A POPULAR priest who helped guide Barnard Castle through the coronavirus pandemic will be bidding the town farewell next month.
The Revd Sarah Cliff arrived as curate to St Mary’s Church on June 30, 2019, just eight months before the country was put into lockdown.
Her last service will be on March 12, before she takes over as vicar at St John the Divine, in Sandylands, part of the Diocese of Blackburn.
The former credit manager said she had always “had a feeling God was calling me to do something”.
At the time women could not be ordained. After studying part time for three years, she became a lay-preacher at All Saints Blackwell, in Darlington.
Even when church regulations changed, it was still difficult for her to enter the priesthood.
She said: “I was a re-married divorcee, which is also challenging in the Church of England, but obviously God wanted me because every time there was a hurdle as I made my way through (the process) it was cleared.”
She studied for two years at Durham University’s College of Theology and was confirmed as curate at Barnard Castle.
In her first week she was asked to conduct a baptism.
Mrs Cliff said: “It was exactly seven days after my arrival. She was my first one – it all went well and that was really lovely.
“I have loved being part of the journey and baptising 38 children and nine adults in my time here.”
Early the following year the pandemic happened.
Mrs Cliff said: “I was only eight months into ordained ministry – nothing had prepared any minister for this scenario. Services in the church building and physical gatherings ceased. The church is not a building; the church is the people – we met and worshipped on Zoom.
“Weddings ceased, baptisms ceased and pastoral care of the parish had to be adapted.”
Funerals were particularly difficult.
Mrs Cliff said: “We had to do phone calls, we couldn’t go meet the families. I think originally there were only ten people allowed and they weren’t in the church – they were at the graveside or at the crematorium. It was heart-breaking – I couldn’t hold or touch those people.”
During her time at Barnard Castle she said she was honoured to have walked with the 78 families of loved ones whose funeral service she had taken.
Along with vicar, the Revd Canon Alec Harding, the church persisted through the pandemic by posting items through doors, phoning round and loading video sermons on Facebook.
She said: “We learnt as we went along. Some things did not work, others had to be tweaked, but we never stopped praying and worshipping.”
Her own ordination as a priest was due to take place in the June, but was postponed to September 2020 and instead of taking place at Durham Cathedral, the ordination happened in Barnard Castle. There was a very restricted audience and even her daughter was unable to attend.
As restrictions were eased the priest was able to conduct her first wedding – at Whorlton on March 21, 2021.
She said: “It was a most beautiful wedding, it was very special. My second one was at Barnard Castle School in the chapel. That was really lovely, it had been postponed three times.”
During the past four years she has built up strong relationships with local primary schools and community groups such as Cubs and Brownies, care homes and organisations like TCR Hub.
“It is great in a community like this because when I walk through the town and children say ‘hello Rev Sarah’ and they tell their parents ‘that is Rev Sarah, she shares stories and we sing songs’, so that is lovely.”
A project which she helped develop and secure funding for will not reach fruition until after she leaves. This will see the introduction of a parish nurse one for Teesdale and one for Weardale, who will reach out to people in isolated rural areas.
“I loved being in a rural ministry because of the sense of community and working together with other churches and agencies,” she added.
She said the vast experience she had gained here would stand her in good stead at her new parish at Sandylands, near Morecambe.
