Family and friends of St. Oswald’s in-the- Fields Episcopal Church of rural Skidmore return each fall for a special service.  This year’s celebration is the 123rd Harvest Festival and will be held on Sunday, October 10, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Presiding at the service will be Father Michael Kyle, who served St. Oswald’s from 2004-2007. Modifications to the annual celebration include no potluck dinner afterwards and masks will be required indoors, per the CDC recommendation, regardless of vaccination status.

St. Oswald’s was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The building was modeled after the founding families’ home church – St. Oswald’s in Grasmere, England.  It was said by the early founders of the church, that if the church did not continue, it would make a good sheep shed! St. Oswald’s was built using the gable front variant of the Shingle style, first used in the suburbs on the East Coast at the end of the 19th century. Many churches in the north of England are dedicated to the Sainted King Oswald, including the one at Grasmere, of which the Missouri St. Oswald’s is the namesake.  Today, traditions are maintained, including Harvest Festival, which began in 1897.

St. Oswald’s is located in southeast Atchison County.  Directions from Mound City are: take Route N for five miles north and then north on Keystone Drive for four miles. From Maryville the church is 19 miles west on Highway 46 then four miles south on EE. From Fairfax, take Highway 46 east seven miles then four miles south on EE.