Statements and Press Releases

Since the suspension of public worship by the Church of England earlier in the week, a small group at St Mary’s Church, Whitkirk have worked tirelessly to make sure the sense of community felt on a Sunday morning wasn’t lost. They did this by rolling out a live-streamed service to the entire parish and beyond, overcoming the challenges of broadcasting from an ancient church.

Vicar Matthew Peat prepared a service of the Word which followed many of the beats of the traditional Sunday morning eucharist, and with only five people in the church (all following strict hygiene and physical distancing measures) it provided four hymns, a sermon, two readings and intercessions.

St Mary’s Church, Whitkirk is pleased to share the news that they have recently installed an automated external defibrillator at St Mary’s Church Whitkirk Community Centre. This life-saving equipment is now available to the local community 24/7, and in an emergency can be accessed quickly with a 999 call.

Sudden cardiac arrest can strike at any time. Having an AED available within three minutes – when combined with CPR – can buy essential time for the emergency services to arrive and bring the chances of survival from 6% to over 70%.

Members of the public wishing to help cover the cost of the ongoing maintenance of this vital equipment should visit whitkirkchurch.org.uk/donate to find out more.

Anybody suspecting a cardiac arrest should always call 999 before anything else, where the ambulance service can share the code needed to access the AED.

Leave.EU, an influential campaign group in the Brexit debate, has called for churches across the nation to ring bells on 1^st February 2020 to mark the UK’s departure from the European Union.⁽¹⁾

St Mary’s Church, Whitkirk is a vibrant and diverse parish. Many of our congregation are politically active, and within our parish are people who campaigned passionately both to leave the EU and to remain. In the 2016 Referendum the city of Leeds voted to Remain, but only by a very slim majority of 50.3% vs. 49.7% to Leave.⁽²⁾ The UK’s exit from the EU is therefore a very divisive matter within our parish.

Our mission statement is to be a place “where all find a welcome and are nurtured in their journey with Christ”. We seek to ensure that all that we do is for the Glory of God and the benefit of all people. Whilst we are neutral on the matter of Brexit and respect the result of the Referendum, ringing our bells on 1^st February would go against our universal welcome and be unnecessarily divisive.

We are also currently in the process of restoring our bells to full working order, and consequently parts of the ringing mechanism have been removed from site. As a result, the bells physically cannot currently be rung.

Therefore, the bells of St Mary’s Church, Whitkirk will remain silent on 1^st February 2020.

— Matthew Peat, Vicar

— James Black, Churchwarden

— David Scholey, Churchwarden