,,If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man I would do my part. (From In the Bleak Midwinter, a famous Christmas carol)

Bewcastle church – you will have been here at some time no doubt - maybe willingly or perhaps even reluctantly, maybe as a visitor or because you are local, maybe to marvel at the 1200 year old cross in the churchyard or to find spiritual support, - whichever, it is here for everyone. But we are going to need help. Recent adverse weather has taken its toll, so the roof and guttering are in urgent need of repair. The hard reality is that we need to find some £30,000 to put things right this year.

Here for 1,200 years faith and community have overlapped and entwined, as the Bewcastle Cross and tiny museum remind us. Within its walls generations have met to mark great occasions of family, community or national life - a wedding, a birth, a funeral, or special festivals like Christmas, Easter, Harvest and Remembrance, a Coronation, the outbreak or cessation of war. Loved ones have been laid to rest in the churchyard. Sunday by Sunday worship has taken place within it. It’s a heritage which has been entrusted to us, which we in our turn not only treasure but want to pass on to those coming after us.

All around the Bewcastle fells and fields are tens of thousands of lambs. We’ve asked every farm that sells lambs from now till Christmas to consider donating just the price of one lamb.

We’re asking the shepherds, may we ask you too?