Parishes by the Wall - Living Faith on the Frontier

We are delighted that one of our young parishioners, Victoria Furlong, has recently become Countryfile Young Farmer of the Year. Vicky, from Shaftoe Young Farmers Club, was nominated by her employer, Mary Dickinson, where she is the very young manager of the Crowhall Estate, with 120 cattle and 700 sheep. She was one of three young farmers to make it to the final, where she beat off competition from men from Gwent and Newport Pagnell. While studying, Vicky had worked as a part time gamekeeper at Crowhall, and had been steeped in farming all her life, growing up on the family farm at Ridley. Her parents, Stuart and Dorothy Furlong, are rightly proud of their award winning daughter, and accompanied her to the awards ceremony in September. We send our warmest congratulations to Vicky.

 There are two dates in the diary for churchyard tidy up sessions at Beltingham.  These are Tuesday October 31 and Tuesday November 7.  If you are able to help, please come for 10 am.  We will aim to be finished by 12 noon.  Bring your own tools, to include a rake if possible. 

The next pitching of God’s Tent is this Sunday (15th October) at 3pm at the Riverside field at Allenbanks.

At it we will be thinking about, and filming, the story of creation!

KS2 children and older are very welcome with an accompanying adult.

Where is it?
If you are driving the best way to fund us is to park at Allenbanks and then walk along the road, over the metal road bridge, and we are in the field on the right hand side of the road. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/allen-banks-and-staward-gorge. The carpark at Allenbanks is Pay and Display or free for National Trust members.

What to wear?
Please come in good outdoor clothes and shoes and prepared for wet weather.

What do I bring?
Please bring something (like a mobile phone) that short videos can be recorded on. Also, if you have it, a cable that would connect the device to a computer to download the videos.

What can I do?
We hope that everyone will come and engage - this is for children and parents together, so I hope you will get involved and enjoy this new event. As we are meeting outside there are things we need to be aware of so that everyone is kept safe. I'll say more about this on Sunday, but it would be really helpful if parents or carers could help ensure that everyone enjoys the event.

When will we finish?
We hope to be done by about 4.30pm.

For more information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The church at Henshaw was beautifully decorated in preparation for our Joint Harvest Service last Sunday morning, creating a colourful and welcoming sight. As parishioners arrived with contributions for the Food Bank, (where donations from the service were to be taken,) there was a major sorting exercise taking place in the Parish Room, so that the gifts of the harvest could be brought to the altar by the children in large baskets. These represented the cereals, the roots, the seeds, the vegetables, the fruits and the harvest of flowers. Our reading from Luke’s Gospel reminded us to consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. The Vicar drew on themes of abundance in his address, and helped by the children, showed the congregation just how the jam and scones had been made at the last meeting of God’s Tent. Our hymns included Come ye thankful people, come, Autumn Days when the grass is jewelled, and of course, We plough the fields and scatter. Because the weather was kind to us, we could serve coffee and biscuits both in the Parish Room but also outside – and were thus able to cater for a large congregation.