All-round Immaculate

It was the afternoon of the Victorian themed garden party at the Roman Catholic church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Cuthbert, a particularly special occasion to mark the church's 150th anniversary.

Had the civic hall down the hill not been closed by a cost cutting council, the downpour wouldn't have mattered so much. "We were desolate," says Celia Hetherington, who has written the sesquicentennial history.

"Every little village in the country has a hall, but Crook hasn't. It's dreadful that they've closed it."

In the event they stood outside, clothes soaked but spirits undampened, raising a quite remarkable £4,800. The following morning, 10am Mass, the sun beamed, brazzened, through splendid stained glass windows.

"While none of us would want to be without rain, it's just the time that it falls," Fr Tony Owens tells a well filled church. "People deserve medals for turning out. They must have been frozen at the stalls."

Good Catholics, they'd had little bets with one another on how much might have been raised. Good Catholics, they'd had a drink to their success. "We wouldn't have made half as much if we'd been Methodists," says Celia. "The grand draw was full of booze."

In 1830, Crook had fewer than 200 people; 20 years later, the population was 3,946. Built with miners' mickles and widows' mites, the church, school and presbytery were opened at a cost of £3,000 on October 25, 1854, the 100ft high clock tower which dominates the town - or dominated it until that egregious Civic Centre was built - was added in 1897.

The Catholic tradition has always been strong thereabouts. "When I came to the North-East in the 1960s, the parish of Crook had a wonderful reputation," says Fr Owens, the first Irish parish priest for 80 years.

At the time on Tyneside, he says, Crook seemed an awfully long way away. Now, he adds, it seems much closer.

Celia's book recalls the high affection in which successive priests have been held, most returned to Crook to be buried within the church grounds. Fr Owens, not least because of his fealty towards Newcastle United - an apparent obligation among 95 per cent of Catholic priests in the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle - is no less popular.

They'd noticed it at his first parish Mass when, kneeling in the sanctuary, he exposed his Alan Shearer socks. Now he even has a paging device to keep him up to speed with the score.

"His spirituality and holiness are apparent and his sense of humour and wonderful story telling has endeared him to the people," adds the anniversary history.

The church is magnificent within and without, the welcome spontaneous, the music marvellous, the congregational participation polished and enthusiastic. In ten years, it is, without question, the Catholic service at which the column - middle of the road Anglican - has felt most comfortably at home.

The bairns troop out for a special liturgy of their own. A little lad wears Magpie stripes, in deference to Fr Tony or Sir Bobby, or both.

Afterwards, there's the annual blessing of the graves, an Irish tradition, and coffee in the adjacent convent, home to Sisters Lucy and Marie-Therese of the order of Faithful Companions of Jesus.

Around the parish, it's said, the FCJ is sometimes known as Fellers Can't Join. ("You can't put that in the paper, mind.")

None hesitates when asked what's so special about St Cuthbert's - as, in shorthand form, they know it - none would wish to be in any other church.

It's the wonderful sense of community, says one, the tradition of looking after the sick and elderly, adds a second, the music, the welcome, the "lovely" masses, the nuns ("they add so much to the parish," someone else says, "you can even borrow a cup of sugar off them.")

Sister Lucy says that among the great joys are the ecumenical enterprise and that everyone can take part in the services. She also enjoys the Christmas pantomimes.

"We have headmasters, judges, all sorts. It's fantastic for the parish that people like that are prepared to be laughed at."

Fr Owens, also in charge of the church of St Thomas of Canterbury in Wolsingham - marking its own 150th anniversary this afternoon with a celebration of Blessed John Duckett, Weardale's martyr - insists that most of the work is done by the laity.

But, he adds, when all those folk told him what a wonderful parish Crook was, he now knows that they were right.

* A parish healing mass will be held in St Cuthbert's on Saturday, July 17, at 2pm and a flower festival from September 17-19, with a festival concert on the Saturday evening. The principal 150th anniversary mass is on Thursday, October 21 (7pm) after which a "gargantuan" faith supper is promised. Regular Sunday masses are at 10am and 6pm.

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