St Andrew's Church, Greystoke

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Fri, 11/09/2026 - 00:00

Greystoke near Penrith in Cumberland is a small village with a gigantic church, St Andrew's. It is one of those churches in which, should I ever be locked in by mistake, the first 4-5 hours would be spent quiet happily inspecting, examining, measuring and observing before any sense of panic set in. Its scale might be on account of its being used as a kind of northern seminary from 1382 until the twentieth century, an attempt, no doubt, to improve the quality of northern clergy. Furthermore, it had a number of grand parsons, including Henri de Grandson and Gérard de Vuippens, who went onto to become the Bishops of Verdun and Lausanne respectively, having served as diplomats for King Edward I of England. Greystoke’s size might have reassured these two ambitious men that being a country vicar in the far north was not as humiliating as it might have been. I suspect that their proximity to Scotland, in light of Edward’s penchant for invading that land, was the real reason for their ‘call’ to Greystoke; its wealth would have made them keener to accept.

To the back of the church appeared to be a large crucifix, the kind to set aboil my Protestant blood. Yet the figure is attached to the wall, not beams, and positioned between two spears. A sign identifies the piece as ‘Today You Will Be With Me In Paradise’, offering the name of Josefine de Vasconcellos as the artist (she died in 2005). It might a representation be of the Lord addressing the dying thief with that wonderful promise, or more likely, the dying thief himself, receiving it. Although I have no plans to install some equivalent artwork in our nonconformist chapel, I did still find it rather moving. For all Greystoke’s grandeur and its former priests' hauteur and power, and for all its current affiliations with Holy Trinity, Brompton (a successful, charismatic Anglican network), the message of the installation is the only thing that matters. Are we trusting the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ for eternal life, or are we not? Whether we are bishops-in-the-making, powerful rulers, Cumbrian peasants or successful farmers, the offer of salvation is ours to accept or neglect.