Shepherd’s Church, Wyresdale

Christ Church at Lancashire’s Over Wyresdale is known as the Shepherd’s Church (not to be confused with the not-so-far-away Church of the Good Shepherd). All its stained-glass windows contain images of sheep and pastoral scenes, and well might they: Over Wyresdale is rural and hilly and perfect for the rearing of ewes and rams. The church is eighteenth-century but replaced a late medieval chapel, so for hundreds of years, shepherds, employers of shepherds, and the families of shepherds called this their place of worship. The roof’s open beams and trusses somehow confirm this pastoral atmosphere.

Unusually for so remote and plain a church, it has strong aristocratic connections. The seventh Earl of Sefton lies buried here, who once owned these hills before they passed to the Dukes of Westminster who are still known to reside and hunt around Abbeystead.

It is reassuring to know that whether we be a lord or a peasant, a rich landowner or a landless tenant, that the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, cares for all His sheep. He has resolved not to lose any, even when they go to cross from this rough moorland of this life to the green pastures of the next. The river is deep, the waters cold, and the current powerful but the Shepherd’s arms are strong, and His face all smiling as He carries us home to be with Him forever.

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep…And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. John 10:11,16