Newsletter - Second Sunday before Advent
16/11/25 (Year C)
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
Services this week
Sunday
10am - St John's Holy Communion
10am - St Margaret's Holy Communion
11.15am - St James Parish Eucharist
Tuesday
4.30pm - Farsi Bible Study at St James
Thursday
12pm - Ven Bede Holy Communion
Next Sunday
10am - St John's Holy Communion
10am - St Margaret's Holy Communion
11.15am - St James Parish Eucharist
6pm - Confirmation (with communion)
Dates for your diary
20 November
7pm - PCC at St John's
23 November
6pm - Confirmation service at St James
News
Confirmation Service
6pm, Sunday 23rd November at St James
Bishop Mark Wroe will be with us to lead this very special service for us.
Confirmation is a big step when we declare that we want to follow Jesus Christ, to receive the Holy Spirit, and to be part of his church, always finding ways to love God and one another.
Bring a dish to share (and/or a bottle!) to celebrate after the service.
Preparation
English speakers (all ages) - Wednesday at 4.30pm
Farsi speakers - Tuesday at 4.30pm
Rehearsal for everyone - 5pm next Sunday
The Christmas Charity Auction
Wed 17th Dec, viewing from 4pm, bidding begins at 5pm
This Christmas season will also see the return of our charity auction at St James to raise money for the church to keep us open and caring for our community.
There will be plenty of lots, big and small for all budgets. Grab a bargain and join the fun!
All are welcome whether your bidding or not. There will also be mulled wine, festive snacks and some carol singing as well.
Help needed:
If you have good quality items to donate please speak to Kath McIntyre.
If you have connections to local businesses and venues that could donate something, then please ask them and let us know!
We need volunteers to help with refreshments, set-up, tidy-up, taking payments, and carol singing.
St James Charity shop - now open!
This week we have opened our new charity shop at St James! This is to raise money to keep our community work going. Have a browse and grab a bargain!
It will be open whenever the church is open, this is usually:
Tuesday 10-4
Wednesday 10-1
Thursday 10-3
Delivery can be arranged for larger items.
Please speak to Kath McIntyre or Chris Foskett if you have donations of good-quality household items.
Please note - we will not be accepting donations of clothes and soft goods.
MODS - mental health support group
St James Benwell hall, NE15 6RS
Wednesdays
Group starts at 1.30pm (arrive from 1.10pm). Finish by 2.30pm
MODS (Made of Diverse Stuff) is an ongoing mental health peer support group — helping us to help ourselves!
You can start and finish whenever you like, and rejoin at any time. There’s no pressure to share anything you don’t want to. This is an open and safe space to share whatever is going on for you.
Together, we’ll learn about our own mental health through visual aids, journaling, and discussion, discovering ways to improve our lives.
Kathy Germain, our Reader (Licensed Lay Minister), leads the group. She has many years of experience running mental health peer support groups and volunteering with Citizens Advice.
“Mental health has been part of my life and my family’s life since I was very young. It is a personal journey. This won’t be about me telling people what to do, but about helping you to improve your mental health. This is something that is very close to my heart.” — Kathy Germain
Sermon
Fr Chris
Sometimes you hear or see something that sticks in your mind– a line from a poem, a scene from a film, a piece of music.
A particular lyric written by David Albarn (of Blur and Gorillaz fame) has stuck in my mind for years. He wrote a modern opera called Dr Dee, that includes these lines:
“When cathedrals, they sink into the seas under sand
The ghosts that are left in them
They slip through the hand…”
*
That picture of cathedrals sinking into sand reminds us of the impermanence of everything. This church we are in is really a sandcastle. A long-lasting and beautiful one, but the stone is just compacted sand, and one day it too will disappear.
Strangely, I find that comforting. All our worry, all the pressures and anxieties: they too will pass.
*
In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the heart of Jewish society. He says, “The days will come when not one stone will be left upon another”. To his listeners, this was unimaginable. The Temple was their certainty, the place where God dwells. And Jesus tells them that even this will fall. And it did, 37 years after his death.
*
Christians have always had a complex relationship with buildings. We care deeply about our local churches and our great cathedrals– and we should, because what is beautiful and sacred should be accessible to all, not the just the privileged few. These are places where people encounter God, encounter community, and where we serve one another. This is why we are fixing the roof at St James, and why we just met with the architect at St Margaret’s to make sure it isn’t sinking into the old coal mines below. These things matter because people matter.
*
However, we also follow a God who is not contained in a building, a religion where our hearts are the temple. Jesus, in our passage, is intentionally challenging his followers’ assumptions– where they think God dwells will not survive, but the presence of God will be shown in them, in their relationships, and will endure all manner of things.
*
We are preparing some of you for confirmation next week, on the Feast of Christ the King. This period from All Saints to Advent is sometimes called Kingdom Season. We remember that Christ reigns as king- not through war, not through dominance, not through great monuments and castles, but through love, through the sacrifice of power, as a King crucified– the cross as his throne, and his court in heaven.
*
Jesus reminds us that God’s kingdom is alive and is still being built with us. Christ is the cornerstone, we are the building blocks, and at your confirmation you will declare you are part of that. Temples fall. Institutions change. Christians are not guaranteed a place of privilege. But that is not something to fear because the love of God lives in you forever.
*
I have heard a lot of worry recently about our changing society, particularly that this is no longer a ‘Christian country’. The fear is that our great institutions will change or disappear, that our once strong Christian country is losing its power and influence, our culture being watered down. This is absolute rubbish and has nothing to do with Christianity. Our faith is not based on fear. Do you think that God will stop existing if our buildings are knocked down?
*
To be a Christian country means to love your neighbour as yourself. How dare anyone use the cross—the symbol of unconditional love and sacrifice—to claim that someone is unworthy of God’s love? How dare they wield it as a weapon of exclusion?
Temples will crumble. Societies will shift. Buildings will close. But love endures forever in Christ. So Jesus challenges us: do not fear what is to come. Do not cling to position or privilege. We care for our buildings and our communities, yes. But, we are more than our buildings. We are the living temple where God dwells.
*
Everything earthly is temporary and dying. But God is alive. And we are alive in his kingdom forever.
Our faith is one of enduring hope, of compassion, and a kingdom built in love, not in stone.
*
Amen.
