Vision/Action

Thwaite, towards the head of Swaledale, was the birthplace of those two giants of photography -

Richard
and
Cherry Kearton

who became internationally renowned as wildlife observers They began in 1892 and three years later they compiled “British Bird’s Nests”, the first natural history textbook to be illustrated with authentic wildlife photographs.
The Keartons also developed a type of “hide” that is still in regular use.
Richard went on to become a renowned lecturer whilst Cherry, who was smitten with wanderlust, traveled the world and entertained millions with the wildlife films that he had shot in Africa.
The Kearton’s work popularised nature and contributed significantly to its preservation.
They remained in contact and often came to stay with friends and family in the Dale.

Although most of the small Dales farms no longer produce milk, on those that still do the black-and-white Friesian cow is now the predominant breed.
Prior to the middle of the last century, however,
Dairy Shorthorns were almost the only dairy cattle to be seen on these traditionally-farmed holdings where the regular main income might come from just 12-15 cows.

The
Dairy Shorthorn
and its “kin” breed, the Beef Shorthorn,
go back hundreds of years and are the only breed of cattle native to the Dales.
They are all coloured red, white or roan
(a mixture of both - see above)
and are ideally suited to the harder conditions of the Dales.
They are docile, hardy, will happily out-winter and produce high quality milk mainly from grass.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the Friesian cow with its milk yield of up to twice that of the Shorthorn gradually replaced almost all these gentle animals, not only in the Dales but nation-wide. The result was that in 1978, the Dairy Shorthorn was put on the critical list of the
Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
Today, with the increased demand for local and sustainable products, it looks as though the Shorthorn breed may yet have a revival .

Vision Process Update - May 2010

Looking back.
The first focus was prayer, and these have been the areas of growth:

Prayer Groups
There is a lay-led prayer group meeting regularly in the parish, using Lectio Divina and other resources and approaches to prayer. A week of guided prayer took place recently.
Small Pilgrim Places
Holy Trinity, Low Row is a member of this national network, which offers places of prayer and hospitality to visitors.
Intercessions in Services
Intercessions are now lay-led in all Common Worship Communion services at Muker and Low Row, and once a month at Grinton. Arkengarthdale Church always has a Book of Common Prayer Communion service, and discussion is underway as to how lay-led intercessions could be introduced in this context. Meetings for training, resourcing and encouragement in this ministry now take place every 6 months on a parish-wide basis.
Cursillo
The PCC was introduced to this movement by the Revd Wilf Gowing from Ripon. There is information around the parish for anyone who is interested, although no one to date has decided to become involved.
Day Retreats
A group from this parish ran a second led Day Retreat in April 2009, which was attended by visitors from Ripon. We hope that this can be our contribution to making “rural-urban links” in the diocese. This will continue to be advertised in the coming year, and we hope that other groups will make use of these retreats.

Keld Resource Centre
The Manse and other URC-owned buildings at Keld are being transformed into the Keld Resource Centre, which will offer accommodation and retreat space when finished. Joan Graveson has been our representative on the ecumenical working party that has been moving this project forward. The manse is now complete and in use for holidays, respite for ministers, and for a “minister-in-residence” scheme.

Learning more about the Bible was our next focus and we worked on the following areas:
Pew Bibles
We are grateful to our friends at Holy Trinity Church in Ripon, who generously gave us a set of pew Bibles for our four churches. These are available for visitors to use during the week when the buildings are open, as well as being used during Sunday services.
Lectio Divina
One way of reading and using the Bible to grow in faith is through "Lectio Divina" or "Holy Reading". Joan Graveson led us into this monastic approach as part of our Lent course last year, and this has led into the prayer group.
Workshop on “Reading the Bible in Church”
This was held at Grinton. It helped with practical aspects of public reading, such as volume and projection, but also concentrated on understanding and interpreting the text to be read, and reading it so that the hearers would understand the flow and meaning of the Scriptures. We plan to repeat this event in 2010 at Arkengarthdale.
Lent Meetings in 2010
These were ecumenical meetings, on the theme of Learning more about the Bible. They included A Bible Overview, Finding your way around the Bible, Using the Bible in your own devotional life and will explore a number of themes from the Bible. The workshop session was particularly memorable, for the range of materials and resources available and for the sense of the presence of God at that meeting.

Looking forward.
We are now working on the theme of “Growing our Christian Discipleship”, which will lead us into a broad range of activities in the parish.
As a basis for this we are using The Radical Disciple, a new book by John Stott.