Celebrant Rt Rev Paul Swarbrick Bishop of Lancaster. The Preacher will be Dom Robert Igo OSB, Abbot of Ampleforth. Benedictine Monks, Diocesan clergy, Sisters of Charity of St Paul, who have served here, along with Civic Dignitaries, Ecumenical clergy and Headteachers of our parish schools have been invited to join us. We hope that many of our parishioners will join together for this Mass and for the refreshments afterwards in Banklands Hall.

Our Lady & St Michael’s church is a significant gem within Cumbria’s patrimony, surrounded by peaceful gardens which contains some of the last remaining miners cottages, vestiges of Workington’s industrial past. The architect was E W Pugin (the younger Pugin). The main inspiration was Abbot Clifton OSB. Abbot Clifton was parish priest from 1844 until 1891. (He was the first monk to be publicly professed at Ampleforth after the return of the Community of St Laurence from France.) On arrival at Workington, he tells us he found ‘the chapel in a shocking condition, a wretched school with about a dozen children in it; the house badly furnished and scarcely fit for habitation.’ Abbot Clifton was responsible for two great works and we are keeping the 150th Anniversary of both - the building of the church and the bringing to Workington of the Sisters of Charity of St Paul from Selly Park.