Newsletter - Transfiguration
- Church
- Aug 3, 2023
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 5, 2023
7/7/23
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Dates for your diary
14-18 August
Holiday club at St Margaret's
26 August
'Benstock' Festival/concert at St James
Services this week
Sun 7 Aug
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
Thurs 12 Aug
10.30am - Ven Bede Holy Communion
News
Benstock! Sat 26 Aug
Get ready for an unforgettable night of music at Benstock Music Festival. This special event is not just about the incredible performances from talented local artists but also about making a positive impact on the community. Benstock is a charity fundraiser for Something Wonderful supporting those most in need in Benwell and Scotswood. Join us on 26th August at St James Church Benwell as we come together to raise funds and awareness for our excellent local project. From soulful melodies to upbeat rhythms, the concert promises to captivate your senses and fill your heart with joy. Let's unite as a community, celebrate the power of music, and make a real difference in the lives of those in need. Be part of the harmony and join us for an evening of giving back and creating lasting memories.
Key info
26th August 2023
Doors open at 6pm
Ticket price £5/£10
Licensed bar
Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.
Afternoon event
Free!
from 4pm
Family friendly, open mic, art, food and more!
New altar!
We have been gifted an altar by Newcastle Cathedral! After their renovation, they no longer had need of their nave altar. So we will be re-dedicating it as part of our patronal festival this Sunday at St James
The beautiful oak altar has a simple modern shape that we think sits beautifully in St James as the centre of our worship without blocking off the surroundings.
Holiday club - 14-18 August
This August you are invited to our freeholiday club at St Margaret's! Aimed at primary school children there will be crafts, games, activities, awesome stories from the Bible and more. A healthy lunch will also be provided every day with a family BBQ on Friday at 1pm.
Fundraising questionnaire -
Several members of the congregation have been meeting to come up with fundraising ideas to raise funds for vital repairs and upkeep of the churches in our parish.
We are hoping to get some ideas of what kind of fund-raising events you would like to see happening across all 4 churches and weigh up which events would be most cost effective and how much people would be willing to pay at these events.
The questionnaires will be handed out in church, please return them to a member of clergy, churchwarden, or Kath McIntyre (administrator) who will treat all the information confidentially. Or you can download it and send it back to us at church@benwellscotswood.com
Junior church
We love kids to be fully part of our community and worship. To do this we want to make sure they are safe.
We will now ask all parents to complete a short form the first time they bring their children. This will include information about allergies etc. The helper at the children's table will have forms available, as will the wardens and welcomers at the back of church.
Items for the notices.
If you would like to announce something in the newsletter or the church service, please send the item in advance to Kath McIntyre at the church email address church@benwellscotswood.com
Please include details and no more than 2-3 short sentences about the item. If you have a preferred image please also include it in the email.
Sunday Worship
Sunday 6th August 2023
Transfiguration of Our Lord
White
Sermon
Revd David
‘Something Wonderful’ is the title of our project here and you can see the art exhibition all around us. I hope you have had a chance to look around to enjoy and read ‘meet the artists’, they are powerful stories, many of transformation, showing how art has power to bring something wonderful even when life is hard, maybe especially when life is hard. It helps us reconnect with good things, helps us hand on hope, and gives us a glimpse of glory.
Today, the 6th August, is the day we remember the Transfiguration of Christ, this year it falls on a Sunday. We heard the story; the mountain top, the cloud, the blinding light, the disciples given a new vision, a glimpse of glory. It is overwhelming, but sustains them in the horrors yet to come.
6th of August is also the day when in 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The first time such a weapon was used. A blinding flash of light, the so-called mushroom cloud, then for those present a descent into unimaginable horror. Though we prefer not to think about it that cloud continues to hang over the whole of humanity.
In 2015 I visited Hiroshima and its sister city in suffering, Nagasaki. It made a deep impression, especially the stories of the survivors (hibakusha), but also of those for whom those cities continue to be home. What was especially moving and unexpected was a sense of transfiguration, how the pain and horror experienced through the bombing, could become something else, not just darkness but somehow transfigured, lit up with hope and compassion.
How that happens is a mystery but as long as that cloud continues to hang over us all, it’s a mystery worth paying attention to. So in the spirit of ‘Something Wonderful’ I’d like to share some art from those cities and some symbols of transfiguration
Slide Show: ‘Hiroshima Raging, Nagasaki Praying: from Horror to Hope’.
‘Barefoot Gen’
A Manga account of the bomb written by Keiji Nakazawa an eyewitness. Harrowing and full of anger this is ‘Hiroshima Raging’. It also manages to be uplifting ‘Gen can mean root or origin but also elemental in the sense of an atomic element as well as a source of vitality and happiness’ . Barefoot Gen is like trampled wheat refusing to be beaten down. The Dome ( Genbaku Dome) The Atomic Dome has become the symbol of Hiroshima
Dome & Doves
A symbol of Pain and Hope and Prayer for Peace
Exhibition Hall Symbol of Japan’s progress
A photo I took on Hiroshima Day Lanterns and Peace cranes. Lanterns are lit for those who died and floated on the river Here led by coloured peace cranes
Destroyed Urakami Cathedral
-destroyed cathedral. It was the largest in Asia. Urakami in Nagasaki was home of large Christian community many of whom perished in the bombing of the city on the 9th August This was the epicentre (an accident of history)
Urakami in Peace museum
Like the Dome for Hiroshima the destroyed cathedral has become a symbol for Nagasaki - ‘Nagasaki Praying’ a Christian doctor Nagai Takashi author of the ‘Bells of Nagasaki’ one of first to draw attention to plight of bomb survivors
Urakami Rebuilt with statues
Not left as a monument as worshippers wanted it rebuilt as place of living worship which it is, but with ‘witnesses’
More Statues and Cranes
Some witnesses
‘Bombed Mary’
Another witness ‘Mary’ a statue that was central in the cathedral before the bomb and found in the ruin. Looks as though she has been through hell. As if weeping for pain of others and literally cried her eyes out
Now a focus for prayer in a special chapel a witness for peace.
Artists Iru and Toshi Maruki and First Hiroshima Panels
Real witnesses the people - under the cloud Hibakusha. Their stories were not heard for many years-banned by US occupation, then a lot of stigma. Two artists who helped break the silence Iru and Toshi Maruki.
Hiroshima Panels Ghosts Fire Water
Very graphic based on eyewitness accounts ( The artists from Hiroshima arrived just after the bomb)
Sadako and Childrens Peace statue and cranes
On going suffering. Not simply a one-off event Sadako’s story. She was a healthy girl but had been exposed to radiation as an infant and so developed leukaemia as a teen. Inspired by a legend that folding a thousand paper crane could give you your wish she folded cranes hoping to live. She died but her friends insisted on raising funds for a monument to all the children who died -now one of most popular in the Peace park always covered with colourful paper cranes
Hiroshima Appeals Poster 1983 Burning Butterflies
Since 1983 A poster competition to promote peace. This the first ‘Burning Butterflies’
Hiroshima Appeals Poster 2023
This the latest. Pressing the button the on going threat to the world
Conclusion ‘Hiroshima Raging, Nagasaki praying’ is a Japanese saying, a reflection on how each city responded to it’s pain. It is not the whole story rather an illustration of a spectrum of reactions. In moving from horror to hope both anger and prayer have a place. It is painful, hard to look at these things, hard to listen, but perhaps in listening to these voices, we can catch something of the Transfiguring Spirit, and as we do respond as the disciples were commanded, ‘this is my Son listen to Him’. Amen
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Maria Hawthorn
George Snowdon
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis Nelson
Pauline Nelson
Michell Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan Taylor
Maureen Tayor
Kathleen Germain
Irene Foskett
Lorraine Atkinson
Hilary Dixon
George Grant
Rest in peace
Angie Newman
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.
Collect
Father in heaven,
whose Son Jesus Christ was wonderfully transfigured
before chosen witnesses upon the holy mountain,
and spoke of the exodus he would accomplish at Jerusalem:
give us strength so to hear his voice and bear our cross
that in the world to come we may see him as he is;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Readings
Daniel 7.9–10, 13–14 9 As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One* took his throne; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire. 10 A stream of fire issued and flowed out from his presence. A thousand thousand served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him. The court sat in judgement, and the books were opened. 13As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being* coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One* and was presented before him. 14 To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.
This is the word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.
2 Peter 1.16–19 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honour and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved,* with whom I am well pleased.’ 18We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
This is the word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.
Gospel Reading
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
All: Glory to you, O Lord.
Luke 9.28–36
28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus* took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake,* they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings,* one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. 34While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen;* listen to him!’ 36When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
Holy God,
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ:
may we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.