• Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance from The Church of England - This link contain prayers, readings and links to useful resources at this difficult time. It also contains the updated guidance we are following as we move forward. 

    Please take time to follow the latest updates from the Diocese of Leeds, particularly their Appeal to support the church in Sudan.

    Private prayer in church

    We now have the go-ahead for people to go into our church buildings for private prayer if they wish to do so.

    The churches in Aldfield, Kirkby Malzeard, Mickley and Sawley are now open for private prayer every day. Grewelthorpe will be open Monday-Friday. Access to Dallowgill and Winksley for prayer can be arranged with the priest in charge. 

    Hoy Communion Services

    As from Sunday July 5th, we are planning to have a short service of Holy Communion at one of our churches at 11.15 am each Sunday, as well as a mid-week service. In accordance with current restrictions, only the wafers will be distributed at these services.

    Sunday 2 August             11.15 am           Sawley Church

    Wednesday 5 August      10.30 am          Winksley Church

    Sunday 9 August             11.15 am           Chapel of the Resurrection, Dallowgill

    Wednesday 12 August    10.30 am          Grewelthorpe Church

    Sunday 16 August           11.15 am           Aldfield Church

    Wednesday 19 August    10.30 am          Kirkby Malzeard Church

    Sunday 23 August           11.15 am           Mickley Church

    Wednesday 26 August    10.30 am          Sawley Church

    Sunday 30 August           11.15 am           Winksley Church

    If you have questions about how these services will work please contact Ian Kitchen. These are in addition to our service by Zoom and other home service which are detailed below.

                                                              ~~o~~o~~

    Sunday 2nd August - Revd Ian Kitchen will be offering a live Service using Zoom at 10am. Please contact Ian (preferably before Saturday) if you would like to be included in this Service - ian.kitchen@leeds.anglican.org.

    The Service we will be following on Zoom is available to download here:

    Morning Worship Sunday 2nd August Zoom

    A Service to use at home, if not following the Zoom service, is available to download here:

    Morning Worship Sunday 2nd August

     

                                                                ~~o~~o~~

     

    Find Live Streamed Events Nearby

     

    The July/August edition of The Fountain magazine is now available using the menu at the top of this page.

     

    Welcome

    The Fountains Benefice lies between Nidderdale and Lower Wensleydale in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to the west of the North Yorkshire cathedral city of Ripon. Its name is taken from Fountains Abbey – a former Cistercian monastery dating back to the 12th century. Today, it is one of the largest monastic ruins in the country. 

    The benefice consists of four parishes and eight churches serving their rural communities:

    Kirkby Malzeard – St Andrew's Church
Dallowgill – Chapel of the Resurrection
Mickley – St John the Evangelist Church
Grewelthorpe – St James and the Methodist Church
Fountains: Aldfield – St Lawrence the Martyr
                   Sawley – St Michael & All Angels;            
                   Winksley – St Cuthbert & St Oswald; 
St Mary's Church, within Studley Royal park, holds occasional services

    Our Priest in Charge is Revd Ian Kitchen, who joined us at the end of October 2019. He is based at The Rectory, Ringbeck Road, Kirkby Malzeard HG4 3SL. Email: ian.kitchen@leeds.anglican.org . Tel: 01765 650369.

    If you need information about any of the churches, services and events or would like to enquire about a baptism, confirmation, wedding or funeral, please get in touch with Isabelle Munyard, our parish administrator, email parishfountains@gmail.com.

    Material for the churches' magazine, The Fountain, should be sent to the editor, Mrs Sharon Wood by 12th of the month preceding publication. Email sharonjwood1@gmail.com, post to West Farm, Galphay, Ripon HG4 3NJ, or telephone 01765 658220.

    Fountains Group of Churches Safeguarding Notice

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  • Daily Reflections

    Saturday 8th August

    Following our series of reflections on the Ten Commandments, we’ll spend a few days thinking about Jesus’ statement on ‘the greatest commandment’.

    Mark 12:28-31
    28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
    29 ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 31 The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’


    There are some exceptions where people have been thoroughly traumatised, but most of us love ourselves pretty thoroughly. Even if we would modestly deny it, if we look at how we treat ourselves we have to confess that we are right up at the top of the list of our favourite people. And there’s nothing wrong with that – God loves us hugely, too.
    The challenge – and remember, this is part of the ‘greatest commandment’, so it’s a serious matter – is to treat everyone else as well as we treat ourselves. Everyone? Yes: Jesus made it very plain, in Luke’s telling of this incident, that our ‘neighbour’ is a very wide-ranging term. He told the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate what loving our neighbour can mean (see Luke chapter 10).
    Take a moment to think of those whom you find it easy to love. Then thank God for them.
    Now think about people you find really hard going. We are called to love them, too. Ask God to help. Loving them doesn’t mean we have to feel warm and sentimental about them – it’s a matter of how we act towards them. Can we show, in practical ways, that they are as valuable as we are?
    It’s always been a tough ask for Jesus’ disciples, but he himself gave his life for those who treated him as an enemy. We have no right to ignore his command.


    O God, who of your great love to humanity reconciled earth to heaven through your only-begotten Son: grant that we who by the darkness of our sins are turned aside from brotherly love, may be filled with his Spirit shed abroad within us, and embrace our friends in you and our enemies for your sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
    7th century Mozarabic liturgy

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