16/3/25
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
Click below for the latest news from the parish and texts for worship.
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Dates for your Diary
29 March
Centenary of Montagu Pit Disaster Commemoration at St Margaret's
30 March
11am - Mothering Sunday Team Service at St John's
Services this week
Sunday
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
9.45am - St Margaret's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service (Parish Eucharist) at Ven Bede
Tuesday
4.30pm - Farsi Bible Study at St James
Thursday
10.30 am - Holy Communion at Ven Bede
News
Exploring Faith this Sunday
A group to explore, ask questions, and learn about the Christian faith.
Beginning Sunday 9th March
Continues every Sunday throughout Lent
1pm at Venerable Bede, NE4 8AP
Lunch included (free: donations welcome)
Who is it for?
Exploring faith is a non-pressurised group for anyone who is simply curious, anyone who wants to refresh their faith, and anyone who might want to take the next step of baptism or confirmation (and those who are just unsure!).
All ages, abilities, and backgrounds are welcome.
What will happen?
Depending on who would like to come, we may split into smaller groups for young people and speakers of other languages.
Our clergy and other lay leaders will guide us through different resources and bible passages, and discuss together what they might mean.
Contact & RSVP
You’re welcome to just turn up on the day. But to help us prepare, let us know if you want to come and any dietary requirements or if we can make any adaptations to help you join in the discussion.
If you have any other questions feel free to get in contact:
St John's Spring Fayre
Sat 22nd March
12-3
St John's Benwell Village
Join us for food, fun, stalls and more!
Lent Bible study
Kathy, our reader, is hosting a bible study at 7.30pm on Wednesday evenings during Lent.
You are very welcome to join the group.
For details please contact Kathy on 07946285529
Centenary of the Montagu Pit Disaster
On Saturday 29th March there will be a drop-in event at St Margaret’s Church in Scotswood starting at 10.30am, followed by a service of commemoration at 2pm.
2025 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Montagu Pit Disaster in Scotswood when the pit flooded on 30th March killing 38 men and boys. This was the worst mining disaster in the Great Northern Coalfield between the wars, and is still remembered locally today.
There will be a number of events and activities taking place around that date to commemorate the disaster.
Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday will be on 30th March and this year we will be celebrating with a team service at St John's at 11am.
On that Sunday join us at: St John's Benwell Village
Ferguson Lane
NE15 6NW
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.
Sunday Worship
Purple or Lent array
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
Pavel
Rest in peace:
Murray Haig
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.
Philippians 3.17 – 4.1
17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. 41Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
Luke 13.31–35
31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ 32He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.” 34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” ’
Sermon
Kathy Germain
What is a fox? Its main aim is to get the hen. It’s ducking and diving, slithering sliding. Does things under the cover of darkness. It is a sly animal always hiding under cover. I can just imagine if it’s lucky enough to get its prey, it would be boastful.
The hen on the other hand is nurturing loving and caring, and one better she has a great protector, the farmer! The chickens who spot the sly old fox make one heck of a noise to alert the farmer.
Jesus talked in word pictures. He spoke in a way to invoke your imagination. Parables are Jesus’s way of helping us to remember his teaching.
Jesus calls Herod a fox, a sly boastful man who would not cause his death. He knew Herod just as he knows us. Herod thought Jesus was after his crown, and the fact he thought Jesus was John the Baptist come back almost scared him silly. Jesus was Herod’s subject, and therefore Herod thought he had the power of life and death over him. But Jesus refused to be part of Herod’s political plans, or the Pharisees’ plans. He did not fear death from Herod, because he knew he would die in Jerusalem and rise again.
Jesus tells them “I have to heal the sick and cast out demons today, tomorrow and on the third day I finish my work.”
In other words, Jesus is telling us in 3 days he will be crucified just after Passover. Jesus started his ministry at age 30. For three years he preached, first to the Israelites, then to the gentiles. He wanted to save as many as he could before he became the last lamb to be sacrificed. Jesus likens himself to the hen who is trying to gather her chicks, he will do all he can to save them, even die on the cross.
There were many who wanted him dead, but in the end it is the chicks, it is us, who shout “crucify him”.
Yes Jesus would die, but not on Herod’s terms, but by the will of the Father in the appointed place and at the appointed time, he would die and in 3 days later he rose again.
In the end, the hen conquers the fox. Through Jesus’ death, death has lost its sting. Death now leads to eternal life. This same Jesus now invites his chicks to shelter under his wing, and invites us to love one another as he has loved us.
translation
What a wonderful reversal of history, those who suffer at the hands of the Herods and the Romans will survive. The hen nurtures and loves the most vulnerable. Even those who rejected him will nestle under his wing. Those who called for his crucifixion will now cry “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the lord”
Jesus, gave himself for us, ask yourself what can you do for him.
In the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.