Newsletter - Trinity Sunday
- Benwell and Scotswood Team
- 13 minutes ago
- 6 min read
15/6/25
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
Jump to:
Dates for your diary
Saturday 28 June
Ordination of Priests at Newcastle Cathedral, including Claire Lewis!
Tuesday 8 July
Visit of Mothers' Union WWP to Something Wonderful project 1.30pm presentation with WWP
Services this week
Sunday
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
9.45am - St Margaret's Holy Communion
11am - Team service at St James Parish Eucharist
Tuesday
4.30pm - Farsi Bible Study at St James
Thursday
12pm - Ven Bede Holy Communion
News
Thursday - new service time at Ven Bede
The weekly service of Holy Communion at the Venerable Bede will now be at 12pm.
Join us every week for worship.
West Road, NE4 8AP
Claire Lewis' ordination to the priesthood!
On Saturday 28th June Claire will be ordained priest at Newcastle Cathedral! The service begins at 11am.
Join us there to support her and pray for her and St Mary's Monkseaton as she prepares to take this next step in vocation.
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
Liturgical colour: white
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Sonja and Stan
John Nicholson
Malcolm Smith
John Peterson
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Pauline Nelson
Peter Wilson
Alan & Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Christina Wilson
Diane Humphrey
Nellie Galbraith
Isla
Christine Williams
Banns of marriage
Nicole Campbell and Brian Johnson
Other
For the people of Iran, Israel, and Gaza
For the Team Parish and our search for a new Rector
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.
Readings
Proverbs 8.1–4, 22–31
8Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?2 On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;3 beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out:4 ‘To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.22 The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—26 when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil.27 When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command,when he marked out the foundations of the earth,30 then I was beside him, like a master worker;and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.
John 16.12–15
12 ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
(from the New Revised Standard Version of the bible)
Revd Chris
Ah, Trinity Sunday. The Sunday most dreaded by all clergy, when we have to somehow explain in simple terms something we do not understand ourselves. The Holy Trinity: one God in three persons.
From today onwards, we enter what the Church calls Ordinary Time—the long stretch of the year that takes us all the way to Advent. So we return to ordinary life, whatever that means for us, I don’t think Benwell and Scotswood could ever be accused of being ordinary.
Our vestments today are white, signifying the holiness of this day. But from next week, it’s green all the way—green, the colour of growth.
Growth. Is a word that churches are always concerned with. But what do we mean by growth? Do we mean more people? More young people? Deeper faith? Or is it we’re all growing a bit older and growing our waistlines.
Yesterday, I was privileged to travel to Nottingham for the Persian Anglican Network Conference, and we discussed the remarkable growth of Christianity in Iran. Often the story we tell ourselves is that Christianity is spreading from the West to the rest of the world—that we are sharing Christ with Iranians.
But, as Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani reminded us, Christianity has been in Iran far longer than it has been in Britain. In fact, Christianity came to us from the Middle East. We didn’t invent it. And now, Christians from Iran are renewing our churches. Growth takes unexpected twists and turns. Growth is just as much about expanding our mindset, letting ourselves be changed by encountering truth—especially when it comes from places we didn’t expect.
But what does all this have to do with the Trinity?
Well, this year marks 1700 years since the Council of Nicaea. Yes, I know, you can barely contain your excitement. But really, it was a pivotal moment in Christian history. It was at Nicaea, that church leaders gathered to articulate what we believe about God—and out of it came the Nicene Creed, the words we still say together on Sundays.
And that Council, there were delegates from Persia—but none from Britain. Before the Church ever reached these shores, Persians were shaping our theology. The global Church is not a new phenomenon. It has always been the body of Christ across all lands and languages.
Now, the word “Trinity” doesn’t appear in the Bible. But the experience of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is woven throughout Scripture. The early Christians were simply trying to make sense of what they had seen and known: a God who is Creator, a Saviour who walked among us, and a Spirit who dwells within us still.
I believe deeply that Christian theology should always be explainable in simple terms. Because our faith is about a God who longs to be known—not a God who hides behind complicated theories.
What the idea of ‘trinity’ should never be is a way of reducing the idea of God into something manageable. Rather, it is the stepping stone to help us expand our idea of who God is.
God is relational, and that’s the heart of the Trinity: a relationship of love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the amazing truth of Christianity is that we are invited into that relationship. It’s in our movement toward one another—in love, in forgiveness, in community—that we catch glimpses of God. It’s when we allow our minds and hearts to be stretched that we grow more into the image of God.
The Trinity tells the story of a God who creates us for relationship, who steps into our world in Jesus Christ, and who remains with us through the Holy Spirit. It’s the story of a love that is not content to stay distant, but draws near to heal, to transform, and to make all things new.
Every person is a mystery, no one fully knows another person, but we are still drawn to love each other, because we are different.
At this moment in time we think of the terror the people in Iran are facing. We hope and pray for a change in the regime that has exiled so many of you from your homeland. But we hope and pray that it is not through destruction and death that it is achieved. In a world that tries to reduce us all to binaries, to put us on one side or another, we remember that we follow a God who is not binary, but three in one, a God who calls us to relationship, not because we know and understand everything, but because we can see God revealed in one another.
To contemplate the Trinity is not to drift off into abstract thought. It is to be drawn outward, into the world, to be re-made in love, and to help others discover that love for themselves.
So may this Trinity Sunday be not a burden, but a gift. Not a theological headache, but a glimpse into the beautiful, holy mystery of the God who made us, who walks with us, and who abides in us still.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.