Surveys of Our Lady’s & St Michael’s church have revealed that the south transept of the church needs attention. Historic movement, probably when the church was built, has caused some high level cracking which needs addressing to ensure the integrity of the building. Additionally, the stonework and tracery around the beautiful rose window of Our Lady has perished over time with the onslaught of the Cumbrian weather and needs replacing if we are not to lose the stained-glass windows altogether.

LThe preservation of this historic church is of singular importance and the Stella Maris Restoration Group are preparing a bid for National Lottery Funding to cover the cost of this work. This grant-making body does not give out grants for maintenance work by itself. Rather, efforts must be made to link that essential work to wider community interest and outreach, and this is where we must be imaginative. Working with our architect, the Stella Maris Restoration Group, and the parish’s Finance and Property Management Group, plans are afoot to re-develop the south transept of the church into a devotional hub focussing upon our local history and community.

The three walls of the transept area will showcase three significant features of our community’s history. First, the commissioning of a new icon of the saints of Cumberland to be placed centrally upon the altar (more on this below). To its right, the re-siting of the outstanding fifteenth-century Jervaulx alabaster reliefs, which tell of significant events in Christ’s life, and which are currently obscured in the Lady Side Chapel. Their re-positioning would enable them to be displayed more effectively and provide the backdrop to a telling of the story of the Benedictine contribution to the history of West Cumbria. Finally, the re-development of the existing war memorial to include a memorial to those from the local community who died in the pits and in the steel works, a fitting tribute to the industrial patrimony of the town, alongside the names of those who died for their country at war.

In this year which marks the creation of Cumberland County Council, and the forthcoming centenary anniversary of the Diocese of Lancaster, and the Jubilee Year of the Universal Church, Martin Earle has been commissioned to create an icon. Icons provide a window to Heaven, a living link between the saints and those on earth. Iconographers ‘write’ an icon, rather than paint them, for they are not primarily intended as works of art but as a sacred means by which the Word of God becomes flesh: earthly creation is transfigured into something Heavenly. Drawing inspiration from Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze’s thirteenth-century icons in the National Gallery in London, Martin Earle will create an icon of the saints of Cumberland: saints Ninian and Cuthbert, two great missionary abbots and bishops of the fourth and seventh centuries; saints Herbert and Bega, hermits on Derwentwater and at St Bees, Blessed Christopher Robinson, a martyr for the faith during the time of the Reformation, and Servant of God, John Bradburne, from the Eden Valley, a poet and prolific writer, who found solace in the last part of his life living amongst the lepers of Mutemwa in Rhodesia, from where he was kidnapped and executed in 1979. In these saints we have examples of men and women stretching through the ages whose lives have been marked by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, who lived lives of prayer, service and witness to the world in which they lived, and who continue to be a source of inspiration to us today. That they are little known provides us with the opportunity to bring them once again to the fore, and especially to link their stories with the young people of our schools.

A significant work of art such as this icon requires a considerable outlay of effort. The icon will take Martin Earle three months to write. The entirety of the icon is hand-crafted with its poplar wood panel and oak batons, the gesso base, and the painstaking and highly skilled application of layers of paint made from pigments and precious minerals from remote corners of the earth, and of course the gold leaf finish. We are looking for benefactors, or groups of benefactors to club together, to ‘adopt a saint’ at £1000 for each saint, and £1500 for the central figure of the icon which will be Our Lady Star of the Sea holding Christ the Good Shepherd, linking together the name of the church with the name of our parish. This unique project for Cumbria enables parishioners and members of the community to take pride in its history and the saints that have sprung from this soil, and who continue to intercede for us, and present a very special link between ourselves and heaven as we walk through the pathways of our time.

If you would wish to make a donation, payments can be made by BACS (details on the parish newsletter or contact the parish office) or by cheque made out to ‘LRCDTR Christ the Good Shepherd’ or cash placed in an envelope marked out as ‘Icon Appeal’. There is also the option of paying contactless by using the machine at the back of Our Lady’s & St Michael’s church.