18/8/24
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
Click below to read this week's information and latest news.
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Services this week
Sunday 4 August
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion 9.45am - St Margaret's Holy communion
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
Tuesday
No bible study this week
Thursday
10.30am Venerable Bede - Holy Communion
News
Thank you from David and Elspeth
David and Elspeth would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped make last Sunday so special. We were both overwhelmed by the love and support from you all. The music group did a fantastic job, the flowers looked lovely, the food and the cake were great, and we had loads of positive comments from visitors and friends. Yvonne Greener sent us all out with an inspiring message adding to the prayers and good wishes of all attending. Thank you too for all the encouraging messages and cards, and of course for the gifts, which we look forward to putting up once we move as a reminder of the parish. Elspeth adds an extra thank you for the gifts of flowers which are brightening up the Vicarage as we embark on clearing and packing. It is not possible to say individual thanks for everyone or everything, but we felt the day really made a good ending to what has been a wonderful thirty-nine years of ministry the last eight in ‘probably the best parish in the Diocese’.
A great day out in Cullercoats!
Just over a week ago we took a group of kids to Cullercoats for a fantastic day out! Thank you so much to the Cullercoats Watch House, CBK Adventures, and Bills Fish and Chips for giving the kids such a memorable day out paddle boarding and exploring Cullercoats and its history.
We stand against racism in the west end
On Wednesday our clergy and others joined the 3000 strong anti-racism rally on the West Road to show that we value our diverse community, that refugees are welcome here, whereas hatred and prejudice are not. We are delighted that a peaceful protest showed the best side of our community.
No one should have to feel unsafe in their own community, and we will always do what we can to protect all in this area. We encourage you all to overwhelm any prejudice with kindness, and to continue living with love for your neighbour.
Thank you for supporting Benstock '24!
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 18 August 2024
Trinity 12
Green
Readings
Ephesians 5.15–20
15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 6.51–58
51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 53So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
John Nicholson
Malcolm Smith
Paulette Thompson
John Peterson
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis & Pauline Nelson
Michelle Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan & Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Hilary Dixon
Lynn Mosby
Irene Scaife
Baby Alice Rose, Jodie and family
Christina Wilson
Diane Humphrey
Rest in Peace
Lorraine Atkinson
Baptisms
Jessica Ferencova
Layla-Grace Fiddes
Other
Asylum seekers, refugees, and compassion in our country
David and Elspeth
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
Revd Chris
“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life” These shocking words of Jesus caused difficulty for many early Christians and have caused much confusion and bloodshed since then.
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As Jesus said these words to a crowd of people, they were not yet aware of the full implications of them. He is preparing them for what he knows will happen - his last meal with his disciples, when he will break bread and share wine, knowing that his own body will be broken and his own blood shed on the cross. It will be a shocking and terrible thing, but he is also telling them this won’t be the end. Because “Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’”
This is the bread of life, Jesus own body broken and blood spilled, Jesus’ death will not be the end but the beginning.
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Today we baptise Jessica, and when I was preparing Jessica I tried to explain what it is we do in communion and why. And just as I was about to open my mouth I thought “how the heck do I explain this simply”. And I can’t really, it is something to be experienced, something that will always be more than words.
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Our practice here is that when we baptise those who are old enough to choose and understand for themselves, they are invited also to receive communion. This is not because Jessica will have passed some sort of spiritual test, but because it is a beginning of understanding. This is the beginning of her journey. In the same way Christ’s death was not the end, but the opening of the doorway for all of us to enter into eternal life.
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There are various names for what we do: Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, Mass. Each of these names suggest a particular way of thinking about the act, none of them are wrong, but none of them are adequate to fully sum it up. My personal preference is not always popular in the Church of England, but as I like to be different, I prefer the word ‘Mass’. This is not because I am particularly traditional or I want to say I think the same as Roman Catholics, but because the word comes from the Latin ‘Missio’, or mission, and as ‘Team Vicar for Mission’ I am all for anything that strengthens our understanding God that it is God’s mission for the world, and this is all about God reaching out into the world.
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You don’t have to use the same language I do at all, and I’d be interested to know what term you prefer and why. But whatever we think as individuals, I think it is important that we remember that it will always be bigger than our personal understanding, and its foundation is always about what God does for us.
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There are three broad approaches to the communion. Firstly, ‘Transubstantiation’ – the belief that the bread and wine become the body and blood, accepting the mystery that, physically or literally, it becomes Jesus’ body and blood. For many of us, this is just too much of a leap, at odds with rationality and our experience of the world to accept. The second approach is to treat it simply an act of remembrance, not significant in itself, but a reminder of the significant original event. For many of us, that seems to reduce the spiritual enormity of what we do together. The third approach is to trust that Christ is “really” present, and “truly” received, but in bread that continues to be bread, or wine that still tastes and looks like wine — because it still is bread or wine. This still requires a leap of faith, but it at least indicates how in the ordinariness of our world God can be truly present.
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The eucharist/mass/communion is always more than words, always more than our understanding, and how we go about the practice changes us.
In our first reading from Paul talks about why the way we worship matters. He talks about being filled with the spirit rather than getting drunk on wine, to sing in praise and thanks to God. This may seem a little too close to home after we had such a great celebration last Sunday as we said farewell to David. But I think Paul is essentially saying that when none of know when the end will come, it matters how, as a community, we do things now.
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There are few absolutes in Christian worship and practice - there are so many different forms of worship, so many different opinions on how we should live. But in the Eucharist we come together in worship of God, from all our different positions and viewpoints, and offer ourselves in the knowledge that God has already offered us so much more, already offered himself to us freely without exception.
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In Christ’s offering of his body to death we find our beginning, at this table made of wood we approach the altar of God’s presence, in the ordinary elements of bread and wine, we encounter God themselves, from this place of stone we set out on a journey with God into the world.
What does it all mean? I don’t know. But I know it matters.
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