The Revd Melanie Burnside, Priest-in-Charge of Helmsley and Upper Ryedale, reflects on her experience at this year’s inaugural Salt and Light Festival.
The Salt and Light Festival, built on the ‘Small, Faithful, Rural’ conference 2022, ‘is a partnership with Carlisle, Durham, Leeds, Newcastle and York dioceses offering faith and hope for rural mission.’
The most important aspect for me was the speakers who brought perspectives from beyond the church, but which had so many parallels to church life. Having the discussions grounded in theology so aptly and expertly curated by Frances Ward facilitated my thinking and reflection. Patrick Laurie’s talk on sustainable farming from his own personal perspective as a generational farmer and the plight of the curlews encouraged me to reflect on the importance of place and tradition. It highlighted the dangers of what we might be losing unknowingly and led me to consider how to preserve the past while looking to the future.
Max Adams’ particular focus was on our built heritage and its place within the landscape, and of travelling to it at a walking pace. A thread that linked the two talks was Max’s connection to the land of his ancestors and the living memory of the saints who have gone before.
Michelle Brown took us from the specific to the wider cultural and historic legacy of our Faith in the North but linked it all very practically with her passion for mission and ministry, currently in Cornish rural communities.
I chose to attend a couple of excellent workshops with Dee Dyas and Paul Rose; each in their own way had lots of ideas for helping others to encounter God in our places of worship, our natural landscape and connecting those encounters with the whole of life. These provided particularly helpful ideas and insights for our new Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail here in Helmsley and Upper Ryedale. The opportunity to network with others with experience and knowledge in rural mission and ministry, those incidental conversations, was great too.
Sally Shortall was extremely thought-provoking and gave information and insights into rural economics and the difficulties that our rural communities face. She also gave practical ideas and ways of supporting those amongst whom I minister.
It was all underpinned with heartfelt worship and beautiful music from Paul Knox on violin and Northumbrian small pipes, with the stunning scenery enjoyed from the roof of The Sill with the cry of curlews circling overhead.
I highly commend this kind of festival to any rural practitioners for the opportunity to expand our perspectives and envisage an incarnational holistic approach to rural mission and ministry.
- The next Festival is scheduled for 12 and 13 June 2026 with the theme of pilgrimage.
