25/07/21
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
Thierry Boutts, St James and the miracle of the gallows, c.1435
Tempera on canvas, Laing Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dates for your diary
Holy communion with children - experimental service
Sunday 1st August
10.30 am, St James' Benwell
News
First Sunday in August - Holy Communion with children
As we continue our experiments with worship in Benwell and Scotswood on the first Sunday of the month. In August we will have a communion service as normal, but we will be trying out a format that is especially welcoming to children and families.
Reading and intercessions
Would you like to help us lead Sunday worship? Even if you haven't read in a service or led the prayers before, or if you are not sure but might be interested, then just let us know! We can do training and have a practice run with you so you can give it a go before committing. Speak with Chris or any of the clergy.
Cornerstone Community Cafe open!
Wednesdays & Thursdays 10am - 2pm
62 Armstrong Road, NE4 7TU
Delicious affordable meals
Outdoor Seating
Dog Friendly
Kids Corner
Computer and Internet Access
Computer help
Food pantry and emergency foodbank
and a great pre-loved shop!
Bible study with Farsi translation - every Tues 4.30pm
At St James' Benwell
Every week we meet to read and discuss the Bible. We have a translator for our Persian members, but anyone is welcome to come whatever language you speak!
Re-dedication of Newcastle Cathedral
The cathedral has been closed since early 2020 for renovations, but today it will be re-dedicated by Bishop Christine!
You can watch the service live here at 3pm.
And hopefully, you'll be able to visit from mid-August.
Covid-19 update
No doubt you will have heard that covid restrictions are being relaxed. As case rates are still high in our area you won't see too much change just yet! But we do have plans to reintroduce activities. Find all the info below.
Most importantly - please get your vaccine if you haven't yet! And stay at home if you develop covid symptoms.
Masks:
We are still advising everyone to wear face masks in the building, however, they are no longer mandatory.
Hand sanitising:
Everyone must continue to sanitise their hands on entering the building.
Social distance:
We will maintain 1M+ and chairs will still be spaced apart.
Holy Communion:
Communion will continue to be brought to you in your seat and we will not yet return to the common cup.
Signing in:
You may sign in with either the NHS covid app or the paper copy on the desk.
Singing: We will gradually reintroduce singing on Sundays, this will likely start with a music group or choir before we sing as a congregation. This may take a few weeks to get going and we may need to further mitigate risk with masks or further social distancing.
Children in services:
Children are welcome in services and do not have to stay in their seats. They can make full use of the children's corner and its toys, books, and craft materials. Please do remind children to keep 1M+ apart from other households.
After the service and refreshments:
We will continue to go outside after the service while the weather is good. We will gradually reintroduce teas and coffees after the service, but not immediately. If you would like to help please let us know!
Re-opening our buildings:
Team services at St James will continue for a while longer. As case rates are still high in our area, we will proceed cautiously and we will assess when is the right time to re-open our churches at our next Mission planning group in September and discuss with churchwardens over the next month. We will also discuss what the weekly pattern of services will look like then.
Baptisms/weddings/funerals
The number of guests is now only limited to the capacity of each building with seating spaced 1M+ apart.
Texts for worship
Invitation to confession
We run the race set before us,
surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
Therefore let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which clings so closely,
bringing them to Jesus in penitence and faith.
(or)
Jesus said to his apostles,
‘You are my friends if you obey my commands.’
Let us now confess our disobedience to him.
Kyrie Confession
You were sent to preach the good news of light
in the darkness of the world:
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
You were sent to plant in our hearts the seed of eternal life:
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
You were sent to reconcile us to yourself
by the shedding of your blood:
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Collect
Merciful God,
whose holy apostle Saint James,
leaving his father and all that he had,
was obedient to the calling of your Son Jesus Christ
and followed him even to death:
help us, forsaking the false attractions of the world,
to be ready at all times to answer your call without delay;
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.
Amen
Reading
Acts 11.27 – 12.2
At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword.
Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia.
I do not call you servants but friends,
because I have made known to you
everything that I have heard from my Father.
Alleluia.
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Glory to you O Lord.
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’ When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
Matthew 20.20–28
Sermon
The Revd Dominic Coad, Team Vicar.
I was struck, on reading the gospel reading set for the feast of St James, that it doesn’t paint James and his brother John, or indeed their mother, in a very good light. In the story their mother goes to Jesus to ask him to set James and John at his right hand and his left in his kingdom. In other words, she’s asking Jesus to give them the top jobs, make them both his closest advisors.
Although it’s their mother who asks this question, the two brothers are part of this attempt to gain favour too: when Jesus asks them if they can drink the cup he will be drinking, they rashly say to him, ‘we are able.’ Little so they know just what drinking that cup will mean for them. Moreover, they understand little about what Christ’s kingdom is, that it is a place where who is most important is decided by his Father’s standards, not those of the world, a place where the last will be first.
James shows himself up in this story, reveals himself as ambitious and ignorant. This is not normally how we remember important people. When we seek to preserve the memory of great figures in British history – Shakespere or Churchill or Princess Diana, say – we don’t tend to do it by telling the stories of the times they made fools of themselves or showed themselves up. Perhaps we should.
But amongst the saints we often do remember stories of failure, especially where the disciples are concerned: the hubris of James and John, Peter’s denial of Christ, Thomas’ doubt. Our culture often wants to remember the past as a story of victory and progress, a story in which we and our forebears are the heroes, but our Christian faith calls us to remember the past differently. Our history, rightly understood, is the story of God’s love and grace freely given; given to us even when, especially when, we’ve got things wrong.
This is what James would go on to learn. Christ is not the one who will make him powerful and important in his Kingdom but the one who will forgive and heal him when he fails to live up to the promise of his Kingdom. In Luke’s gospel James and John again fail to understand the Kingdom and show themselves up. After a Samaritan village refuses to welcome Jesus and the disciples on their travels to Jerusalem, James and John offer to call down fire from heaven to consume the village. Jesus rebukes them for what is, quite clearly, an overreaction.
Jesus’ prophecy, however, that James would indeed drink of the same cup as Christ would soon come to pass. This cup was the cup of martyrdom, as we heard in our reading from acts, and James was killed by the sword, by King Herod. James was beheaded, it is believed, in Jerusalem in AD44. Traditionally it is held that James took the gospel to Spain and converted that land before a vision of the Virgin Mary sent him back to Jerusalem, and to his death. For this reason, he is the patron saint of Spain and he is believed to be buried at the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, in Northern Spain. A famous pilgrimage, called the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St James, has been taken to that place by Christians since the Middle Ages.
That pilgrimage is more popular than ever today with 350,000 people completing it in 2019. And it’s no mean feat, covering 500 miles of challenging terrain on the most popular route starting at the Spanish/French border in the Pyrenees. This quiet persistent dedication inspired by the man who was once named by Jesus as one of the Sons of Thunder, presumably because of the unstable temperament he displays in his threat to call down fire upon a small village. From the man who vied for the top job and wanted to smite a village, to the dedicated pilgrim who walked the land of Spain sharing the gospel. A man whose dedication to the gospel lead eventually to his death.
In James’ life we see that he had truly learnt the lesson that Jesus was trying to impart in this morning’s gospel reading: ‘whoever wishes to be great among you must become your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
Most of us will not be called to give our lives for Christ, we are not likely even to take on the 500 miles of the Camino. Nevertheless, we are called to live lives of service and perseverance. We are called not to seek our own position and glory but to be the servants of all. That’s why the flawed lives of saints like St James are of so much more use to us than the lives of history’s so called ‘great’ figures.
But James teaches us that, like walking the Camino, becoming the people Christ is calling us to be takes time and a lot of hard work. It is not always easy to put others before ourselves, to put aside our own desires for recognition and achievement, to learn to be humble. It takes time, it requires us to slow down, to be thoughtful, to pay attention. This is surely one reason why a pilgrimage like the Camino is still so popular, a long walk like that forces the pilgrims to slow down, to take time to think about themselves and their lives.
James, too, made it from Jerusalem to Spain, a great undertaking in those days. He took time to be with God, to pay attention to God’s creation and the people who fill it. We can do the same, in this Church dedicated to St James, and across this parish, let’s slow down and take the time needed to become the people God is calling us to be; leave behind the thunder and embrace the calm. If we chose to slow down and walk with Christ then he will change us and he will make us the servants and lovers of all people.
Intercessions
The sick and suffering:
Liz Holliman
Joan Finley
James, Christina, and baby Xavier
Ali Zareie and his family
The Riches Family
Jill Sorley
Joyce Phillips
George Snowden
Claire Mozaffari
Eric Harling
Herbert Agbeko
Anastasia Miklewright
Edward Fraser
All those who are Struggling at home or in hospital with Covid-19
Rest In Peace:
All who lost their lives from Covid 19
The Peace
We are fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, through Christ our Lord, who came and preached peace to those who were far off and those who were near. The peace of the Lord be always with you.
Eucharistic preface
It is indeed right and good
that we should give you thanks, praise and glory,
almighty and everlasting God,
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.
For after his resurrection
he sent out his apostles and evangelists
to preach the gospel to all nations
and lead us in the way of truth.
Himself the chief cornerstone,
he founded his Church upon the apostles
firmly to stand for ever
as a sign of your holiness upon earth
and a living witness to all
of the way that leads to heaven.
And so with angels and archangels
and with all the company of heaven
we lift our voices
and join in their unending hymn of praise:
Post Communion
Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Blessing
God, who has prepared for you a city with eternal foundations, bring you, with all the saints, to the eternal and triumphant joy of that city; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen
Readings
Acts 11.27 – 12.2
At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword.
Alleluia, alleluia.
I do not call you servants but friends,
because I have made known to you
everything that I have heard from my Father.
Alleluia.
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Glory to you O Lord.
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’ When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
Matthew 20.20–28