Newsletter - Easter Day 2025
- Benwell and Scotswood Team
- 3 hours ago
- 11 min read
20/4/25
Your update for Holy Week from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
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Dates for your diaries
Saturday 19 April
8.30pm - The Easter liturgy with baptisms at St James, NE15 6RS
Sunday 20 April (Easter Day)
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
(No St Margaret's Holy Communion)
11am - Parish Eucharist at St James, NE15 6RS
Sun 27 April
St John's annual meeting to take place immediately after the service at 9.30am
Wed 21 May
7pm, PCC at St Margaret's
Sunday 25 May
11am, Team service followed by APCM at St James
Fr Chris will be away 2-16 May
News
Holy Week 2025 - Thank you!
Holy Week is almost over. Thank you to everyone who has helped with all the work that goes into Holy Week, whether it is altar serving, reading, cleaning, flower arranging, welcoming, singing, or praying with us.
It has been an incredible and beautiful time to return to our focus on the love of God shown in Jesus Christ.
There are still a couple more services to go:
The Easter Vigil
Saturday 30th March, 8.30pm
at St James Benwell, NE15 6RS
The climax of Holy Week and the most important celebration of the Christian calendar. Beginning outside after sunset with the Easter fire, before we move inside for the great celebration of Easter and the baptism of several of our adult members. A service full of symbolism with light, music, and water, we rejoice in Christ’s bursting from the tomb, bringing us all hope of new life.
Easter Morning
Sun 20th April
9.30am at St John's
11am at St James
We gather for Holy Communion on Easter morning.
Events and groups this coming week
This week is a light week, and most groups will be taking a break.
On Tuesday: no Lunch Break, Art club, Writing group, or bible study.
On Thursday: no service at the Venerable Bede, and no art club.
Parish Eucharist moves to St James from Easter
The 11am Parish Eucharist 'hub service' will move to St James from Easter day and will remain there every Sunday during the warmer months.
Easter Flowers
If you would like to make a donation towards the flowers for our Easter celebration, please speak to Liz and/or Olwyn.
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.
You can click below to donate online. If you would rather donate by phone, please call 01494 897950.
Easter Eve
Easter Morning
White/Gold
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Sonja and Stan
John Nicholson
Malcolm Smith
John Peterson
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Pauline Nelson
Michelle & Peter Wilson
Alan & Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Christina Wilson
Diane Humphrey
Nellie Galbraith
Isla
Christine Williams
Baptisms:
Matthew
Mohammad
Khayam
Mohsen
Farhang
Alireza
Aria
Ashkan
Yousef
Sobhan
Rest in Peace:
Gina Dunn
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.
Readings
Easter Eve - vigil
Romans 6.3–11
3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Luke 24.1–12
24But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body.4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ 8Then they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Easter Morning
Acts 10.34–43
34 Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
John 20.1–18
20Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Sermon
Easter Eve Sermon, Fr Chris
I think of Holy Week as a pilgrimage. We act out the story- we’re not play-acting but, where words fail, we worship through physical symbols. We walk the West Road waving palm branches, we wash your feet, strip the church of decoration and enter into darkness, we touch a wooden cross with a wooden figure nailed to it. We wait until this night to hear in the vigil readings how God has been present from creation, acting to save his people, and out of the darkness of history comes forth a flame.
*
Yes, this is a long service. But it is the most important one of the year. Every Sunday recalls this night, each Sunday is a mini celebration of the resurrection. It is from this night that the flame grows. We end our service with lighting our candles once more, lighting baptism candles, and lighting the paschal candles to be taken to each of our churches. The light of Christ, goes out, grows and spreads.
*
It’s not by accident that many religions keep traditions at a similar time in Spring. Every year there are people who tell me that Easter is originally a pagan festival celebrating the goddess Eostre. It’s not. It’s adapted from the Jewish festival of the Passover, after the first full moon of spring. But it is not irrelevant that people of many faiths and cultures have always wanted to celebrate the return of life after winter, when light and warmth enter the world again. Eggs cracking open, shoots coming out of the ground, flowers budding, rabbits and lambs born, all are symbols of new life, everlasting life, abundant life, miracles shown in the world around us.
Out of the darkness comes light, out of death, comes rebirth. The very world itself declares it is true! If only we were to believe it.
*
Tonight we baptise several of our members and we all renew our baptismal vows. Tonight each of you lives the story fully in your hearts, you are born again, what was before is not just forgotten or ignored, it is transformed, you die in the waters of baptism and rise to new life.
We began Lent remembering the words “From earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, but from the dirt of the ground, shall new life spring forth. There is always grief in our hearts, people that we have lost, versions of ourselves, hopes and dreams, that we have had to let go. But now let it be the fertile ground for new life to spring forth. Christians, if anything, are an Easter people.
*
As an Easter people we are called to make the love of Christ real in this world, to love others and to serve this world, not contain it in our heads and our hearts, but to fan the flames of love. The story of the world is not one of despair but of hope, the cross was conceived as a symbol of oppression and death and is now a symbol of life and liberation. Through Christ, even on the darkest night, even when we face death, we know there is hope.
*
So come now, as we come through the grave, let us enter into life.
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Easter Morning Sermon, Fr Osaro
Alleluia! Alleluia!! Christ is Risen and He is risen indeed.
Today, Joy and message are not different from the Joy of the first Easter.
The message is HOPE. And a new life with and in God.
We celebrate and symbolise that new hope with Easter eggs,
Breaking the egg is a new dawn, a new chapter. A new dawn has broken for all today. Alluaiua!
Old things should be put aside. Let us now put on Christ, our salvation, hope, and our future.
In his ministry on earth, Christ defeated the devil in all ways. He raised the dead. We know from the story of Lazarus that he has let the blind see and the lame walk again.
There was one thing left for God to do to conquer. Death.
The goal is to destroy the power of death, so we all will be free forever.
This is what Christ has achieved for us today. Death has no control over us again. If we believe in the power of Resurrection, we will die no more; we will live in Christ Jesus, a victory he has won for today and forever.
In God, there is no end. God is a life-giving God who brings newness out of what we thought was finished. It is not finished. When Mary Magdalene, Peter and others reached the tomb where Jesus was buried and found an empty tomb, they thought that it was finished, Satan had won. But that is not so; it is the beginning of that new moment of “The Way”, the way of Christ, which was later called The Christians, People like Christ, which established God’s Kingdom here on earth. A Kingdom that Satan couldn’t destroy.
In today's readings: In Isaiah’s vision, the renewed people of God bring blessings for the whole creation. Similarly, as Peter reflects in Acts, he is beginning to see the enormous implications and blessings of belief in Jesus,
Acts show that the earliest Christians were constantly nudged into sharing their faith more widely. Some early Christians were curious to have complete clarity of the meaning of all these, which we sometimes also struggle to understand fully when following Christ and the power of resurrection. What is the real meaning of all these? It’s good to question and reflect on what we are doing and why we are doing it. Understanding and knowing why we give us the power to fight for it, like the early disciples did. Very soon in one of our readings, we hear the doubting Thomas, until I see Christ and pierce his fingers, I will not believe. When Thomas saw Jesus, he believed and said,” Yes, you are my God and my Lord”.
Peter was able to recognise that it is God who is at work and has been at work with Cornelius. Peter knows and is aware of the serving power through Christ's death and resurrection, which has now empowered him to go and preach this good news of New Life in Christ Jesus.
Easter, or Jesus Christ's Resurrection, is the beginning of New Life in Christ. Through our actions and our example, we are all part of this New life in Jesus.
Peter denied Jesus three times before Dawn. This was an act of personal safety that he later regretted. Reflecting on all these made Peter a fighter for Jesus.
Our Easter celebration is a channel for reflecting on and choosing Christ. It is only when we choose to follow Christ and begin a new life in him that our Easter celebration becomes meaningful.
Although the disciples had witnessed all the powerful healings and miracles in Jesus' ministry here on earth, when they heard from Mary Magdalene about the resurrection, they were still huddled behind locked doors, perhaps frightened and self-pitying. What's next? Were all these in Vain? Are the Jews coming for us?
But God responded with the power of his resurrection.
It is not just the disciples; we are also. Christ's resurrection is our hope.
Jesus wants to bring out our worries and fears to him today. He who can conquer death will indeed conquer all our anxiety and worries.
Let us begin a new life with Christ, hoping that all things will be made new in our lives and our community.
Trust in God. He has risen from death and broken that chain of death, that chain of darkness that may be tied around us and is stopping us from moving on.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia, alleluia. Amen.