St Cuthbert’s Church, Allendale

St Cuthbert’s in Allendale, Northumberland, is an attractive nineteenth-century church in an even more beautiful, natural setting. On entry, I was is struck by the nave’s gloominess, which might be understandable on a dull, spring afternoon in the northern-most shire of England. The chancel, however, where the communion tables is found, received additional vitality from some twentieth-century skylights, through which flowed illumination. It has the effect of drawing one’s gaze to that focal point of liturgical worship, atop which stands a reredos depicting the Lord Jesus presiding over His last supper.

When I write about a church, I tend to check its online presence. St Cuthbert’s has a good website, and it details information about historical records, church functionaries and even how to recycle one’s waste. An explanation of the gospel, sadly, is conspicuous by its absence; a seeker of God would struggle to find anything of eternal consequence. ‘Tis a pity that the website cannot be like the building, in which all the secondary areas are dimmed, but the Lord Jesus is greatly illuminated.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. John 3:21

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