Welcome to the Rivers, Retford website. We are a group of Rural Parishes within the Retford area and all our Churches are Grade 1 listed and have stood in the centre of the villages for many centuries.
Even though our Church buildings are ancient we seek to proclaim the Gospel in accessible ways for todays world, whilst still respecting tradition.
We hope that you will find this website useful in finding times and dates of worship that are suitable to you. As you will see some of the Churches do not have regular services each week. You are most welcome to join any service in any of the Group.
(Please leave messages on the landline answerphone rather than the mobile).
My usual day off is currently Wednesday.
In my licensing service five months ago, my legal job title as given as “Assistant Curate”. My role is to share with the Bishop, the “cure of souls”. That’s a peculiar way of saying “take care of people”. As well as caring for people, I also have a shared responsibility to care for the church, which can often feel like being a curator of an ancient building. Admittedly many of them are historic, heritage buildings but they are not museums to be visited purely for their architectural and history value. Our church buildings are first and foremost places of praise, prayer and peace where we meet with one another and with God; where we celebrate the joys and sorrows of the cycle of life.
Life! That’s the important word, for as followers of Jesus we hear him say “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10.10). The “they” is you and me and everyone! The Life we are offered is the Life that Jesus gave up in his death on the cross which we will commemorate on Good Friday and the new Life which came with his Resurrection on Easter Day.
But the church is not a building; the church is the people of God who gather to worship and have fellowship together. So, the church is you and me and everyone who chooses the road to abundant life. We recognise that every Sunday when we share Holy Communion, but Holy Week and Easter is THE time to recognise and celebrate that gift of Life.
Some people ask why Good Friday is called “Good” Friday; surely the crucifixion of a good man (healer, teacher and prophet) in an outlying part of the Roman Empire, was a terrible thing. Well it would have been if it had been an ordinary man; but it wasn’t, he was the Son of God. And because he was the Son of God, it was “Good”. Good for you , good for me, good for everyone.
We are the church and the building, where we gather, is a beacon of the Life we have been promised. So please come and join us in the celebration of that new Life.
You are invited to all and any of the services and activities for April especially on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Eve and Easter Day. Full details of “what’s on” will be available in the churches, on the notice boards and on the web site. So, if you want new Life, please do come; you, your family, your friends, everyone! You can be assured of a warm welcome.