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Newsletter - Mothering Sunday

19/3/23

Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team

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Dates for your diary

Sun 2 April

Palm Sunday Team service, 11am at Ven Bede


Thurs 6 April

Maundy Thursday service, 7.30pm at St James.


Fri 7 April

Good Friday, 1pm at St John's.


Sat 8 April

Easter vigil, 8pm at St Margaret's.

 

Services this week

Sun 19 March

9.30am - St John's holy communion

9.45am - St Margaret's holy communion

11am - Ven Bede hub service (Parish eucharist)

 

News

Holy Week 2023

2nd - 9th April

As we journey through Holy Week we recall the story of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection. You are invited to participate in the most special time of the church's year.

More details here >

  • Palm Sunday 2nd April, 11am at Ven bede

  • Maundy Thursday, 6th April, 7.20pm at St James.

  • Good Friday, 7th April, 1pm at St John's.

  • Easter vigil, Saturday evening, 8th April, 8pm at St Margaret's.

 

Lent group

Wednesdays 6.30pm and Thursdays at 11am

We will meet throughout Lent on Wednesday evenings at Kathy Germain's house, or on Thursday mornings at St John's. (Please get in contact or ask Kathy or the clergy for details) If you are interested in joining the group let us know!


As a small group we will meet and discuss the Archbishop's 2023 Lent book Failure: What Jesus Said About Sin, Mistakes and Messing Stuff Up. It helps us look at what we do when we do get things wrong and what Jesus says about it.

We will have some free copies, but if you would like to buy your own copy you can order it here.

 

Worship texts


The Collect


God of compassion,

whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,

shared the life of a home in Nazareth,

and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:

strengthen us in our daily living

that in joy and in sorrow

we may know the power of your presence

to bind together and to heal;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

 

Reading

Exodus 2.1–10 2Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months. 3When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. 5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. 7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ 8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

 

Gospel


John 19.25–27 25And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ 27Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

 

Info on the Mother's Union


Mothers Union is a worldwide Christian Organisation.

  • It supports families worldwide with:

  • Prayer

  • Campaigns

  • Projects including literacy, parenting, community development, and I will now tell you more about one of those projectsFarsi

Shirley Lee Stone is from Jamaica and has six boys and one girl. Sadly one of her sons was lost to gun crime. But Mothers’ Union’s Worldwide Parenting Programme has completely revolutionised the relationship she has with her children and, she believes, has prevented her from losing any more of them.


Shirley says: “I did not used to have a relationship with my children. I would call them awful names and throw stones at them. I would seldom sit and talk with them. I fed and clothed them but never found the time to show them a mother’s love.


Mothers’ Union showed me how to be a true parent to my children, loving and caring for them. I began communicating with them. I now encourage them when they do not do well in school and congratulate them when they do. It has been amazing to open up to my daughter. We talk about relationships and school work; I am more involved in her life but still allow her space. I show her love.


Had I known about this programme sooner, I believe my boy would still be here. I would have known how to truly be a mother and how to properly protect him. But I have learnt how to reach out to the others and be there for them. Even though their father has passed, I promise to do my best for them. Thanks to Mothers’ Union they will stay alive.”


Mothers Union also supports families in Newcastle:

  • Providing holidays for families in need

  • Working with women who are vulnerable

  • Providing Christmas gifts for people who are homeless

  • Supporting prisoners, and people who are in hospital


And finally, Mothers Union is here, in Benwell and Scotswood:

  • We meet monthly

  • We have events and fundraising

  • And we have a monthly coffee, craft and cake morning for women. Please join us on Wednesday 22 March 9.30am at the Venerable Bede. Speak with me after the service if you would like more information.

Thank you to Leahan and MU. A reminder of how hard Mothering can be including loss and pain but also how love helps and heals.


The Gospel reading with Mary at the cross has that same message. There is deep pain in it, but also love. Jesus passes his love on to Mary and John ‘Here is your mother, here is your son’. Jesus wants us all to be brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers in the Christian life, love holds no boundaries and is woven into all.

 

Intercessions

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.


Prayers for others:

  • Michelle Madison

  • Lorraine Atkinson

  • Lyndsey Richardson

  • Christine, David, Philip, Neil and Steven

  • Elizabeth Taylor

  • Honar

  • Moe and Mary

  • Alison Campbell

  • John Taylor

  • Irene Foskett

  • John Nicholson

  • Alan Robson

  • Michelle Wilson

  • Joan Finley

  • George Snowden

  • Claire Mozaffari

  • Herbert Agbeko

Rest in Peace

  • Edith Hutchinson

 

Post Communion prayer

Loving God,

as a mother feeds her children at the breast

you feed us in this sacrament with the food and drink of eternal life:

help us who have tasted your goodness

to grow in grace within the household of faith;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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