What took a year to build and cost £15,000? What has panga panga blocks and Columbian pine beams? Where do we find unpolished mahagony and limestone sourced locally, some from the estate? Where do we find something shaped like a carpenter’s bench, and what is it? What are panga panga blocks resistant to in their native country?
The answer is of course the chapel which was dedicated on the 8th of April 1961 by the Lord Bishop of Liverpool. For the other questions, why don’t you have a guess and email us at admin@scargillmovement.org with your answers.
Since we have been open at the beginning of June this year a number of new guests have treasured their time in the chapel, and there has been at least one life given to Jesus over these last few months. We have also had folk who have been here in the past come in just to look at the chapel. We even had an architectural student who stopped by to admire it.
It is a Grade II listed building designed by York architect George Pace in the Modernist style, wood, and rock and sky glued together. At its dedication the Bishop of Bradford said the blessing and Revd Geoffrey Rogers, the then Warden of Lee Abbey said prayers. Dr Donald Coggan a famous friend of Scargill was that Bishop and went on to be the Archbishop of York and of Canterbury.
The spectacular sweeping roof is made of grey cedar shingles. The architect was also involved in the design of the wrought iron cross behind the altar, and the pattern for the kneelers. The clear latticed windows are designed that a worshipper might be encouraged to lift their eyes up to the hills (Psalm 121). They also let in all the light of the sky and the Dales.
In stormy weather the chapel creaks and groans like a ship in sail, and you are transported to Galilee and imagining yourself on a fishing boat with Jesus. Shaped like praying hands it has held thousands of people, young and old from every background in its embrace, in joy and in sorrow, a thin place where heaven and earth can meet.
At the moment the community prays three times a day. It is a place where in silence and solitude you can be alone in its light, but not lonely. Or you can worship with 150 others and be taken out of your own self into God’s presence. If you have a memory or a photo of the chapel do send it to shaun.lambert@scargillmovement.org. In remembering the good things of the past, we can be grateful in the present and hopeful for the future.
Dear Friends
This, as ever, comes with much love and prayers from the Scargill Community. Many of you will be aware that we were delighted to welcome a limited number of guests back from 4th June which has been wonderful.
The feedback has been very positive, as one guest wrote: ‘I am encouraged that the Scargill Community has survived a difficult year and very much appreciate being able to come here and all the careful planning you have put in place to keep us safe. It is always good to come here and sense God’s presence in this special place. Thank you for your love and support.’
We would very much value your continued prayers for Community as our hearts’ desire is to give a warm Scargill welcome within the restrictions that we have to abide to at this time. So far it is going well!
We are very much wanting to grow the Community – and if you know of anyone who is looking to fill a gap year then please do point them in our direction.
Our next online event is a Renew Refresh Restore– Friday 16th to Sunday 18th July, which is alongside an in-house event. Please look at the website for details.
We will be continuing with our livestream Wednesday Evening Prayer service but just to give you a heads up the Community will be taking some downtime allowing for some holiday, so sadly there will not be a service on Wednesdays 21st and 28th July. We will be back livestreaming on 4th August.
We are very much working on the next programme, which we hope will be with you by the end of this month, and cover September 2021 to February 2022 events.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming you again through our doors.
Here is Di’s latest reflection. Enjoy!
Diane writes:
I have been thinking a lot about change recently. COVID hastily brought, rightly so, an enforced, sustained time of change upon us, which we were not used to. And it has, again, rightly so, been constantly changing! Most of us are coping well, other just about, but perhaps all us feel weary. The past was much simpler!!! Or was it?
Bob Tamsay reassures us that ‘One of life’s constants is change. Ready or not, it happens. We grow. We age. Technology reinvents each new day. Some relish change; others resist. We like it best on our terms, but don’t always have that option. Sometimes all we can do is cope with it’. Which is perhaps where most of us are at the moment.
Picasso: 18 years old
Picasso: 25 years old
Picasso: 35 years old
Picasso: 56 years old
Picasso: 83 years old
Picasso: 90 years old
Picasso seems to have embraced change, he constantly sought out and experimented with new ideas, new techniques, new materials to work with, and created a whole range of self-portraits – the same person seen through evolving styles of art. Here are a few of them, from mymodernart.com which in December 2016 had an article by Kelly Richman-Abdou ‘Evolution of Picasso’s Iconic Self-Portraits from Age 15 to 90’. They all reflect Picasso’s constantly changing styles and although I appreciate some more than others they all suggest, reveal something of Picasso’s personality and they are all part of his journey.
Cinema going has been a constant part of my journey and after Faith went to see Anthony Hopkins in The Father at the Skipton Plaza, I became rather nostalgic about going to the cinema; which has certainly changed in my life time. As I child I remember two shorter full length films and the usher. The usher with her torch, showing you to your seat, identify the young couple at the back or those talking too loudly and then, in the interval striding down the aisle to serve ice-cream. I also have a vague memory of ladies wearing hats (at times so annoying) and standing for the National Anthem. Did we really do that?
Slowly all this changed, multiplex cinemas became the thing, with small cinemas like our Skipton Plaza being the exception! They show long films, have an usher who rarely moves, heaps of popcorn, an interval after the ads and going out to get your own ice-cream. Mind you a couple of years ago we went to a cinema with sofas and the pre-order interval refreshments were brought to you. So, you see, not all change is bad.
This past year we have had to learn to embrace change, find new ways of living, that although strange and unfamiliar have become acceptable and achievable. Rick Newman wrote ‘Change can teach us to adapt and help us develop resilience, but only if we understand our own capacity for growth and learning. When change makes us better, it’s because we have learned how to turn a challenging situation to our own advantage, not merely because change happens.’
Can we look back and use the changes made for ‘the common good’, sift through them and find those that will be beneficial to keep, those that have brought about positive change and those that could be adapted for the days ahead? Here at Scargill we will keep an eye on our ‘rhythm of life’ with and without guests and continue having zoom events, often alongside residential ones – a hybrid programme apparently! And I will certainly keep up my morning exercises, shop locally or online, be more creative with cooking – thanks to our daughter and visit all our children and grandchildren as often as possible – I have sorely missed them and OH, how much they have grown and matured (well some of them!) in 15 months.
