St James Ashworth Quincentenary celebrations

Date published: 31 July 2014


Members of the church and local community had a bumper weekend, starting on Friday 25 July, celebrating the 500th anniversary of St James Church, Ashworth.

The remote hilltop church was built in 1514.

Friday night saw an arousing Songs of Praise service with a choir. A representative from the church said: “St James sounds wonderful when a full church raises the roof.”

On Saturday evening an organ recital was led by St James Church’s own organist, Adrian van der Schans. Adrian has a wide repertoire and treated the crowd to some classical favourites.

Sunday was said to be the climax of the weekend, with a special celebration Evensong and a packed church once again. The guest preacher was Canon Roger Hill. The theme of his sermon was ‘people and presence’.

Afterwards, tea was served in the parish hall with an amazing birthday cake, cut by Canon Hill.

One lady had travelled all the way from Suffolk and a family of ten arrived from Cambridge to celebrate the weekend.

A representative from St James Church said: “We are all exhausted, but it was wonderful!’

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