29/5/22
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
Jump to:
Ibrahim El-Salahi, (Untitled) from Prison Notebook, 1976
Ink on Paper, MoMA, New York
Dates for your diary
Thurs 2 June - Hodgkin park jubilee beacon
8pm at Hodgkin Park
Sun 5 June - Pentecost celebration and bring and share Lunch
11am service at St James followed by lunch
News
Pentecost Celebration & Bring-and-share Lunch - Sun 5 June
Service 11am
Lunch from 12pm
On the bank holiday weekend join us for our Pentecost celebration and afterward for a lunch showcasing all our different cultures!
If you are able, please bring a dish from a culture that you are connected to. It can be a dish from your cultural heritage or somewhere you have visited or are passionate about!
Platinum Jubilee event in Hodgkin Park - Thurs 2 Jun, 8pm
Join us at the Platinum Jubilee event in Hodgkin part next Thursday Evening! 8-10pm.
Artep will be making art and St James and the Foodbank will be helping the Dialogue society provide food! There will be performances and the lighting of the official beacon as the finale of event.
With thanks to everyone at Urban Green and all the community groups making this happen.
New service patterns, June-July
We have decided on a new pattern of worship in all our buildings! The aim is to have a sustainable pattern that means we can regularly gather in each church building to spend time with God and one another. We will reassess this after 6 months.
Pattern overview:
Hub service at St James - 11am every Sunday.
St Margaret's - Alternating Sundays Holy communion at 9.45am and Evening Prayer and Praise at 4pm.
St John's - Alternating Sunday at 9.45am and Thursday at 11am.
Venerable Bede - beginning with a monthly weekday service to develop into weekly. (details TBC)
Worship Texts
Slideshow
The Collect
O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Acts 16.16–34 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
Gospel
John 17.20–26
‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’
Sermon
Revd Anne
Welcome to the ‘Waiting Zone’ – a time for renewal and transformation.
It’s the 7th (the last) Sunday of Easter – a ‘waiting zone’ between the day of the Ascension (last Thursday) and the Day of Pentecost – next Sunday – the church’s birthday. Today we prepare for change, for transformation - a great day to welcome a new Christian in baptism.
We are also, this year, celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Jubilee is a time to look back, reflect and give thanks, renew our minds, and prepare to move on in new ways to the benefit of all.
Waiting times can be scary – taking us out of our familiar comfort zones and into new territory. It’s a bit like being at an airport, when you’ve checked in, your bags have gone ahead, and you’re in the departure lounge waiting for the flight boarding alert, increasingly anxious, yet hopeful, about what changes lie ahead.
Life brings us many ‘waiting zones’: like the time between an exam and the results; between applying for asylum and receiving the answer; between becoming pregnant and the birth of the child; even being in life’s departure lounge as we reach retirement and old age. The gospel reading reminds us that the disciples were also in a waiting zone: between Jesus’ departure from them and the arrival of the promised Holy Spirit. They were in a time of transformation. They may have wondered… ‘How will we know when the Spirit comes?’ ‘What difference will it make?’ ‘What will happen then?’
Between Easter and Pentecost we always hear stories from the Acts of the Apostles and a reading from the Gospel of John. On the seventh or last Sunday of Easter words from chapter 17 of John’s gospel are always read. So what is special about John 17? In chapter 17, John tells us how Jesus withdrew to prepare for his death. Jesus prays. The whole of chapter 17 is Jesus’ prayer. Jesus is in a crucial time of change, fearful yet hopeful. He prays for himself; he prays for his disciples; and he prays for all who will follow them.
Jesus prays:- ‘Holy Father, I pray not only for those who will spread the word of love but also for those who will believe in me through their word. I pray that they may all be one as you are in me and I am in you. And may they also be in us, so that the world will know you have sent me.’
John’s gospel is not just about ‘what Jesus did’, but ‘who Jesus is’: - Jesus is not just a good man and a great teacher, but Jesus is also one with the Almighty God. Jesus’ prayer is an intimate conversation with God, his Father. It emphasises the main thing which distinguishes Christianity from all other religions – that God is revealed in the human form of Jesus Christ. Jesus is both human and divine. Jesus and God are One. As John records: ‘God is in him, just as he is in God’. Their united, divine desire is that all will be one.
Jesus does not pray that his followers will have an easy time – but that they will be one with him and the Father; and that they will have the courage they need to face the changes and challenges ahead.
Luke’s story from Acts is an example of the challenges which can confront those who seek to follow and serve Christ; Paul and Silas were stripped, beaten and imprisoned. Yet it is also an example of how the seemingly impossible can become possible in Christ; for through their tough experiences, many types of ‘prison doors’ were opened to new freedom and life.
Paul and Silas had many unexpected meetings and conversations, faced angry resentment and crowd hysteria, experienced abuse, ridicule, prison and earth-quakes. Yet through it all came the opportunity to witness – opportunities for the gospel to touch the lives of more people in a new and special way. The slave girl who could foretell the future was liberated from the exploitation of her greedy owners. The fearful goaler was amazed at the events and was baptised. Paul and Silas, as Roman citizens, then had the opportunity to go to Rome and to speak to those in authority - the first steps in spreading the gospel through the Roman Empire.
When Paul and Silas followed the call of Christ to spread the news of God’s love – they had no idea that 2,000 years later there would be a gathering of people in St James Church baptising another new Christian. We are people transformed by God’s love – not knowing what lies ahead - but living in hope and trust and faith.
You may be living in your own personal waiting zone at the moment, for whatever reason. We are also collectively in a transformation zone imposed by the Covid pandemic and by the cost of living. Pentecost marks the transformation experienced by Jesus’ disciples, which gave birth to the church. As we prepare to celebrate Pentecost this year, and also the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we may wonder how our future will unfold.
Jesus said: ‘Do not be afraid. Trust in God. Trust also in me.’ So let’s go forward into the shadowy future without fear, with the love of Christ in our hearts. Our efforts may weary us, but our witness to the gospel brings life to others even when we have passed on from this life. This may be the hope in the Queen’s heart during her Platinum Jubilee year as she encourages everyone to plant trees for the welfare of future generations.
In all our waiting and transformation times - the amazing thing to remember is that Jesus prayed for us – for you and for me! And for this tiny new Christian. Jesus never promised us an easy life – in fact he forewarned us of dangers– but he also promised God’s guiding hand and freedom of new life in him.
Jesus is in God and God is in Jesus: they are One. Jesus is the Way to God’s love, the Truth of God’s love revealed and the gateway to Life in all its fullness. Good news for a baptism.
In our time of renewal and transformation, let us proclaim: ‘For all that has been: Thanks. For all that will be: Yes!’ Amen.
Intercessions
To add names to the prayer list please email church@benwellscotswood.com
Prayers for others:
John Taylor
Nadia
Batoul Malayeri
Alistair
Tamba and Esther
Helen Wright
Irene Foskett
John Nicholson
Alan Robson
Peter Wilson
Michelle Wilson
Liz Holliman
Joan Finley
The Riches Family
George Snowden
Claire Mozaffari
Herbert Agbeko
Baptisms
Christian and Dominion
Wedding Banns
Julianne Hardy and James Burrows
Rest in Peace
George Taylor
Michael Wright
Other intentions
Claire Lewis and Matt Dobson discerning vocation.
Ukraine, Yemen, Ethiopia and all places at war.
Post Communion prayer
Eternal God, giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom:
confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.