AT the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity we prayed amid the Italianate splendour of the chapel at Aske Hall, that all the church's branches might be united beneath the true banner of Christ.

Who is separated from whom, what is branch and what is root, and if the house is divided against itself then whom should be held contractually responsible, remain, of course, matters of unrelenting schism.

The churches may be agreed only that there is a rocky road ahead, and not who dug the first pothole.

Aske Hall is near Richmond, home of the Marquess of Zetland, master of all he surveys and of very much more besides.

His chapel, though Protestant both in past principle and present persuasion, no longer holds Church of England services, however. This is the Traditional Anglican Church, which insists that it is not new - "anything but" - but a "continuing" church within the worldwide Anglican communion.

Illustratively, perhaps, there are two other "continuing" churches in England alone - similar beliefs, different organisations - and that doesn't include the umbrella "Forward in Faith" movement which remains within the Church of England but threatens ever greater divergence.

It is the Church of England, says the Traditional Anglican Church, which has adopted the liberal and the secular, the Church of England which ordains women priests, "priestesses" they will insist, which uses inferior translations of the bible and modern forms of service.

"The new (Alternative Service) Book certainly captures the spirit of the age, shallow, shifting and shoddy," says a TAC leaflet. The same leaflet claims that in some churches the virgin birth, the resurrection and even the existence of God are "at best seen as options for consideration."

So the TAC, of course, holds to a male priesthood, the King James Bible and Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer, published in 1662 and still pristine in its use of English.

Old Thomas, on any argument, could certainly turn a liturgical phrase.

Holy communion - low communion, technically, to differentiate it from that on high days and holy days - is at 8.30am, snow moving in as perfectly on cue as if the meteorologists had synchronised it with the Greenwich Time Signal.

What may be the greatest common ground among churches of all traditions and denominations is that when the weather is bleak, adherents turn over and have an extra hour. Sometimes Aske attracts ten to the 8.30am service, on Sunday the foursome includes Andrew Young, the organist, but not Lord Zetland himself, who is away.

The instrument's magnificent and Andrew - a music teacher in Stockton and former Darlington parish church chorister - a splendid player. His voluntary before the service sounds baroque but is 16th Century, he says later. A pun about if it aint baroque don't fix it falls, unwanted, to the floor. He'd love to play Star Wars but his wife won't let him, someone says.

The Aske congregation, which all are welcome to swell, is one of just 14 in England aligned to the Traditional Anglican Church and the only one north of Hull. It is led by Fr Ian Westby, a friendly chap who left the Church of England in the 1970s. Episcopal oversight is from Canada. Born in Crook and a former community nurse in Durham, Fr Ian left the health service after 30 years to become an unpaid TAC curate in Portsmouth, returning to the North-East at the beginning of last year with a mission to establish the TAC here.

The story's intriguing, partly because he didn't know how to work full time for the church until a serious optical illness compelled his early retirement - "God directed me" - and partly because of how, Aske and ye shall find, he came to the Zetland estate.

Fr Ian moved to Northallerton, lives off his pension, hoped that his church might be in Richmond. Touring the town he discovered an unused Congregational church, asked an estate agent about ownership, and was directed to Lord Ronaldshay, the marquess's son, who suggested he write seeking permission.

Weekly services began last April. Christmas overflowed, up to 20 attend monthly evensong, a monthly family service begins on Palm Sunday.

"I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I had never heard of Lord Zetland or the Zetland Estates," says Fr Ian. "He has been very good to us and is pleased with the way it is going. I respect titles, but I believe that everyone is equal in the eyes of God. Whether he is a marquess or a manservant, when he comes in here he is just the same."

The service is straight from the Book of Common Prayer, a liturgy which speaks of the church militant, of "men" not "people", of thou and thy and mystery. Familiar hymns include The King of Love My Shepherd is. ("Appropriate for the week of prayer for unity," says Fr Ian.)

It is the service with which many of us were brought up, and not a jot worse for that. Fr Ian has brought coffee and stem ginger biscuits (Tesco's, very nice), offers a lift back in his motor home through the gathering snow. "It's a hard slog, but it's worth it," he says.

"We remain Anglican through and through. We just don't believe that it's all right to go round saying you can do this, that and the other."

Next month he's part of a TAC delegation to the Vatican which will discuss coming beneath Rome's aegis whilst remaining within the Anglican communion. It was a bit difficult to grasp that bit. To be continued, as probably they say elsewhere.

l Aske Hall is off the road from Richmond to Gilling West and the A66. Traditional Anglican Church services, to which all are welcome, are held every Sunday at 8.30am with evensong on the first Sunday at 6pm. Fr Ian Westby is on (01609) 774681. Information on other activities at Aske, (01748) 850391.

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