19/9/21
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Karel Appel, Questioning Children, 1949
Gouache on wood, Tate, London
Dates for your diary
Sunday 26th September - Sunday 3rd October
Newcastle Diocese Generosity Week
Sunday 3rd October
Harvest Festival
10.30am St James
Wednesday 6th October
PCC meeting
7.30pm on Zoom
News
Stewardship Sunday 26th September and Generosity week
This year we are excited to be supporting a new diocesan-wide Generosity Week from Sunday 26 September to Sunday 3 October.
Next Sunday we will focus our service around stewardship and finance. And the following week will celebrate with our Harvest festival (more below!)
The aim is to inspire, encourage and enable mission and ministry to flourish in our Diocese. Being generous with both the material and spiritual gifts God gives us is key on our journey of transformation, as we seek to put God's mission at the centre of all that we do.
Read some inspiring stories of generosity from around the diocese here >
Harvest festival Sunday 3rd October
During the Sunday service we will give thanks and pray for God's creation, for food and all that sustains us.
We will be taking donations for the Community Pantry at Cornerstone. Please bring some items from their list below.
We would love:
Long life milk
Tinned tomatoes
Tea bags
Coffee
Corned beef
Pek chopped pork
Pasta sauce
Tinned fruit
Tinned puddings
Cleaning products
Laundry products
Toiletries
Cereal
We would like:
Long life juice
Marrowfat peas
Sugar
Tinned potatoes
Meatballs in gravy
Beans and sausage
Chicken and veg stock cubes
Biscuits
Tuna
Lentils
Kids cereal
Rice
Squash
Hygiene products
We can always use:
Tins of soup
Tins of veg
Pasta
If you cannot attend the service would like to make a cash donation then please contact Cornerstone here >
Return of West End Voices community choir!
New Term Starts Monday 13th September, 7-8,30pm, St James' Church Hall
We are a free choir (donation only) No prior experience needed, but experienced singers are also welcomed.
We meet 7.00pm – 8.30pm in St. James Church hall Benwell Lane every Monday TERM TIME ONLY
Everyone is Welcome – all abilities Pay what you can, there’s no minimum. You can join our choir without fear of audition, voice test, etc. You don't need to have sung at all before and we welcome those who were told in the past that they couldn't sing.
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.
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
O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
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
James 3.13 – 4.3, 7–8a
Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Gospel
Mark 9.30–37
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
Sermon
The Revd David Kirkwood
Today’s gospel in which Jesus takes a child and identifies himself so closely with him that he tells his disciples whoever receives one of these children in my name receives me couldn’t have been better timed.
This week and next week some of us, Churchwardens , PCC members, Parish Safeguarding Officers and Lay workers are attending training, from Newcastle Diocese, on what has come to be called Safeguarding. For some of you that will be a very familiar term for others a word you may not know. One task in our training session was to think about a definition, what it does mean? It soon became clear there are many aspects and ways of understanding it, nonetheless, at root it is quite simple, it is about how to make sure our churches, buildings and communities, are places that are safe and welcoming for all, especially, those who are in any way vulnerable. In other words, it is something that should be at the very heart of who we are as disciples of Jesus. Protecting the weak, bringing fullness of life to all, are Jesus’ priorities. They need to be ours too. Safeguarding is not an extra task the church is being made to do, but fundamental if we are to be true to the values of Jesus. It is about the gospel, the good news and we all have a part to play.
Sadly, it has become all too clear that the church has not always been good news to the vulnerable. People in her care have been abused, and when they have found the courage to speak out they have not always been heard. This is a distressing subject, especially if you have been personally affected. Please, if that is your case, I hope you will feel able to talk to someone, the clergy are always willing to listen, but there are also others you may prefer to talk to and full details are on church notices and on the church website. You will be listened to.
As I said today’s gospel couldn’t be more pertinent. Jesus takes a child, a vulnerable person, one of the weak of the world and identifies Himself with him or her. If you welcome this child, that is care for protect, ‘safeguard’, this child, you do it for me. You welcome me.
These are not the only words Jesus has about welcoming children. In the next chapter of St Mark, we have the story of how people were bringing children to Jesus so he could touch them, that is to lay hands on them for a blessing, and how the disciples tried to keep them away. This is a very unusual story in that Jesus gets angry, angry not with the parents, or the children, but with his friends who have so failed to understand what he is about. He famously says, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs’. If you have been at a baptism service with children being baptised you will know that, for obvious reasons, this passage is often read. The story ends with Jesus taking the children in his arms and blessing them. That action, that embrace, is even more eloquent then His words. Here is that welcoming ‘safeguarding’ love in action. This embrace is not unlike that of the Father in the story of ‘the wasteful son’, who squandered his inheritance, and yet on his return, found his father’s open arms. It is not unlike that of the last act of Jesus Himself ‘who opened wide his arms for us on the cross’
God’s way of valuing is different to that of the world, things that the world counts as weak and worthless, as children were so counted in Jesus’ day, indeed often are today, these are the things that are precious in his sight. The abandoned, the orphan, the widow, the vulnerable, (that is those unable to look after themselves), the refugee, the homeless person, the sinner, the bullied and abused, all are welcomed into His embrace. The Church’s work, our work is to continue to extend those open arms.
As well as insisting that they ‘let the children come to me’, Jesus has another message for the disciples. ‘Truly I say to you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’
What on earth does that mean? What is the quality that Jesus sees in little children that is lacking in adults? Innocence, trust, or maybe curiosity and an eagerness to learn? Maybe there is no definite answer, it is something to ponder on. There is an emphasis on receptivity, on ‘receiving the kingdom like a little child’. Perhaps we can think of the way those children would have responded to Jesus warm embrace. A readiness to receive with open arms, to welcome the embrace that is offered. Is that how we can enter the kingdom?
So, to come back to today’s reading, Jesus took a child put him in the middle of them took him in his arms and then said ‘whoever receives one of these children in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me’.
He doesn’t say it is ‘as if ‘you received me it is ‘like’ receiving me but that you will receive me. It is like the story of the ‘Sheep and Goats’, where Jesus, at the Last Judgement tells those who fed, and clothed, and visited the least of his brothers and sisters that they did it for Him. He was present in those who were helped. So too in these little ones who are welcomed, He will be present. But maybe there is a difference. The ones who have done good, like the ones who did not never recognised Jesus. ‘When did we feed you, clothe you, visit you?’, they ask. Only then, at the end of the age, do they receive their reward, ‘enter the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning’. But to receive Jesus in his little ones, as promised in today’s gospel, is not to be delayed, those who receive them already receive Him and the One who sent Him, whether they know it or not, are they not already entering the Kingdom? The children who are welcomed are already bearers of God’s presence a presence that can be welcomed and received here and now.
Safeguarding was where we began, the gospel task of protecting, welcoming, embracing the vulnerable. We saw how Jesus became angry with those who did not see his eagerness to welcome children. Let the Children Come to me reminds us of exactly that. These are those God counts as precious. His arms are open to all especially the ‘weak’ and vulnerable. This is Gods embrace in Jesus. Unless you become like a child reminds us that we have our part to play, but it doesn’t have to be too complicated too heroic. Instead, we must be ready to learn from the unlearned, to unlearn things we thought we knew, to cast pride aside, and simply receive the embrace offered, gratefully allowing ourselves to be held in those arms. Finally, ‘whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me’. Shows Jesus complete identification with those he comes ‘to safeguard’, to save. They become bearers of His Presence and of the Father’s. In welcoming and receiving them we welcome the Divine. But who is welcoming whom? Giving and receiving become like a dance in which the welcomer finds a welcome.
Amen
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Edith Hutchinson
Regine Hemminger
Grace Thomson
Peter Wilson
John Nicholson
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
Herbert Agbeko
Edward Fraser
All those who are Struggling at home or in hospital with Covid-19
Rest In Peace:
Eric Harling
Nosa Samuel
Peter Schofield
Trevor Fitzpatrick
All who lost their lives from Covid 19
Other intentions:
Afghanistan & Iran
Post-Communion
Almighty God,
you have taught us through your Son
that love is the fulfilling of the law:
grant that we may love you with our whole heart
and our neighbours as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.