhagga, who was minister at Belford URC some years ago and a member of the Iona Community, to write the book she is most renowned for, The Green Heart of the Snowdrop.

There is a copy of her book in St Cuthbert's Centre available to read while visiting.

Kate was a very talented poet and writer of wonderful prayers and an inspiration to those who met her.

Here I share with you her prayer:

The green heart of the Snowdrop.
Into the dark world a snowdrop comes
A blessing of hope and peace
carrying within it a green heart
symbol of God's renewing love.
Come to inhabit our darkness
Lord Christ.
For dark and light are alike to you
May nature's white candles of hope
Remind us of your birth
And lighten our journey
Through Lent and beyond.
Amen
Kate McIllhagga

At St Cuthbert's, we are looking forward to Spring too.

We have lots of plans for events and exhibitions in 2024 .

From mid February the centre will be normally be open each day, and we have lots of events and exhibitions planned through 2024 for locals and visitors to enjoy.

Ann Tunnard
St Cuthbert's Centre
Holy Island

Dear friends,

As I write it is starting to blow another gale - what a way to begin 2024! Last weekend, in the middle of Storm Isha, we held a wonderful celebration in St Mary's Church when our very own and much loved Revd Sam Quilty was licensed as our Associate Priest. Sam was licensed in a full church by the Bishop of Berwick, Mark Wroe.

Many friends, family, neighbours and colleagues from near and far came to support Sam and celebrate together this new start of her ministry here. I am absolutely delighted that Sam will be exercising her ministry here on Holy Island. After the service we had a lovely afternoon tea in the church, and I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who made cakes, scones, sausage rolls etc and who helped organise a lovely feast!

The service was live streamed and can be watched on St Mary's facebook page and our website.
see streaming....

In a few weeks' time we will enter the season of Lent. On Ash Wednesday, February 14th we will hold 2 communion services with imposition of ashes at 10am and 5pm to mark the beginning of this time of reflection, penitence and preparation for the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, culminating in the great celebration of Easter.

Do join us as we journey together.

With every blessing

Sarah
www.stmarysholyisland.org

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