04/07/21
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
Caspar David Friedrich, Sunset with two men, c.1830-35
Oil on canvas, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
News
Don't forget: different service times this Sunday 4th July!
9.45am - Venerable Bede
9.45am - St James
11.15am - St John's
11.15am - St Margaret's
As we continue our experiments with worship in Benwell and Scotswood on the first Sunday of the month. In July we will have a Sunday service in all four of our churches for the first time in over a year! We will try out a new pattern of service times to make it possible for our clergy to sustain worship in all our buildings without calling in outside help.
Next Sunday (11th) we will be back at St James at 10.30am for a team service.
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
Evert Tuesday at 4.30pm
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!
Covid-19 guidance:
Please remember: Hands, Face, Space.
We still need to sanitise our hands on entering the church, wear a face covering, and stay 2 metres apart.
We are now allowed to meet inside the church after the service, in socially distanced groups of 6 or less, or two households. As long as the weather is good, we will continue to go outside after the service, but this means we can shelter from the rain if necessary!
Please remember face coverings still must be worn (unless you are medically exempt or while doing a reading in the service).
Prayers
Collect
O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen
Post Communion
Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Intercessions
Wedding Banns
Billy Wilson & Donna Fowler (second reading)
The sick and suffering:
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 :
Ernest Fidders
Steven White
All who lost their lives from Covid 19
Readings
Ezekiel 2.1–5 He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
Mark 6.1–13 He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Sermon
The Revd Chris Minchin, Team Curate.
It seems appropriate that on this Sunday, as some of us return to our home churches across the parish, that the gospel passage is about coming home. Jesus returns to his hometown, but his neighbours, his brothers’ mates, the people who have known him all his life, are not so glad to see him. Not because he has done anything wrong as such. In fact, the opposite- he speaks with wisdom, he heals, and does ‘deeds of power’. Yet, this is what is offensive to them. This guy is getting ideas above his station, he now thinks he’s better than us, but we know the truth, he’s a carpenter’s son, not a prophet, not the Messiah.
That feeling of disconnect with the world we once knew is something I think all of us have had to, or will, go through at some point. Usually this happens in teenage rebellion, when we begin to form our own identities independent of those around us, when we realise that our tastes and interests are different from our parents or friends. We look beyond what we have known and we find new cultures, experiences, knowledge, and friends. This can make home feel uncomfortable, our familiar surroundings can suddenly feel small, restrictive, alien, because those around us will only ever know a small part of us. At some point we all have to leave our comfort zone to discover ourselves, we put ourselves out there by dressing differently, abandoning life plans, exploring sexuality, standing up for political beliefs, or fleeing our home country to build a new life.
The flip side of this is when we are the ones left behind as someone else changes and builds a new life, we feel offended - what is so wrong with staying here and getting a normal job like the rest of us? Is there something wrong with how we live our lives? They’ve changed, and not for the better, they’ve insulted my way of life by rejecting it.
We must remember that we are all travellers in this world. Ultimately, our home is with God, not here. We cannot stay static, but neither can we exist without some stability. We all need a place to rest, Jesus may send out the disciples with brave vulnerability “no bread, no bag, no money in their belts” but he does not send them out alone, he sends them in pairs, and he tells them to find places to rest along the way, homes to welcome them and stay in.
I wonder if that’s the model for churches: somebody needs to open their home to care for visitors, travellers, disciples and vagabonds. I wonder if we should think of our churches less as our private home, and more as a ‘public house’, a ‘pub’, those other great British institutions that are also opening up once again. We should worry less about having our personal things around, our carpets clean and our designated spot on the sofa. Instead we should consider always whether is this a place for all to find hospitality, a place to find rest, respite, and community. A place for those who have had to leave behind what they have known, those who have had to “shake the dust from their feet”, those who do not know how they fit into this world or what their identity is, those who have been made to feel small or have been hurt by those who should have loved them.
I wonder how does it make you feel to return to your churches to some ‘normality’, does the building somehow seem smaller or bigger? The same yet somehow different? For some it will just feel like coming home, for some it may feel glorious to be back, and for others it might feel like things have lost their shine. Either way, we can never be unchanged by any experience, especially an experience as huge as a pandemic, it makes us appreciate things differently, it makes us grow and change.
If we think of God as our real home, to which we all travel, then a church should be a place we can stop on the way. It should be a place anyone can walk in and stop for rest, not a place that exists for the owners only. So, as we return to our church buildings, think about whether we’re hospitable or not, think about the details, is this a place where we make people feel small and limit them to what we think they are? Is this a place people leave shaking the dust from their feet? Or is this a place where all of us travellers can discover our true identity, the truth of how God made us?
What the gospel tells us is that we all need a stable place to grow and flourish, a place to rest our heads, but our true identities are found outside of our comfort zone. We are formed by stories of both love and pain, we always exist in a state of flux, constantly changing, whether we want to or not. So welcome travellers, rest here for as long as you need, enjoy some good company before you continue your journey, whether that’s for the next 90 years or the next 90 minutes, but don’t stop your journey towards God.