29/8/21
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Rene Magritte, The treachery of images (This is not a pipe), 1929
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), LA
Dates for your diary
Sunday 5th September
Services in all 4 churches:
9.30am - St James' Benwell
9.30am - Venerable Bede
11.15 am - St Margaret's
11.15 am - St John's
Wednesday 8th September
Members of 'Mission Action Planning' group to meet
2pm at St Margaret's
UPDATE - Now Tuesday 14th September
Treasurers meeting
7pm on Zoom
Sunday 26th September - Sunday 3rd October
Newcastle Diocese Generosity Week
Wednesday 6th October
PCC meeting
7.30pm on Zoom
News
Rota
If you help us with readings/intercession/worship on Sundays then find the latest rota up until 24th October here:
If you are interested in being involved in worship then just speak with one of the clergy who will happily talk you through what it requires.
Bishop Christine announces her retirement
Having reached her 70th birthday (and having already retired in 2012 only to return to ministry on her consecration as bishop!) the bishop of Newcastle, Christine Hardman, has announced she will retire at the end of November.
Bishop Christine has visited our parish many times, including joining the interfaith peace walk, visiting Cornerstone, and to Confirm 17 of our Iranian congregation. She and her family will be in our prayers, as will Bishop Mark who will hold the fort during the vacancy.
She says: “I am profoundly grateful for the six years I have served this Diocese, the depth of welcome and relationships in this region has been inspirational and encouraging. We have all been called to minister together, lay and ordained, at a time of extraordinary challenge, and I am very proud of the way in which our clergy and laity have responded to this. I give thanks for all of you. It has been a privilege to be your Bishop."
Lunch Break to return - Tues 21st September, 12-2pm
Our weekly 'pay what you feel' lunch returns next month at St James!
From 21st September, every Tuesday there will be a simple lunch with teas coffees. You are welcome, whatever your age or background. This is always a great time to get to know all sorts of people in your local community.
Food will be brought to your tables and staff will wear masks. Please sanitise your hands and sign-in with the app or on paper when you arrive.
If you would like to help out with Lunch Break then let us know! We have volunteer opportunities for those who want to cook, wash-up, welcome and serve at tables.
Next month worship in all our churches - Sunday 5th September
9.45am - Venerable Bede
9.45am - St James
11.15am - St John's
11.15am - St Margaret's
As our last attempt at four services was scuppered by unforeseen circumstances, we are going to try again with a Sunday service in all four of our churches for the first time in over a year! We are trying out different patterns for our clergy to sustain worship in all our buildings without calling in outside help. This is not necessarily the times we will go with in the future
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.
Most importantly - please get your vaccine if you haven't yet! And stay at home if you develop covid symptoms. Find vaccine times and locations here >
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!
Worship texts
Collect
Almighty God,
who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
James 1.17–27
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfilment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Gospel
Mark 7.1–8,14,15,21–23
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.” You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’
Sermon
The Revd Chris Minchin
Sometimes you just need people to say things as they are.
Have you ever been in that situation where you know you need to say something tough and you’re worried about how it’s going to be received? So you end up avoiding the situation it just gets worse and worse. Or you try to make it sound as nice as possible, to the point the other person does not understand and it makes no difference.
I have to admit, one of the strengths of this congregation is that, more than any other church I have come across, you are not afraid to speak your minds! This can make for rather interesting meetings if you ever have the pleasure of joining our PCC. Although this can be somewhat intimidating for fresh faced young curates, I wouldn’t have it any other way. PCC, DCC, mission planning groups, treasurers’ meetings etc. etc… normally in so many churches this is where religion goes to die. Meetings can end up paralysing a church - with people too scared to express their real opinions, and endless talking that leaves barely any time to actually get on with helping people – no time to socialise and enjoy time together or (God forbid) to worship together.
Fortunately, that isn’t the case here (most of the time!). In my opinion, I’ve always felt these sort of meetings should be the place for bust-ups and arguments! At their best I think these are the places for a few people to fight it out, to get all the controversy out in the open and work through it, in order for it to not get in the way of the true work of the whole church. We need to be able to speak plainly and argue, so that we are free and can be confident that we understand each other fully, and that we ultimately care about the same things. Of course, this can only be the case if we trust each other enough to speak so honestly, if there is any doubt about motive, if there is any fear, deceit, selfishness, then it sours everything else. A healthy argument or debate morphs into bullying, coercion, revenge and spite.
The way to prevent it going wrong is to create an environment where all feel safe and secure that our goal is the same. And what is that goal? Well, it is as our first reading says plainly: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world”. And we are to “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
I love this part of the letter of James, it says so plainly that it is one thing to believe, to hear God’s truth but it’s not real unless you do something about it. True, God doesn’t love us any more or less because of our actions, but if you know God’s love is real then it has to be more than a belief in your head. No faffing around, we have to get out there and find today’s equivalent of the widows and the orphans - i.e. the poor and powerless. And we have to help without worrying about whether they deserve help, whether we will be tainted by association, whether it’s a waste of our resources or time. To do good is good enough.
We can come to church all we want, we can claim we believe, we can read the Bible and study the right things, listen to the right people, but as Jesus says so plainly - it is what comes out of us that defiles us, it is our actions that reveal what is truly in our hearts.
I’m not saying that your actions need to be perfect, we all get things wrong, and all of us veer off course, distracted by pride, selfishness, fear and anxiety, and it will happen again and again. The incredible thing about God is that no matter how wrong things go, no matter how guilty we feel, there is no limit to God’s loving forgiveness. The important thing is to get back up, get back on track, to keep going, to keep loving, and keep being transformed by the love we share. You all have lives and opportunities to do something good, so, if you are paralysed by guilt or shame or feeling you are not good enough, then don’t wallow there. Accept that God loves you. If you feel you are not good enough then remember it is what comes out of us that makes us who we are - by sharing love we create love, we do not simply wait to receive and consume love. By doing good we are all transformed.
I think the message this week is simple and plain. As a church, who we are is shown by our actions. And, for the last however many centuries, who we are as an institution has not been as good as it should be. So let’s be honest with ourselves, let’s get everything into the open, fight it out if we need to, but only so that we can get on with sharing the love of Christ with those who are suffering in the world. Let’s always keep our eyes focused on the goal.
“But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.”
Amen.
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Edith Hutchinson
Peter Wilson
John Nicholson
Debbie and Paul Hannon
Liz Holliman
Joan Finley
James, Christina, and baby Xavier
Anastasia Miklewright
Ali Zareie and his family
The Riches Family
Jill Sorley
Joyce Phillips
George Snowden
Claire Mozaffari
Eric Harling
Herbert Agbeko
Edward Fraser
All those who are Struggling at home or in hospital with Covid-19
Baptisms:
Isabella Wilkinson
Thomas Hawthorn
Lucy Kirkley
Rest In Peace:
Michael 'Patchy' Bell
All who lost their lives from Covid 19
Other intentions:
Afghanistan & Iran
Post-Communion
God our creator,
you feed your children with the true manna,
the living bread from heaven:
let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage
until we come to that place
where hunger and thirst are no more;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.