25/12/21
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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A rubbish nativity for rubbish times, Artep Avordno and Chris Minchin
St James Church Benwell, 2021
Dates for your diary
24 Dec - Christmas Eve
2-3.30pm - St Margaret Messy Christmas
3.30pm - St Margaret Crib service
24 Dec - Christmas Eve, 11.30pm
Midnight Mass at Venerable Bede
25 Dec - Christmas Day, 10.30am
Holy communion at Venerable Bede
Sun 26 Dec - Boxing Day/St Stephen's Day, 10.30am
Holy Communion at Venerable Bede
News
St Margaret's Messy Christmas Eve and Crib service
24th December
2-3.30pm - Messy Christmas
3.30pm - Crib service
Location: St Margaret Scotswood, NE15 6AR
An afternoon for the whole family making Christmas crafts and decorations.
At 3.30pm we tell the story of Jesus' birth and build our nativity scene with a crib service.
Midnight Mass
24th December, 11.30pm
Location: Venerable Bede West Road, NE4 8AP
Join us for 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 even if you have never been before.
Christmas Day
25th December, 10.30am
Location: Venerable Bede West Road, NE4 8AP
Join us on Christmas morning to celebrate the coming of Jesus with Holy Communion. You are welcome even if you have never been before.
St Stephen's Day
Sunday 26th December (Boxing Day) 10.30am
Location: Venerable Bede West Road, NE4 8AP
Join us on the feast of Stephen for Sunday Holy Communion.
Our rubbish nativity in the news!
We have had lots of attention in the news about our nativity scene made with rubbish from the local area!
A rubbish nativity for rubbish times!
Made by local community groups with rubbish collected from the local area. With the help of artists Artep Avordno and Chris Minchin.
We wanted to show that looking after the environment and the local area is a good thing. But also, after two years of having 'rubbish' Christmasses, we liked the idea of turning something rubbish into something good!
Worship Texts
Advent wreath
Lord Jesus, Light of light,
you have come among us.
Help us who live by your light
to shine as lights in your world.
Glory to God in the highest. Amen.
Amen.
The Collect
(Christmas Night)
Eternal God, who made this most holy night to shine with the brightness of your one true light: bring us, who have known the revelation of that light on earth, to see the radiance of your heavenly glory; 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.
(Christmas Day)
Almighty God, you have given us your only–begotten Son to take our nature upon him and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin: grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; 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
Christmas night: Hebrews 1.1–4 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Christmas day: Titus 2.11–14 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Gospel
Christmas Night: John 1.1–14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
Christmas day: Luke 2.1–14 [15–20] In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’ [When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.]
Sermon
Revd David
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen
Are you having a rubbish Christmas?
Some of you will have taken part in or seen our ‘Rubbish Nativity ‘which was the centrepiece at our community carols this week. It was featured on the BBC local news and on the Diocese of Newcastle’s website. If you haven’t seen it, you can see a clip at benwellscotswood.com
It was an inspiring event and a lot of people have been commenting favourably. In fact, Chris has become something of a local celebrity, as we came out of morning prayer he was stopped and congratulated by a perfect stranger. The message obviously hit home. As Chris said-we have had some rubbish Christmases due to Covid. Rubbish is a big problem here in the West End but let’s try and turn something bad into something good.
Turning something bad into something good what a great message for Christmas and I hope we can all think of ways we might be able to do that. But it isn’t always easy.
The idea of transforming rubbish also raises searching questions. What after all is rubbish? Why is there so much of it? Why does it end up where it does whether in our back lanes or deeply embedded in the marine food chain thousands of miles away? We clearly need to be greener, to find ways towards a more sustainable world, a more sustainable Christmas, but what can we do?
Petra the artist who masterminded the Crib is used to working with the stuff other people have thrown away. Where some see nothing worth hanging onto, she sees potential, recycling all kind of objects and turning them into beautiful new things.
Looking at rubbish in a new way ‘-potential rather than problem’ is a great place to start. Alongside the creation of the ‘rubbish crib’ the church was open for people to drop in and identify local problems, but also to contribute ideas about how to make Benwell & Scotswood cleaner and safer. One of the strengths of the crib was that it was a shared effort and working together to make things better for everyone has got to be good place to start. St James Churchyard is itself testimony to the difference community effort can make. As we improve the physical environment sharing together in the task also builds human fellowship, community or to use a church word ‘communion’. That community effort is something we hope to sustain into 2022 and beyond and a big part of Chris’s new role will be in helping us all in that task.
Thinking about rubbish the things no one wants, can also lead us on to think about what is valuable the things people do want. The message of Christmas, and of every Crib, rubbish or not, is that God’s way of measuring value is very different to what we find in the world. The things the world counts as rubbish are the things God most cherishes, the things the world values most are of little worth in His eyes.
Born in a stable with the muck and the smells and the mess, the first to greet him those the world despised, the shepherds lowest of the low and for many ‘unclean’. No room, no security, a teenage mother, soon to be a family on the move, asylum seeking, a part of the tide of needy people for which the heartless world provides no welcome just a calculatedly ‘hostile environment.’ Human refuse, but not for God.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son
All those the world writes off refugees, sinners, tax collectors, the poor, the sick, the lonely the benefit scroungers, those in prison, the druggies, the alcoholics, the old, the weak, the depressed, the incapacitated, the institutionalised, all these and more are those God counts as precious.
The rubbish heap of humanity is where Christ chooses to plant his throne.
Maybe you are having a rubbish Christmas, maybe you feel you are rubbish, your life a mess, Christ comes to say no one is rubbish, all have value. The Love of Christ is expressed in nothing less than the infinite value He gives to each person The infinite value he places on you. That is what the Babe of Bethlehem comes to show and share.
If we know this it can change us and the more deeply, we know it, the more deeply we will be changed. Christ sees the potential the beauty in each and wants to set us free to see it realised.
Yes, some of the things we experience are rubbish. Christ Himself lived the rubbish, ‘counted a worm and no man’ ‘he came to his own and his own rejected him’
Nailed to a cross outside the city, the place for garbage.
Yet it is in those things that the light of His Love shines most brightly. Can we catch a glimpse of that light even in our darkness?
St Paul knew what it was to share a sense of the world’s rejection indeed like Jesus, he warns it is something the faithful Christian can expect
We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day. (1 Cor 4:13)
And yet Paul’s way of seeing was so completely turned around by his meeting with the living Jesus, that whatever he was in the past and there is no question he may have been a righteous, clever and successful person but he wasn’t a very nice person, and whatever he suffers in the present, whatever losses he sustains he knows has found something far greater
More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Phillipians 3:8)
At Christmas the love of Christ is born into our world to bring light and life to all things. The light changes things what seemed worth chasing after seems empty, what seemed ugly becomes beautiful, what was frightening loses it terror, what was rejected is cherished, the rubbish, rubbish no longer, not recycled but redeemed.
Amen.
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Dominic, Frances, James, and the new baby
Alistair
Esther Kolie
John Nicholson
Alan Robson
Peter Wilson
Esmaeel
Liz Holliman
Joan Finley
James, Christina, Anastasia, and Xavier
Ali Zareie and his family
The Riches Family
Jill Sorley
Joyce Phillips
George Snowden
Claire Mozaffari
Herbert Agbeko
Edward Fraser
All those who are struggling at home or in hospital with Covid-19
Rest In Peace:
Tony Branch
Mehri Karami
Janet and Frank Galbraith
Post Communion prayer
(Christmas Night)
God our Father, in this night you have made known to us again the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: confirm our faith and fix our eyes on him until the day dawns and Christ the Morning Star rises in our hearts. To him be glory both now and for ever.
Amen.
(Christmas Day)
God our Father, whose Word has come among us in the Holy Child of Bethlehem: may the light of faith illumine our hearts and shine in our words and deeds; through him who is Christ the Lord.
Amen.