5/5/24
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Services this week
Sun 5 May
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
9.45am - St Margaret's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
Thurs 9 May
10.30am - Ascension Day eucharist at Ven Bede
Dates for your Diary
Sun 19 May
11am - Pentecost Team service followed by Annual Meeting (APCM) at St James'
Sat 8 June
Mothers' Union Diocesan Festival - St James. Festival begins 11.30am; Eucharist with Bishop Helen-Ann 2pm
News
Don't forget! The Hub service is now at St James on Sunday
The 11am hub service will be at St James from Sunday 21st April and will remain there during the warmer months (until about October).
Ascension Day Thurs 9 May
40 days after Easter we celebrate Ascension day. Join us for our service at 10.30am at the Venerable Bede.
The ascension was when Jesus commissioned his disciples to continue his work, he promised the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then ascended to heaven.
Mothers' Union does Something Wonderful
Diocesan Festival 2024
You are invited to join us for the Diocesan Mothers' Union festival which we have the pleasure of hosting at St James Benwell this year. There will be activities followed Bishop Helen-Ann leading us in worship with a Eucharist.
This year the festival's theme is 'The MU does Something Wonderful' in honour of the community project at St James which aims to strengthen the local community in Benwell and restore the St James Church for community use. You can read more about the project and donate here >
Festival begins at 11.30
BBQ lunch, crafts, stalls, historic graveyard tours, art exhibition, music, raffle.
Eucharist at 2pm with Bishop Helen-Ann
Followed by refreshments
Notice of annual meetings (APCM)
Pentecost Sunday, 19 May 2024, 12pm
St James Benwell, NE15 6RS
(Followed by Pentecost lunch!)
The 'Annual Parochial Church Meeting' meets once a year and receives reports on changes to the electoral roll, general parish activities, and finances. It is also when we elect members of the PCC and churchwardens. This year's meeting will be held directly after our Team Pentecost service.
Please find the notices and forms here: https://www.benwellscotswood.com/post/apcm-2024-annual-meeting
Embrace - Gaza appeal
The people of Gaza are living through an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Israel’s response has led to indiscriminate civilian suffering, with residents forced to move from place to place in search of safety. Food and medical supplies have all but run out; water, electricity, and fuel have been cut off.
The people of Gaza were already on their knees with 80% of residents reliant on humanitarian aid to survive. Please, can you make a donation into help in their hour of need?
You can donate online, by clicking below, or by calling 01494 897950. Your gift will support Embrace’s Christian partners in the immediate aftermath of this humanitarian crisis and to help to heal the wounds it’s caused across Israel – Palestine.
Sunday Worship
Sunday 5th May 2024
6th Sunday of Easter
White/gold
Collect
God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy;
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.
or
Risen Christ,
by the lakeside you renewed your call to your disciples:
help your Church to obey your command
and draw the nations to the fire of your love,
to the glory of God the Father.
Readings
Readings
Acts 10.44–end
44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.
This is the word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.
Gospel
John 15.9-17
9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
God our Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life:
may we thirst for you,
the spring of life and source of goodness,
through him who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Shared from the Lectionary app. Material subject to copyright. Please visit the About this App page for further information.
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Malcolm Smith
Paulette Thompson
John Peterson
Cecil Harlock
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis Nelson
Pauline Nelson
Michelle Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan Taylor
Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Lorraine Atkinson
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Hilary Dixon
Lynn Mosby
David Veitch
Rest in peace
Maria Hale
Other
The ongoing situation in Russia, Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Sudan and all other places at war.
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.
Sermon
By Revd Chris
Where is your home?
Is it where you live now? Is it where you were born or grew up? Is it a literal building, a country, or a culture? Is it where your family are, or is it somewhere you are still looking for?
Jesus tells us to “abide in his love”. ‘Abide’ means to live somewhere, to make a home somewhere, to stay somewhere. In this passage Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for his departure, when they will not see him any longer, he tells them how they can and will have a home in a world that looks like it wants them all gone or dead. He is not just preparing the disciples for his death, he is preparing them for eternal life. He is telling them that his death is leading them into life.
*
What then does this home look like? A home is built by placing ourselves amongst those things we value- whether physical, social, emotional, or spiritual. Jesus tells us: “you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” Jesus, therefore, is saying a home is built by love and it is known by its joy.
*
However, there are rules to obey in this home, or rather, one rule- he commands us to love one another as he has loved us. Being ‘commanded’ to do anything does not necessarily fill me joy, in fact it is more likely to irritate me and tempt me to rebel. Commandments and rules, make us think of a strict and unhappy household, ruled over by draconian parents, who restrict our behaviour and constrict our identity. However, the nature of Jesus’ command is different. It isn’t a command to be back home by a certain time, do the washing up, or help with DIY. It is a command to know and understand each other, to offer what we can in loving service to each other. This is a rule that is not static, but always developing and changing and expanding as we are changed by loving one another. We can trust it is truly given with our best interests at heart and will shape a home where we will always gain more than we put in, because it is command that is rooted in God the Father’s infinite love for his own Son.
*
Homes are not always happy places for everyone, many have insecure homes, substandard accommodation, and relationships that do not always have our best interests at heart. Jesus, instead, is building a home with love as the tools, love as the design, and love as the foundation. But the love Jesus is talking about is not just a nice feeling, it is a love that we work at.
I was talking to someone this week who was concerned about a vulnerable person she thought might be being bullied, and I was impressed how she instinctively understood Jesus’ command to love. She wanted to stand up for justice, not because she received any immediate benefit, but because she saw that standing up for one person meant that the world around her would be better for all. She understood that creating a world where she and her children could flourish means creating a world where others can flourish too.
*
This is what following Jesus’ command can look like. Make the world as it should be, as it needs to be, as God wants it to be. And the best place to start is church, not because we are perfect at all, but because we are a family that know we are loved by God, an infinite love that cannot run out. We already have love as the material to begin building.
We also have the blueprint with Jesus, who made his home with a chosen family of friends and sinners. In a world where many of us feel we don’t have a true home or family, Jesus is saying that, in him, there is a place where you will always be truly known and loved, a home built both on earth and in heaven. This is a home where you are wanted so deeply, that Jesus is prepared to lay down his life for you, his friend, so you may dwell there. Jesus knows there will be suffering and hardship for his disciples, but to abide with him is to dwell in a home that is diverse, eternal, and joyful.
*
This home isn’t just a distant chance for rest in heaven. It is a home that is within us and each other. That is why we must go to church and why we must work hard at sharing our home, build it bigger and more welcoming. Our churches are far from perfect, but we do have all the tools and materials we need to make them so, because we already dwell in the deep joy of the endless love of God.