12/12/21
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
Jump to: Engage >
Lorenzo Costa, St John the Baptist (San Pietro in Vincoli Altarpiece), 1505
National Gallery, London
Dates for your diary
Thurs 16 Dec, 6.30pm
Carols from St Johns
Sun 19 Dec
Services in the other churches:
St Margaret's - 10am
Ven Bede - 10.30am
St Johns - 11am
(no service at St James)
Tues 21 Dec, 3.30pm
St James Outdoor Christmas event
Joint event with Food Bank, Heritage & Environment Group, and other community partners
24 Dec - Christmas Eve
2-3.30pm - St Margaret Messy Christmas
3.30pm - St Margaret Crib service
24 Dec - Christmas Eve, 11.30pm
Midnight Mass at Venerable Bede
25 Dec - Christmas Day, 10.30am
Holy communion at Venerable Bede
Sun 26 Dec - Boxing Day/St Stephen's Day, 10.30am
Holy Communion at Venerable Bede
News
Advent & Christmas programme
Carols from St John's
Thursday 16th December, 6.30pm
Location: St John's Benwell Village, NE15 6NW
Join us for a traditional service of readings and carols from St John's.
St James Outdoor Christmas Event
Tuesday 21st December, 3.30pm
Location: St James Benwell, NE15 6RS (in the churchyard)
Join us at our big festive extravaganza! This community event is organised jointly with the West End Foodbank, the Heritage & Environment Group, and other local organisations. There will be lights around the churchyard, mulled wine, mince pies, a band will lead us in singing your favourite Christmas carols, we will have a creative re-telling of the nativity story and more. Just remember to wrap up warm!
St Margaret's Messy Christmas Eve and Crib service
24th December
2-3.30pm - Messy Christmas
3.30pm - Crib service
Location: St Margaret Scotswood, NE15 6AR
An afternoon for the whole family making Christmas crafts and decorations.
At 3.30pm we tell the story of Jesus' birth and build our nativity scene with a crib service.
Midnight Mass
24th December, 11.30pm
Location: Venerable Bede West Road, NE4 8AP
Join us for one of the most beautiful services of the year. By candlelight, just before midnight on Christmas Eve, we gather to celebrate the coming Jesus Christ with Holy Communion. You are welcome even if you have never been before.
Christmas Day
25th December, 10.30am
Location: Venerable Bede West Road, NE4 8AP
Join us on Christmas morning to celebrate the coming of Jesus with Holy Communion. You are welcome even if you have never been before.
St Stephen's Day
Sunday 26th December (Boxing Day) 10.30am
Location: Venerable Bede West Road, NE4 8AP
Join us on the feast of Stephen for Sunday Holy Communion.
Don't forget - services in other churches next week, 19th Dec
Morning services will be in the other churches next week:
St Margaret's - 10am
Ven Bede - 10.30am
St Johns - 11am
(Though no service at St James! Please join us at the outdoor carol service on 21st)
Have a rubbish Christmas!
Local artist Petra Ondrova and Revd Chris are making a big nativity scene made out of rubbish collected from the local area! We wanted to show that looking after the environment and the local area is a good thing. But also, after two years of having 'rubbish' Christmasses, we liked the idea of turning something rubbish into something good!
If you would like to help us make it then join us at St James on Tuesday 12-4 or Wednesday 10-1.
We are hoping this will be the crib scene for our Christmas event at St James on 21st Dec.
Congratulations to Dominic and Frances!
Congratulations to Revd Dominic and Frances Coad on the birth of their new baby boy! Born on Tuesday 7th Dec, weighing 7lb 12.
Donations and assistance for Christmas flowers
Donations for flowers for Christmas would be greatly appreciated. Help with flower arranging is also welcomed on 23rd of Dec. Please speak to Elspeth Kirkwood.
If anyone else was planning to help with flowers already then Elspeth is very happy to co-ordinate.
Worship Texts
The Advent wreath
3rd Sunday, the John the Baptist:
Lord Jesus, light of the world,
John told the people to prepare,
for you were very near.
As Christmas grows closer day by day,
help us to be ready to welcome you now.
Amen.
The Collect
O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Philippians 4.4–7 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Gospel
Luke 3.7–18 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’ And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
Sermon
James Bartle, Ordinand
“That’s it, I’m sorted. I’m ready for Christmas” a friend said to me a few weeks ago in early November. They are one of those super organised people who begins their Christmas shopping in spring and has all their Christmas plans in place before the first frost of winter has hit. I, on the other hand, am usually to be found racing around the streets of Newcastle on the 24th of December, attempting to complete my Christmas shopping in one late, lastminute rush.
Some of you may well be like my friend and feel you are ready for Christmas. All the presents are bought and even wrapped perhaps. Plans for Christmas Day have already fallen neatly into place. The turkey is in the freezer. And your Christmas decorations are up and are the envy of your neighbours.
But today I want to pose this question to you all, and especially to those of us who have that feeling that we are somehow ‘ready for Christmas’. You may well be ready for Christmas, but are you ready for Christ?
Traditionally, this Sunday is known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete means ‘rejoice’ and the name for today comes from the tradition in the early church to begin today’s service with an acclamation or antiphon: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.’ We heard the same words in today’s Epistle.
An initial reading of today’s Gospel may leave you wondering what exactly it is we are meant to be rejoicing about?
John the Baptist’s address to the ‘brood of Vipers’, condemning them for their complacency could well be directed at us today. It isn’t difficult to draw parallels between the need to share coats with those who have none, the greed of the tax collectors and the false accusations of the soldiers and the brokenness of our world today.
In this penitential season of Advent, we have been invited to reflect on the part we play in that brokenness. Advent gives us the space to reflect on our life of faith with God, what it is that brings us to life in God and those things which stop us from drawing closer to him. It means acknowledging when we have failed to love God, each other, and ourselves.
A rush to be ready for Christmas can often mean we lose this opportunity to reflect, but I do think today’s Gospel invites us to begin looking beyond that brokenness and our part in it, and towards that which puts right our relationship with God and the part we need to play in that too.
It is the invitation to be ready to rejoice that God’s story doesn’t stop at brokenness.
Today’s Gospel reading does not end with John the Baptist’s tale of woe. This is not a story of world and humans bad – the end. The promise of baptism which John the Baptist goes on to foretell, is the promise of the world and humankind being put right with God.
God doesn’t settle for a broken world. He doesn’t settle for things as they are or reminisce about how things used to be. God looks ahead and through his gifts of forgiveness, mercy and love he offers us the promise of a different kind of world. And Christ is ready to come and make that happen.
This will be a world where there will be enough coats for us all to have a share of the world’s resources. Where falsehood and lies will give way to truth. Where relationships that are fractured are restored. Where all those groans and gripes we have about the world are put to rest.
This will be a different world over which there is truly cause to rejoice!
I am conscious that this vision of a ‘new world’ can feel somewhat empty and far away when the reality of our lives comes crashing back down in front of us. Hope and a new world can often feel of little comfort to those for whom every day is a battle against the dark cloud of depression, or when the smallest of tasks seem unachievable as the anxiety bug hits or when the feeling of despondency kicks in as our inability to find work or make use of our talents leaves us feeling worthless. In those circumstances, promises of a new world can feel vacuous and cruel.
But the wonderful thing about this new world is that we are promised a place in it. Christ does not come just to restore the broken world around us, he also comes to restore brokenness within us. The invitation to be ready for rejoicing, is an invitation for each of us to be ready to be transformed more into the image of Christ.
We need to ready for that transformation and therefore we need make full use of this Advent season to grow deeper in our faithfulness and make our hearts, our minds and our lives ready for Christ. The great transformation we are promised at Christ’s second coming will indeed be glorious, but it’s a transformation that can also happen now. Being ready for Christ, ready for rejoicing, means turning all that we do and all that we are now towards God and saying ‘yes’ to becoming more Christ-like.
So, whether it is in one of those joyous moments we may have with friends and family in these next few weeks, in a quiet moment alone as we go about our daily lives or now as we meet Christ in the Eucharist, we need ask ourselves, are we ready? Are we ready to say ‘yes’ to Christ and the transformation he offers us right now?
Rejoice! Be ready for Christ. For Christ is ready for you.
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
John Nicholson
Alan Robson
Peter Wilson
Esmaeel
Liz Holliman
Joan Finley
James, Christina, Anastasia, and Xavier
Ali Zareie and his family
The Riches Family
Jill Sorley
Joyce Phillips
George Snowden
Claire Mozaffari
Herbert Agbeko
Edward Fraser
All those who are struggling at home or in hospital with Covid-19
Rest In Peace:
Tony Branch
Mehri Karami
Moira Taylor
Jimmy McIntyre
Janet and Frank Galbraith
All who died recently
Other intentions
Dominic, Frances, James, and their new baby
Post Communion prayer
We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.
Amen.