22/12/24
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
Click below to read this week's information and latest news.
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Dates for your Diary
24 Dec
4pm - Crib service at St Margaret's
11.30pm - Midnight mass at Ven Bede
25 Dec
10am - Christmas morning service at Ven Bede (no other services this day)
29 Dec
11am - Team service at Ven Bede (no other services this day)
12 Jan
11am - hub service, Feast of the Baptism of Christ, with baptism of members of the Farsi speaking group.
2 Feb
11am - Candlemas Team service at Ven Bede (no other services this day)
Services this week
Sunday 9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service (Parish Eucharist) at Ven Bede
(no evening prayer)
Tuesday - Christmas Eve
4pm Crib service at St Margaret's
11.30pm - Midnight mass
Wednesday - Christmas day
10am - Christmas morning Eucharist at Ven Bede
Sunday 29 Dec - Christmas 1
11am - Hub service (Parish Eucharist) at Ven Bede
News
Advent and Christmas 2024
Crib service
24 December (Christmas Eve)
4pm, St Margaret Scotswood, NE15 6AR
Join us at a service that is fun for all the family. We tell the story of Jesus’ birth, place the figures in the nativity scene and sing some of your favourite Christmas carols.
Midnight Mass
24 December
11.30pm, Venerable Bede, NE4 8AP
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 whether you have been before or not.
Christmas Day Service
25 December
10am, Venerable Bede, NE4 8AP
Join us on Christmas morning to celebrate the birth of Jesus with Holy Communion. You are welcome even if you have never been before.
Charity Auction - thank you!
Our first Christmas charity auction to raise money for St James and the Something Wonderful project was a huge success! Everyone had a fantastic time and we are still calculating the final total, but it looks like we have made over £800!
We are extremely grateful to all who helped organise the evening, set up, collect payments, donate items, purchase items, serve refreshments, sing carols, and everyone who came to create such a fun event. An extra special thank you to Kath McIntyre, our resident auctioneer and her helpers Tom and Deano.
Team Service - next Sunday 29th Dec
Please note that next Sunday 29th Dec, will be a team service at Venerable Bede at 11am.
There will be no other services in the team that day.
Embrace - Gaza appeal
Conflict across the Middle East is unfolding with relentless intensity, devastating the lives of millions. Even as they live through these dark times, Embrace’s partners in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon are working tirelessly to bring the light of Christ amidst the suffering.
As Christmas approaches, please give what you can to help our partners keep the light of Christ shining amid the darkness.
You can click below to donate online. If you would rather donate by phone, please call 01494 897950.
Sunday Worship
Advent Sunday
Purple
Readings
Micah 5.2–5a
2 You, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah,from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel,whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labour has brought forth;then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel.4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;5 and he shall be the one of peace.
Luke 1.39–45 [46–55]
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
[46 And Mary said,‘My soul magnifies the Lord,47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,48 for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’]
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
John Nicholson
Malcolm Smith
John Peterson
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis & Pauline Nelson
Michelle & Peter Wilson
Alan & Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Christina Wilson
Diane Humphrey
Other
Something Wonderful, Newcastle Foodbank, Cornerstone, North Benwell Youth Project, Pendower Good Neighbour project.
Those affected by the tragedy at Violet Close
If you would like to add someone to the prayer list please email church@benwellscotswood.com
The name will stay on the list for 1 month unless requested to be long-term.
Sermon
The Revd Claire Lewis
The words of our gospel reading today from Luke might be familiar to us. The magnificat is a hymn written in the style of other old testament Hebrew hymns. it’s one of 4 from Luke’s gospel that Christian’s have been using in worship for thousands of years. It’s used in evening prayer in many Christian traditions including our own.
The others - incase you’re interested are the Benedictus that we say in morning prayer each day and the Nunc Dimittis in night prayers and the Gloria that we usually sing on a Sunday but not at the moment because we stop for Advent.
It’s a beautiful poetic, optimistic, faith filled declaration. And it would be easy to say something about her faith and our faith and the importance of faith and then go home. But that seemed a bit too easy.
With a background in theatre i find it hard to read Luke’s Nativity account without thinking of all those musicals I did as a child. Where terrible things happen but characters burst into sound and no one even looks at them funny. Like it’s all quite normal.
Mary in Luke’s gospel feels like a woman’s story being told by a man. The familiar meek and mild obedient maiden who takes this huge responsibility with honour and dignity. Singing about how lucky she is. And I’m not saying that’s not right and true but it seems unlikely to be the whole story.
Any woman who’s ever had a baby will tell you the massive mixture of fear and joy, anxiety and excitement, terror and ?? All mixed up with raging hormones, discomfort and sleep deprivation makes you anything but meek and mild. And that’s without adding the drama of angels and unexplained pregnancies to the mix.
We often let Mary’s story wash over us without thinking too much about how much pain comes with the glory. And i think we do a disservice to her if we don’t take some time to dwell on how amazing her faith is in the face of all she goes through.
The four gospels give us quite divergent views of Mary and I’m grateful for that. It’s not that they contradict. It’s more like one of those pictures you used to get in Christmas annuals that are a mess of blue and red lines. A blur of two different colours pictues but you get a pair of glasses that go with it. One red one blue lens and when you put them on you get a 3 dimensional image that leaps off the page like magic. Some times you need to stand back and see the whole picture to really understand how complex the Mother of God really is.
I don’t think you can do Mary justice without giving her remarkable story some thought and context.
SO this hymn in Luke comes from a young girl who has been visited by angels. We like to think that would give us some security, a bit of certainty and reassurance and I’m sure it did. But how long would that last. When she’s trudging to Bethlehem heavily pregnant, in pain, homeless did she always feel so blessed?
When she barely had time to catch her breath before she has to flee, to hide the baby from Herod, only a few months in and they’re running for their lives. Did she doubt?When they were trying to make ends meet raising this baby and his siblings in caves in Nazareth without Joseph. Did she feel as blessed?
When she followed him into Jerusalem and watched as they captured, tried and tortured her son. Her precious gift from god. Did she feel her soul magnifying the lord as he died slowly and painfully on a cross.
And of course we know what happened next and the promised resurrection and assention but she must have felt all that hope and despair all wrapped together.
We like our stories to be simple. We like to think people feel one way or another but this is not a story, these are real people, and people often feel a massive mixture of all sorts of things all at once. Especially when they’re faced with such hardship, horror and heartbreak as our Blessed Mary
And although her story is quite unique. Bringing God into the world as a human baby. There are many women just like Mary who will be fighting to keep their children safe right now. Women in war zones, women fleeing famine and floods, women who need to hide and run to stay alive.
That’s why hymns like the Magnificat are so important. It is said or sung daily all over the world and is especially precious to those who suffer. Because no mater how we feel, no matter what we have to deal with , we can connect through her words to the hope that Mary kept with her through it all. With the pain and hurt and the anger she must have felt she never let go of the hope and the faith so beautifully expressed in the magnificat
All over the world tonight Christians will pray, no matter what they’ve been through today, no mater what they’ve lost, no matter how desperate they feel they will utter the words
‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’ and they will take comfort knowing that they are not alone and God will hear it.