Barningham Parish Lunch: Raising Funds

Since 2009 a parish lunch has been organised by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Michael & All Angels Church, Barningham, which is located between Richmond and Barnard Castle.

The lunches are held three times a year, with the main aim being to raise funds for the local Church. A more recent development has been that 10% of the profits are now donated to Christian charities, for example Church Urban Fund, Christian Aid & the Children’s Society. A typical Parish lunch will raise over £600 after expenses have been deducted.

The lunches are held in the village hall after Sunday morning worship, with all the vegetable dishes being prepared by Church volunteers; sweets are prepared and provided by individual Church members; the main course, a hot meat or fish dish being supplied by a local caterer. This has included: roast beef, pork or lamb and salmon in season.

The Parish lunches have become extremely popular, with a recent lunch attracting nearly sixty people, including people from the local community as well as friends from the wider area.  There is a real sense of fellowship during the meal as people talk with friends and neighbours; diners often staying to talk long after the meal has finished.

One aspect that has made the initiative possible in Barningham is that there is no local pub or restaurant in the community, so there was no abstraction of revenue from a local business.  It would of course be possible to hold a parish lunch in a community with a local pub or restaurant by either holding the event on their premises or commissioning them to provide some of the catering.

Other churches in the area are now considering replicating the initiative because of its success

The Parish Lunch initiative could be seen to reconnect with the historic pattern of the quarterly feast days in the calendar, which were celebrated at Christmas Easter, Lady Day and Michaelmas. It could also be seen to build on the popularity of harvest suppers, which are still held in many rural communities, following harvest festival services.