28/11/21
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Francisco de Zurbaran, Jacob (from the series 'Jacob and his twelve sons'), c.1640-45
Oil on canvas, Auckland Castle, County Durham
Dates for your diary
Thurs 2 Dec, 10.30am
St John's midweek service
Thurs 16 Dec, 6.30pm
Carols from St Johns
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.
St John's weekday service this Thurs
Thursday 2nd December, 10.30am
Location: St John's Benwell Village, NE15 6NW
On the first Thursday of the month at 10.30am we have a service of Holy Communion at St John's.
Future dates:
6th January
3rd February
3rd March
7th April
Worship Texts
The Advent wreath
1st Sunday, the Patriarchs:
Lord Jesus, light of the world,
the mothers and fathers of our faith heard your call
help us to hear your call at Christmas
to bring justice and peace to the world
as we journey in the hope of your promise.
Amen.
The Collect
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
1 Thessalonians 3.9–13 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Gospel
Luke 21.25–36 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’
Sermon
The Revd David Kirkwood
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen
Today is Advent Sunday it marks a New Beginning; a New Season and you might be surprised to learn in the Church Calendar it is a New YEAR
I have my new Diary to prove it, we are now in Year C The Year of Luke (last year was the year of Mark) so like today’s gospel, this yea,r in our Sunday gospel readings, we will mostly hear from Luke. Advent is marked by a new colour, purple-the colour of penance and preparation it is also a royal colour reminding us it is the kingly rule of Jesus that we look forward to. We are counting down to Christmas and the Advent Wreath helps us as we do so. As we prepare for Christmas, we light a candle each week to remember those who prepared the way for Jesus’s birth The heroes and heroines of the Scriptures, the Prophets, John the Baptist and finally Mary the one who gives birth to the Messiah. Advent is not very well understood, I think many people would be surprised to find Advent started today, for many people the best-known feature of Advent is the Advent Calendar and they usually they start on the 1st December. For the Church Advent is all about preparation and promise. It is distinct from Christmas which is about the fulfilment of promise in the birth of Jesus. Christmas for the church starts on Christmas Day and is also a season lasting 12 Days (hence the 12 days of Christmas). It is very different in the world; people may not know today was Advent Sunday, but many will know all about Black Friday. And with Fenwick’s window well and truly open by the time we get to December they will feel the Christmas season is already underway. Does it matter? There are obviously bigger things to worry about in the world, and we aren’t likely to be able to change things much even if we think it does. The commercial juggernaut that Christmas has become won’t even pause when we step out with our placards saying ‘Hang on a Bit’. But maybe there is something to be said for making something of Advent and its traditions, even if it runs alongside the unavoidable ‘front loaded’ Christmas.
The traditional Christian placard for the season is not in fact, ‘Hang on A Bit’ but ‘The End is Nigh.’ The end of the world, ‘The Four Last Things’ i.e. Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell, these have always been the themes for Advent reflection -there they were in today’s readings. You might be thinking it’s all a bit gloomy even terrifying. Why would you want to bring them back? But the message is not things are awful you might as well despair or give up. The message is ‘Awake’, ‘Be Alert’, ‘Wake up’, ‘Watch’. Advent is the time for a ‘reality check’, that might be uncomfortable, it doesn’t make it a bad thing.
Later on in this service we will be presenting Certificates to those who recently completed Church Safegaurding training. It certainly wasn’t very comfortable to do. Those taking part had to reflect on the reality of abuse and cruelty. They had to face up to the fact that these things are found within the church as well as outside. They had to reflect on how a lack of reality, believing all was for the best, when it wasn’t, allowed harm to go unchecked. We are now moving to a healthier more realistic culture, but it isn’t easy. It has been a necessary reality check. Wake up, watch, be alert. That is what Safeguarding is all about.
Safegaurding not the only area that benefits from the Advent watchwords. Jesus in today’s Gospel reading asks his followers to look for the ‘signs of the times’, the buds that show the kingdom is near. How do we do that in our personal and church life? Covid has brought many changes in recent months, but they are only the latest waves of change that have swept through our society and our churches. Can we read signs of the times in these things? What is God doing here and now in Benwell & Scotswood? What does He want us to join in with? That should be our Mission Reality Check. It is something the Church of England nationally and in our Diocese is committed to. This week our PCC received a proposal for reshaping Ministry in a way that we hope will enable us to do Mission better. All our churches have been pioneers in Mission in situations where some might have seen only stony ground but in fact have proved fruitful in many ways. The Cornerstone Project, The Pendower Good Neighbour Project, The North Benwell Youth Project, the Food bank are all examples We had a wonderfully uplifting service with Bishop Mark last week as new members were baptised and confirmed. Buds that show the kingdom is near. But we know too how fragile things can be, small congregations, buildings not fit for purpose, faithful workers who have become infirm or tired or moved to higher things and left gaps in our ranks. We know across the church finance for ministry is no longer as secure as in the past. The church can seem remote to young people and congregations are aging, the parish system is coming under strain. Some have talked of ‘a struggle for the soul of the Church of England’. Although funding is difficult and our Diocese was recently unsuccessful in a significant funding bid, there is a commitment to mission in parishes like ours, parishes that may not be wealthy in the world’s goods but have a real wealth of compassion, experience and. commitment, but there is also an increasing emphasis on the importance of reading the signs of the times, not simply going on as before but being open to new things.
Our proposal, which the Diocese are supportive of, will mean Chris who had been due to leave us soon, having completed his training, will stay for a further three years. He will no longer be curate but a ‘Mission Enabling Priest’ with a special focus on finding creative ways of doing mission and with oversight of the Building Development Project at St James as it enters a demanding but exciting new phase. He will continue to work with asylum seekers, refugees and all coming new to Christian faith. To ensure funding can be found for this post, it will be necessary for me to step back into a role that will no longer be full time but what is called ‘House for Duty’. I will not receive payment but continue to live in the Vicarage and work fewer hours. I will continue to be Team Rector with oversight for the team. Dominic will continue to be full time, promoting our service in the community and managing the building project at the Venerable Bede. His job will also change as he takes on new responsibilities in planning and managing change as well as in teaching and learning. In all our jobs we are committed to working as a team, harnessing the potential that comes from pooling all our gifts, lay people and ordained, and across all our four churches. We are very hopeful that these changes will provide a stable team and allow another new post of Community Missioner to be added. The Diocese will work with us providing an advisor to help work through the details and Archdeacon Rachel will attend our next PCC.
Like Advent this proposal is a start, not the end. Our hope is that it will give space for all of us to work on those watchwords ‘Awake’, ‘Be Alert’, ‘Wake up’, ‘Watch’, our ‘Reality Check’ as we look to understand the ‘Signs of the Times’.
At the same time let’s not forget that the point of Advent is preparation and promise, it leads on to something better, It finds fulfilment in Christmas, the living reality of God present with us, all of us, his world, Benwell & Scotswood , in His Son, the Christ Child, not just for a season, but for all seasons, and for evermore. May that hope take root in our hearts and inspire all our watching and waiting. Amen.
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
John Nicholson
Alan Robson
Peter Wilson
Esmaeel Haji Nozori
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:
Mehri Karami
Moira Taylor
John MacIntyre
Jimmy McIntyre
Janet and Frank Galbraith
All who died recently
Other intentions:
those who died crossing the channel this week
Post Communion prayer
O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.