Newsletter - Mothering Sunday
- Benwell and Scotswood Team
- Mar 29
- 9 min read
30/3/25
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
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Services this week
Sunday
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
9.45am - St Margaret's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service (Parish Eucharist) at Ven Bede
Tuesday
4.30pm - Farsi Bible Study at St James
Thursday
10.30 am - Holy Communion at Ven Bede
News
Don't forget! Clocks go forward 1 hour
On Saturday night, at 1am, the clocks go forward by one hour.
Smart phones and tablets should automatically update, but don't forget to change your clocks and watches or you'll be later for church on Sunday morning!
Mothering Sunday - St John's 11am
Mothering Sunday will be on 30th March and this year we will be celebrating with a team service at St John's at 11am.
On that Sunday join us at:
St John's Benwell Village
Ferguson Lane
NE15 6NW
Exploring Faith this Sunday
A group to explore, ask questions, and learn about the Christian faith.
1pm, Every Sunday throughout Lent
This week at St John's NE15 6RS
Lunch included (free: donations welcome)
Who is it for?
Exploring faith is a non-pressurised group for anyone who is simply curious, anyone who wants to refresh their faith, and anyone who might want to take the next step of baptism or confirmation (and those who are just unsure!).
All ages, abilities, and backgrounds are welcome.
What will happen?
Depending on who would like to come, we may split into smaller groups for young people and speakers of other languages.
Our clergy and other lay leaders will guide us through different resources and bible passages, and discuss together what they might mean.
Contact & RSVP
You’re welcome to just turn up on the day. But to help us prepare, let us know if you want to come and any dietary requirements or if we can make any adaptations to help you join in the discussion.
If you have any other questions feel free to get in contact:
Palm Sunday Gospel rehearsal - Sunday 6th April
There will be a rehearsal for those involved in the Palm Sunday gospel reading on Sunday 6th after the service at Ven Bede.
Lent Bible study
Kathy, our reader, is hosting a bible study at 7.30pm on Wednesday evenings during Lent.
You are very welcome to join the group.
For details please contact Kathy on 07946285529
Thank you - Centenary of the Montagu Pit Disaster
Thank you to all who contributed to the events, activities, and commemoration this Saturday at St Margaret's. We had many people attend, some incredible displays, and a very moving service. A special thanks to Scotswood Village Residents Association, and the St James Heritage and Environment Group.
2025 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Montagu Pit Disaster in Scotswood when the pit flooded on 30th March killing 38 men and boys. This was the worst mining disaster in the Great Northern Coalfield between the wars, and is still remembered locally today.
Holy Week 2025
You are invited to journey with us through Holy Week, when we recall the story of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection. The greatest story of hope in the face of suffering.
Palm Sunday
13th April, 11am
At Venerable Bede
We remember Christ’s triumphant arrival into Jerusalem with a procession outside the church bearing palm crosses and branches and singing. There is then a dramatic reading of the passion story and Holy Communion.
Maundy Thursday
17th April, 7.30pm
At St John's Benwell Village
We recall how Jesus shared his last meal with friends before he was betrayed with washing of feet and the stripping of decoration from the church. After the service the church remains open for the ‘watch’ until midnight for silent prayer.
Good Friday
18th April, 2pm
at St Margaret's Scotswood
We gather at the foot of the cross to remember that Jesus suffered and died for us and meditate on Christ's sacrifice. With veneration of the cross.
The Easter Vigil
Saturday 30th March, 8.30pm
at St James Benwell
The climax of Holy Week and the most important celebration of the Christian calendar. A service full of symbolism with light, music, and water, we rejoice in Christ’s bursting from the tomb, bringing us all hope of new life.
Easter Morning
Sun 20th April
9.30am at St John's
9.45 at St Margaret's Scotswood
11am at St James
We gather for Holy Communion on Easter morning.
Embrace - Gaza appeal
Conflict across the Middle East is unfolding with relentless intensity, devastating the lives of millions. Even as they live through these dark times, Embrace’s partners in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon are working tirelessly to bring the light of Christ amidst the suffering.
You can click below to donate online. If you would rather donate by phone, please call 01494 897950.
Sunday Worship
Purple or Lent array
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Sonja and Stan
John Nicholson
Malcolm Smith
John Peterson
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Pauline Nelson
Michelle & Peter Wilson
Alan & Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Christina Wilson
Diane Humphrey
Nellie Galbraith
Rest in peace:
Mothers who we have lost.
The 38 who died in the Montagu Pit Disaster
Other:
The victims of the Myanmar earthquake
The Mothers' Union
Newcastle United
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.
Colossians 3.12–17
12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
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.
Sermon
Marc Voase, Ordinand
May it be given to me to speak to you in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN
On Tuesday of this week, I did something I’d not done before: I attended the Farsi Bible study session at St James’s. As you’re aware, this is a weekly event in the calendar of church life here. (It just happens that this week was the first time I was able to come). Perhaps you have been? If not, it is definitely something I commend to you.
What I encountered there was a sizeable group (probably between 12-20) of our Farsi-speaking brothers and sisters, together with Fr Chris and myself, talking generally, taking tea and coffee together and very particularly, intentionally, reading, studying and thinking about the Word of God.
And Tuesday, being the feast of the Annunciation, we looked specifically at that story written in the gospel according to St Luke, in which God’s angel appears to Mary and tells her she is to be a mother. And not only that, but that the child she will bear will be called Son of God. It is a happy coincidence that today’s celebration of mothers and mothering falls within the same week as such an important feast in the church calendar.
It is also worth reflecting on the fact that today is a team service: a particular and intentional gathering in which the congregations of the four churches share in one single act of worship as the church of God. No-one here needs me to tell you that being involved in the church is always easy or comfortable – though perhaps just occasionally it can be fun, energising and life-giving! At the moment, churches just like yours throughout the country are concerned about declining numbers, lack of funds, lack of clergy and lay-leaders. And don’t start us on buildings, liturgies and personal morality among clergy and other Christians. Yet, here we are. We continue to show up day by day, week by week, service after service. And that’s just Fr Chris and me!
But why do we continue to show up in church if there is this mentality of scarcity and want around? No-one’s made any of us come here today after all – and God certainly has not done so - for control and manipulation are not in the nature of God.
I want to suggest that we come to church – and that we keep on coming to church because it is through “this wonderful and sacred mystery”, as one prayer calls it, that we can recognise something – however dimly – of ourselves, our need of belonging to and with others and most importantly of God.
At her best, the church is the primary example of mothering, since as the Eucharistic prayer reminds us, “through prayer, study and acts of service”, God uses his church to bring us back – individually and together – to his generous heart. And that heart – that sacred heart made flesh in Jesus Christ – beats supremely in and amongst the life, the loss, the sorrow and suffering, the pain and pleasure of his brothers and sisters and mother as they are each wonderfully and differently given form and meaning in the church, “this wonderful and sacred mystery.” Often the church can be place of our deepest torment, yet it remains at the same time the wide space of our hope, because it is held in life by the creator and sustainer of all things who is the source and summit of that hope. And as the same prayer reminds us, here in the church, through its rites and practices, God carries out the work of our salvation, providing shelter, food, and nurture and welcome. You and I in all our ordinariness, just as we are, because Christ’s blood is shed for us, come. And we find a home, a family and a future with hope here. We find a radical hospitality.
In this place, nothing is in fact lacking or scarce, but there is encounter, relationship and belonging in abundance. Or there can be if we forget ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Jesus, remembering that with him we are co-creators and co-heirs of immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. When she is functioning healthily, the church is not our fiefdom or an entity we can control, rather she is the mystical bride of Christ and the blessed mother, heart and home of the whole people of God.
In our day, we know that very many long for these things, for this kind of welcome and hospitality, and Mothering Sunday can be a time of mixed thoughts, feelings and emotions as our unique and collective experiences coalesce. It is good news indeed that each and all of these are known and held in the love of God that is beyond our understanding. No matter what this day holds before us or brings to mind, these walls, this place, even these people with whom we are bound together in all our difference and diffidence - can hold it all. Our reading from the letter to the Colossians reminds us that “love”, wonderful and awkward as it can be, “binds all things together in perfect harmony.” ( Col. 3: 14).
Is love flourishing in our own lives? Is it binding us together in the church and the world? Are our hearts large enough to welcome others into the wideness of God’s love, his welcome and hospitality? Perhaps we can ask ourselves these questions today. And if you haven’t yet done something in the church you’ve never done before, perhaps the hope and joy of this coming Easter might be a time to try.
As we come to the altar of that love again, let us entrust ourselves to him as completely seen, known and loved, as with the Blessed Virgin Mary, we behold her Son our Lord and with John, the beloved disciple, receive his mother to ourselves in her unceasing compassion, care and faithfulness, that we might know more of the love of the Father through the enduring heartbeat of the church – the home of us all in earth - even as we await our eternal citizenship that is in heaven.
And as we meet Jesus in our “amen” at the welcome of the Eucharist, so may we be like him in whom is our common identity more and more, forgetting ourselves, lifting high our crosses and following the Lamb in whom during good times and bad, whether we live or die, we all belong.
To the one whose nature and name is love be glory in the church and through all generations for ever and ever. AMEN