18/07/21
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
Akse, Mural of Marcus Rashford covered in messages of support
Withington, Manchester, 2021
Dates for your diary
St Margaret's Patronal festival
Tuesday 20th July
7pm, St Margaret's Scotswood
St James' Patronal festival
Sunday 25th July
10.30am, St James' Benwell
Holy communion with children - experimental service
Sunday 1st August
10.30 am, St James' Benwell
News
St Margaret's day celebration! Tues 20th July, 7pm
Join us to celebrate St Margaret's festival day, who our church in Scotswood is dedicated to!
7pm for a communion service followed by a glass of something strong and bubbly!
St Margaret's church Scotswood,
Heighley Street, NE15 6AR
Goodbye to Zohreh and Melika - thank you for everything!
It is with huge sadness, but real pride, that we say goodbye to Zohreh and her daughter Melika who have now moved to London. Zohreh has been our Farsi translator every Sunday throughout the pandemic, enabling our Persian group to partake in worship and much else throughout the week. A job that takes an incredible amount of hard work behind the scenes.
We will miss them very much as they move to London for Melika to go to college and Zohreh to pursue work and hopefully discern vocation in the church. We know they will do great things wherever they are, our prayers are with them and they will always have a church family here in Newcastle.
First Sunday in August - including children in Holy Communion
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
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
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
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
Post Communion
Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Amen
Intercessions
The sick and suffering:
Matt and Peter Dobson
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
Other intentions:
Zohreh and Melika as they build a new life in London.
Mohammad Kolahkaj for his interview.
Readings
Ephesians 2.11–22
So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.
Mark 6.30–34,53–56 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
Sermon
The Revd Christopher Minchin, Team Curate.
If we needed proof that Jesus is completely human (as well as being God, of course) then we have it here - even Jesus gets tired and hungry and wants some time out for recuperation. He and the disciples get into a boat and row off as fast as they can just to get some peace. Unfortunately, someone recognises them, they are seen, and legions of fans come chasing after. I imagine Jesus in sunglasses surrounded by paparazzi, the disciples acting as bodyguards, throwing their coats over him and elbowing a path through the crowds.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen crowds, hen]ce why it was both strange and exhilarating to see thousands gathered at Wembley last Sunday, piling up, cheering, shouting, chucking pints of beer in the air, some even storming through barriers and guards in a vain attempt to get just a glimpse of the final. I don’t know about you, but after a year and a half of social distancing I still feel weird when I see people too close to each other on TV, I forget that it’s not always been like this.
Despite the high energy and excitement, the players must have felt exhausted as they neared end, but they battled on nonetheless, through extra-time and penalties. It is these times of tiredness and desperation that can bring out the worst in all of us, we can become impatient, irritable, frustrated, angry, upset. But the players, even though it was ultimately all in vain; incredibly they endured with patience and determination.
I wonder if Jesus, as the crowds doggedly followed him, whether he became impatient and frustrated? Well, being human, maybe he was tempted to be irritable, but he doesn’t seem to lose it. His initial reaction is testament to the integrity of his character, as both God and human, in times of good and bad, in times of feasting and famine, energy and exhaustion, he responds with compassion. He shows us God always has compassion on us, however tiring we are, however much of a nuisance we make ourselves to him.
We, ourselves, may not always manage to avoid snapping irritably when we shouldn’t, but I think Jesus our shepherd, our team manager, shows us that we should never lose compassion. Compassion should never be a finite resource dependent on our circumstances, compassion is the endurance of love in the face of difficulty. Our energy may run low, our patience even, but our compassion should not.
Unfortunately, a minority showed a distinct lack of compassion for the England team last week. A few immediately turned to social media and began a tirade of racial abuse against black players and then defaced a mural of Marcus Rashford in Manchester - the black player and campaigner against child food poverty. Who knows why their initial reaction was to immediately turn to the colour of the players’ skin and their heritage. However disappointed, however tired and upset, there is no excuse for this lack of compassion.
But what gave me hope, despite this display of the worst of humanity, was the incredible response of thousands who went to repair the mural and covered it with messages of support. The greater response was testament to the fact love and compassion is always stronger than hate, it endures always.
In our New Testament reading Paul is trying to tackle racial and cultural divisions also when he’s talking about circumcision. Believers in the early church were made up of both Jews, who are circumcised, and gentiles, the ‘strangers and aliens’ from elsewhere who were not circumcised. Paul challenges those believers who would exclude and divide on this basis, who would put distinctions between those who follow Christ, and smashes down the wall saying:
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”
As we saw with the treatment of black footballers, in the UK we still have racial division and it’s making me tired and frustrated, and I’m not even a recipient of the abuse. For those of us who are white, think how exhausting it must be to always have your validity questioned, to constantly feel forced to assimilate and erase your back story, to always be considered an outsider, no matter how hard you work, how much you love. To know that, to some, you will never be considered one of them.
For Paul, the answer to this division is not assimilation, to become ever more the same and to erase the culture you arrived with. It is to become citizens “of the household of God”, circumcised and uncircumcised, Jew and gentile, black and white, English and Farsi. He takes the stones of the demolished dividing wall and builds a house he says: “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.21In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord”. In this house we may become the walls, or roof, some may be cut and shaped differently for pillars. But in all our diversity there is no division. If we were to be divided, to pull the walls apart, then the whole thing would collapse and crumble. And fortunately God, as the mortar, will not let that happen.
I am telling you now, and reluctantly so, there is no place for racial division in this or any church. Because that has nothing to do with the kingdom of God. The churches of Benwell and Scotswood are the home of those who are born here or born elsewhere, it is the home of those like me who have arrived in the last couple of years, and those who have never been anywhere else. It is the home of Geordies, Persians, Nigerians, Roma, old and young, and much else besides. It is the home of all people who want to gather and worship God. Members of this congregation are members of this congregation, not of individual groups within it.
We are not a Farsi church, we are not an English church, we are not a church of old or young. We are a church. I tell you, unequivocally, anyone who comes to worship God is a part of this church family, whatever they look like, however they speak. This is a place for all to come worship God. This is not “your” personal church, it ours, all equally, however long you’ve been here, there is no in-crowd or out-crowd, there is only the household of God.
Look at the division outside our walls and have compassion. We need to model for our whole society what a compassionate community is, one that recognises diversity and is united in our humanity and by the grace of our God.
However tired we are, there is no excuse for a lack of compassion. Of course it’s difficult and tiring adapting and changing all the time, but God does not stop building his kingdom. This is the faith you, follow. So don’t exhaust yourself needlessly worrying about who is worthy of being part of it, because God is drawing us all into the same household anyway:
“in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us… so that he might create in himself one new humanity”. Amen.