October 2020 The Parish Magazine for Gosforth and Wasdale (Diocese of Carlisle) Editor: Norma Hughes, Hallsteads, Wellington, Gosforth CA20 1BJ E‐mail: [email protected] All copy must be with the editor by the 15�� of the preceding month. WHO'S WHO in the PARISH Rector Revd. Philip Dorling The Rectory, Gosforth, Seascale, CA20 1AZ Associate Priest Revd. Gavin Walker 25386 Reader Rosalind Amey 01946 820426 Churchwardens Gosforth Norma Hughes 25366 Ann Longworth 01946 841778 Malcolm Richardson 01946 841560 Alister Harlow (deputy) 25899 Nether Wasdale Inigo Ford 26013 Rachel Putnam 26362 Wasdale Head Andrew Lopez 26244 Hugh Foulerton 25725 PCC Secretary Carolyn Foulerton 25725 Gosforth Parish Church Management Committee Clerk Ruth Schofield 25300 Organists Gosforth Tony Kirkham 28681 Nether Wasdale Warren Lonorgan 25169 Margie Simper 26285 Wasdale Head Warren Lonorgan 25169 Parish Magazine Editor Norma Hughes 25366 Advertising/Distribution Hugh Foulerton 25725 St Mary's Room Bookings Ruth Schofield 25300 Old School, Nether Wasdale Bookings Inigo Ford 26013 Safeguarding Officers Steven & Susan Round 01946 841626 Email: [email protected] 2 FROM THE CHURCHWARDENS Since the September magazine went to print, things have moved forward rapidly! Philip Dorling and family will be moving into Gosforth Rectory at the beginning of October and the Licensing Service for Philip will take place at St Cuthbert’s Church, Seascale, on Sunday 4 October at 6.00 pm, so the Seatallan Benefice will only be without a Rector for four days – last me we had to wait more than fourteen months! Sadly, the South Calder Mission Community will be losing Rev Gill Hart as Team Leader next February, as she and her husband David will be rering then, and so Philip will also take over that role in January. We wish Gill and David every blessing in their rerement as they move to Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries of Galloway. Philip was aware of these plans and movements before he applied for the post of Rector of the Seatallan Benefice and is looking forward to taking over as Team Leader of the South Calder Mission Community. We hope of course that it won’t be too long before a replacement is found for Gill, to work alongside Philip, although no appointments are being made unl aer Easter 2021, by which me the Diocese should have completed their financial calculaons as to how many clergy they can afford to employ. The Licensing Service is usually a great community celebraon, aended by one and all, but due to Covid restricons it will be rather different this me. It will of course sll be a great celebraon, as we welcome Philip as our new Rector, and Bishop James will be with us, but numbers will be very restricted and only churchwardens and those currently leading worship in our Mission Community (both clergy and laity) will be invited. However, if you are able to access Zoom, you will be able to see and hear the whole service live! Full details elsewhere in the magazine. Norma Hughes ‐ Churchwarden FROM THE PARISH REGISTERS None to record this month 3 The Gosforth, Cumbria CA20 1AS Village 019467 25232 Opposite Public Car Park Store Open every day Fresh fruit, vegetables, free range eggs, bread, milk, meat, etc. Groceries, frozen foods and ready meals, beers, ciders, wines and spirits, sweets, confectionery and soft drinks Newsagents and tobacconists, National Lottery, cash machine ‘Food to Go’ ­ hot and cold food, coffee etc, hot drinks machine Home delivery of newspapers and groceries for those self­isolating 4 ‘HELLO’ FROM THE DORLINGS Philip writes.... Born in 1969, in Vancouver Canada, I have just turned 51! As anyone who has hit this parcular milestone will know, people of my age oen begin to look in two direcons at once... backwards, with a mixture of melancholy and thanksgiving for what they have come through... and forwards, full of hope for what the Lord might yet have in store for the years that lie ahead. Looking back on my life, I am able to give thanks for an upbringing in Canada, England and Kenya. It was filled with beauful places, good mes as well as hard ones – all undergirded by a loving family who knew the Lord in the gentle way that many Anglican Chrisans do. At the age of 18, I set out for university in Edinburgh, in order to learn to be a forester, and to lose myself for the next ten years in free me spent travelling all over the place, as well as climbing mountains in Europe, Mexico, and the Rockies. This me came to a close with a trip to the Himalayas which turned out to be life changing. To my total surprise, I returned from Nepal having experienced the saving power of Christ. What I also knew, was that there was now a call on my life. Back in England, it wasn’t long before I found myself in church in Oxford, touched by the Holy Spirit in ways no one had ever told me about before. By 2001, I had married Jacquie, and then, in 2002, our son Freddy was born. In 2003, I began training for ordained ministry in Oxford – a period in which Jacquie and I were blessed to receive a very clear call to ministry with the church in Cumbria. In 2005, just as my daughter Grace was born, we moved to Ulverston, where I had the great privilege of serving my curacy. Following this me, in 2009, the Dorlings moved to South Africa, where Jacquie and I were involved with leading an Anglican church in the KZN town of Vryheid. We were there for just under three years. For me, this was a profound experience. It kindled in me a new love for Africa, for the Diocese of Zululand, and for the world wide church. In 2012, we returned to Cumbria, where, unl September 2019, we worked amongst the people of the Inglewood Benefice ‐ 7 rural parishes in north Cumbria. In October 2019, following up on connecons made during the Moving Mountains Mission, my family and I moved to join the Scargill Movement ‐ a community of Chrisans based at Scargill House in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. Less than a year later, no one is more surprised than us 5 to be ‘on the move again’, as we return to Cumbria, to serve amongst you, in the Seatallan Benefice and South Calder Mission Community. Covid 19 has turned the world upside down for all of us!! All I can say is that, in the midst of a very unusual year, it is simply wonderful to be coming ‘home’ to Cumbria – it feels just right! We are all looking forward to meeng you soon! Philip, Jacquie, Freddy and Grace Dorling 9�� September 2020 REFLECTION ‐ INTO THE WILDERNESS As a child, I was brought up in Brish Columbia and then in Kenya. It may be because of those early days that I have always loved the idea of the wide open spaces, vast stary night me skies, and the kind of silence that you can only really encounter in a real wilderness – the kind of silence that leaves you listening to the blood, as it courses through your ears. Since March this year, we have all entered another kind of wilderness. Sure, for a while the roads fell silent, and during the day, the sky was no longer criss‐crossed with the vapour trails of airplanes... but, in truth, the kind of wilderness we had entered was not a physical space – it was, and is, a spiritual one. Covid‐19 has changed everything. Having to wear a facemask in the shops has begun to make that clear to everyone. The Bible is full of wilderness spaces. I think it is probably right to say that, more oen than not, God’s people find themselves in wilderness situaons when the world around them is struggling to find its bearings both ethically and economically. It’s at these moments, that the Old Testament prophets found themselves in desert places. It is at a moment like this, that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert before the start of his ministry. It was at a moment like this, that Philip found 6 himself heading away from all that was familiar to him, to the desert road that led from Jerusalem to Gaza. Behind him lay his friends and a successful ministry – but also persecuon. Ahead of him was nothing but a wilderness. But he walked on in fidelity to the Spirit’s call. Somemes, when things appear to be going well in ministry, the Holy Spirit calls us off to do something ‘less predictable’ for God. It may not seem sensible. It may mean travelling in silence. It may mean walking in the ‘darkness of uncertainty’ for a while. But no maer how dark it gets, if we are called, what we have to do is ‘hold the line’ and keep on walking. We have to trust God and walk in the light of ‘previous revelaon’. Prophets and saints have done this before and found blessing. It is what Philip did as he le Samaria. And what was the result? Philip was blessed by the Holy Spirit with the right ministry, for the right person at the right me, with the result that the Gospel of Jesus Christ began to spread through the connent of Africa. I can almost hear the crunch of their feet, as Philip and the Ethiopian crossed the burned‐up, gravel strewn ground and headed for the ditch where that bapsm happened (Acts Ch8vs4‐40).