Ritual and reverence

THE column has twice previously been to what properly is known as the Church of St Helen Auckland, its humble author on countless other occasions. In the mid-1970s, the church so middle-of-the-road Anglican that there could have been cats' eyes down the aisle, I held office there.

The first journalistic visit was in 1997 when, under the leadership of Fr Robert McTeer, St Helen's had embraced Anglo-Catholicism - "Bells, smells and so high you can almost see Rome from there," we wrote.

Four years later, we joined the celebrations after £170,000 for major refurbishment - floor, pews and heating, chiefly - had been raised in two years.

"It was so wonderfully full," the 2001 column observed, "that were churches to fall within the overcrowding sections of the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act, there would surely have been a summons from the council next morning."

Last Friday week - you know, eight days ago - we returned for the patronal festival. It was the best, the most uplifting and the most joyous of all.

It was also a first chance to meet the Ven Nick Barker, the new Archdeacon of Auckland and priest-in-charge of Holy Trinity in Darlington, who began his sermon by announcing how good it was to be there on a happy occasion.

"The last time I was here was to see where the lead had gone off the roof," he said.

The parish church, partly 12th Century, serves West Auckland and the adjoining, reviving, community of St Helen's Auckland where - improbable even a decade ago - developers now advertise "The home of your dreams".

Fr McTeer, Whickham lad and former Co-op manager, is in the vestibule sucking throat lozenges that would bring tears to the eye of a penitent. He's picked up an infection while on holiday.

Notices promote a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, the North-East Walsingham weekend - that one's at Horden - and even the parish turkey and tinsel holiday, which is to Grange-over-Sands.

Another poster gives details of St Helen's links with the Ghanaian parish of St Mark, Kibi, for which the Co Durham congregation is committed to raising £7,500 to restore the roof.

"It would take them five years," says Fr McTeer, now an honorary canon in Ghana. "The more you give, the more you receive. We find that every time."

They, in turn, are trying to raise another £100,000 to restore St Helen's organ and renew the lighting. It's going well.

The order of service includes several ecclesiastical images and a more secular symbol indicating that, while bells may be rung, mobile phones should not be.

It also says that they keep complete silence before the Mass. Well, whisper it, Fr McTeer...

Hushed by the arrival of a procession which includes another ten or so Forward in Faith priests - the umbrella Anglican organisation best known for its opposition to women's ordination - they thus hear Fr McTeer invite everyone to the supper afterwards.

"Heavenly meringues," he promises. The service proves more celestial yet.

There's coruscating choir, triumphant trumpeters, exuberant organ. There's music from Edward Elgar to Athelstan Riley (who wrote Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones), there's the Gloria and other bits in Latin and there's Hail Mary, in English.

There's ritual and there's reverence, there's robing and there's dunrobing and there are bits - sacred mysteries, if you like - where I'm not really sure what's going on at all.

It's reverential worship, worship that's thought about, cared about, worried about. While such Catholic tastes may not be what many of us could stomach every week, they make for a quite wonderful occasional treat.

One of the readings is the passage about a perfect wife - "She is far beyond the price of pearls" - one of the prayers for the Pope, but not for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Perhaps a nod to the archdeacon, they do, however, remember "Thomas, Bishop of Durham". The Rt Rev Tom Wright may not have been called Thomas since he was five, and only then when his mum got cross with him for spilling Ribena down his best T-shirt.

New archdeacon, old joke, Nick Barker - who keeps bees - also tells the story about the preacher who admits to having spent a lot of time in the arms of another man's wife - "It was my mother, of course" - and of the absent-minded bishop who thinks it so clever a tale that he vows to use it when next in the pulpit.

"I've spent a lot of time in the arms of another man's wife - but unfortunately I can't remember who it was."

The archdeacon's churchmanship is said to be wholly different from that of the folk of St Helen's, but afterwards he says how nice it was to see a full church, a congregation who looked like they were enjoying it and who were paying attention to the sermon.

The subsequent spread could feed the five thousand and - "another good Catholic tradition," says Fr McTeer - there's a bottle of gin for the guest preacher. "My wife will drink it," he says.

Other clergy present include Canon David Hinge, celebrating 40 years of priesthood and of marriage, and Canon Neville Baker, whose final service after 39 years as vicar of St Andrew's in Spennymoor is on September 30. More of that anon.

Old friends like Sylvia Snowdon - now 98, but still Matron Snowdon thereabouts - and Nellie Bowser, awarded the MBE for services to the community - don't now get out much. Millie Walls is there, though, the little corner shop in West Auckland in her family for more than a century. "It's such a lovely church," she says.

The service has lasted 95 minutes, could happily have gone on longer, has sustained the overriding impression that it matters. It's the sort of service after which you want to stand and applaud, simply to say "Well done."

* Principal Sunday service at St Helen's Auckland is at 10am. Fr Robert McTeer is on 01388-604152.