Features (December/January 2009/2010)
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Synod Address
‘We are ready to learn from one another’
Addressing members of the new Diocesan Synod in Rothbury, Bishop Martin thanked them for giving their time and commitment to the work of the Church. Summing up the aims of Synod, he said: “We take counsel together, we take responsibility for walking and working together, despite the issues that divide us; we show we are ready to learn from one another – and above all from God.”
He added: “And we keep asking the basic question – what difference will any discussion or idea or plan or strategy make to and for the Kingdom of God ? And above all we remember that we are a community of people committed to seeing and hearing Jesus Christ our Lord in one another.”
Turning to the recent offer by Pope Benedict to receive traditionalist Anglicans into the Church of Rome, Bishop Martin told members that whatever might subsequently happen, “it seems to me hardly likely to lead to the collapse of the Church of England or the fragmentation of the Anglican Communion.”
He pointed out that the collapse of the Church of England had been predicted for a long time – ever since Henry V111th broke with Rome in 1536.
“As I’ve said before to this Synod, it’s not the most pleasant of stories and Henry was not the happiest of men. He wanted freedom of action so he got rid of a jurisdiction he could not control. He no longer had to pay lip-service to the authority of an independent church, with its own self-contained system, its own lawyers and its own points of strength and weakness.
Instead he had a national church and, as King, he made sure the Church knew its place. From that day to this, the Church of England has been somewhat hesitant about its authority. We have no doctrine of infallibility, no independent head, no system of canon law that doesn’t in the end depend on Parliament’s approval. We are expected to go along with the law of England, the people of England and the common things of England. We are expected to be fully part of, and reflect the state of, society, and I would like to think we do it rather well.”
That, said Bishop Martin, was where we were. “But it’s never where we are looking. Like all churches, and all Christians, Anglicans look to God. But because in England there are many different opinions about where God is to be found and how the Bible should be interpreted and who should decide on policies, we haven’t got the clear cut definitions of the Roman Catholics.”
For some this looked like a weakness, he went on. “Society is throwing up new challenges and new theories, new insights: marriage, sex, gender, the environment, embryo and stem cell research, assisted dying. English people are thinking new thoughts, breaking new ground, making new mistakes.
The Church of England is part of English society. We share in this process and we sometimes find it difficult to separate the good from the bad.”
However, he said, in his view this wasn’t a weakness at all. “Simple arguments from an infallible Bible or an infallible Pope are not the way the Spirit leads us into all truth. How do we know? Well, we know because it’s never happened that way. The early church had none of these things. It had only the experience of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. “What did that mean? They had to work it out, and it wasn’t easy. Paul did not always agree with Peter. What is so important to Mark is not as important to Matthew. Luke paints one picture, John paints another.
What they had in common was the deepest possible conviction that this was all so tremendously important. God loved them. God’s Son had died and was alive. God’s Kingdom was where they belonged. “
The Bishop concluded: “We, like the disciples, will make mistakes, because we are human. We shall disagree, because opinions differ. What holds the Church of England together is our long history of having to cope with uncertainties. It is called faith - faith in the God who loves us even before we turn to Him.
“God in Jesus Christ calls us to it. He is at its centre. He is its beginning and He is its goal. He is also burning charity. Above all, friends, whatever emerges from this latest initiative from Rome and whatever decisions are taken, let us love one another.”
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A vision for the Great Park
It began with a drawing class at St. Aidan's church in Brunton Park. Ruth Hewett, newly redundant from a highflying job as European design manager at Formica, had decided to return to her roots, and thought she might offer her services to her local congregation.
Creativity, Ruth already knew, was one way of tuning into God. She'd done it herself when she'd been coping with her hectic job, jetting off to Spain, Germany or Japan, meeting lots of people, enjoying herself, but, as she puts it, "realising there was something missing."
Maybe others, too, had a sense of "something missing" and maybe coming together as community to make something beautiful could offer a new perspective on living, and on God.
From that simple beginning, a class for church members offering basic skills in drawing, has come an exciting new project that sees the Church of England nationally and the Diocese of Newcastle specifically investing in a daring piece of Mission.
In short, why shouldn't Ruth Hewett set up shop on the Great Park in Newcastle - or rather, set up home, and live out a Christian presence in the heart of a new community, a community which, although affluent, seemed to face many social problems and difficulties in making connections with others? Problems? In one of Newcastle's most fashionable and desirable residential locations?
"I know myself how the stresses of working in a seemingly glamorous job can mount up," Ruth says. "You might have money, but you have no time. So, for example, when you do a family shop, you don't think, you just grab. It can become very self-indulgent, but you're trapped. You want to do the best for your children, but what they want isn't the latest computer game. It's time with you, or time with Dad. But time is the one thing you haven't got. In this situation people can easily lose sight of what's really important."
Add to this the stresses of family breakdown, the feeling of being assessed by your possessions, your home or your cars, the idea that personal fulfillment is everything, and you have a recipe for dysfunction.
"What happens when you get to the top of the mountain ?" Ruth asks, "When you realise that you've done it all and got it all? Maybe then you're open to finding something deeper and more fulfilling." That 'something' for the Christian is God in Jesus Christ, but there are different ways, perhaps, of arriving at an understanding of God.
"Everyone has creativity inside them, but many people don't get the chance to express it," Ruth says. " People who are rich in money often feel poor in spirit, yet in Africa - for example - it's very different. People there are very poor, but they are often filled with the Spirit. So part of my work here will be about encouraging a different perspective. You have to bring the barriers down."
The Ark in the Park is the name of the project Ruth heads up, and a house on the Great Park has already been bought. Ruth and her family – husband John and two teenage children - will be moving in shortly.
" The objective is for the Ark to be a resource to generate and stimulate community life amongst all people of the Great Park," explains Archdeacon Geoff Miller. "We want to sustain and reinforce Christian values and the appreciation of the Christian faith in the neighbourhood."
Among the aims are encouraging fellowship, generating a sense of belonging to a community, providing and supporting community activities for all ages, and sowing the seeds of faith. The Ark will also promote Christian family value4s of caring and sharing, and of fair trade and green living.
All this is likely to include using the house as a base for arts and craft groups, discussion groups, children and parent groups, weekend social activities, and as a starting point for community outings and events. Plans include working with the new school on the Great Park, producing a community newsletter, encouraging neighbourliness, and mounting seasonal celebrations based on the Christian festivals.
Funding for the project has come mainly from two sources. Firstly the initiative is part of a wider diocesan programme to develop a Christian presence in new housing developments within the diocese.
In North Tyneside another project is already underway at Northumberland Park. Secondly, the diocese has received support from the Church Commissioners in its recent decision to offer grants for work in new housing and other development areas throughout the country. As the initiative takes shape, it is hoped that local parishes and community will be able to share in the work.
It sounds like mission with a capital "M". But Ruth Hewett, guided and aided by team rector Canon Andrew Shipton and evangelism development advisor Canon Dave Elkington, will be taking a very low-key approach to her work. "The more upfront you are, the more people are put off," she says. "You have to be sensitive to people's sensibilities."
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Can the Faith and Life course change lives?
One woman who attended a group in Stannington believes so. This is her story...
In September 2008 I signed up to a course called Faith and Life not knowing what it was about, but trying to find a reason for my life and what God's intentions for me might be. As the weeks went by I kept going in the hope I would find answers to the many questions I'd always had about my faith. What I found was a group of people who helped me through one of the hardest years of my life.
Since the previous November I had slept three to four hours a night at the most, and to explain why I need to rewind my story to 6.30 on Monday 12th November 2007 when I woke with my arms around a cold body. The frightening reality was that Paul, my best friend and husband of 31 years, was dead.
With all my heart I hated God. I thought: How could God do this to me after everything we had gone through ? I felt as if my heart had been ripped out of me and I very nearly lost all faith I’d ever had in God. Then, a year later, the group prayed for me to be able to sleep, and for the first time in ages I began to sleep. I also began to enjoy our weekly sessions which taught me to read my bible better and put myself into the shoes of the first Christians, what life was like for them, and how we live our lives today.
In February this year Paul would have been 60, and once again I hit a low point. For 14 months I had slept with his ashes in my bedroom, waiting to fulfil his final wish of having his ashes scattered at the mouth of the Tyne. Every plan I made to have it carried out failed, including writing to the captain on HMS Arch Royal when the ship were docked at North Shields (this was a ship Paul had worked on when he was an apprentice at Swan's).
When I attended one of my weekly sessions of Faith and Life I told the group of my predicament and I had them in either in shock or stitches when I said that it looked as though Paul was going to have to be put into a paper bag and thrown over the side of the Shields ferry. That was something Paul used to joke would happen whenever we took the ferry to the market in South Shields with the family.
I would have done just that in the previous weekend - which was the nearest to his birthday - but the weather was so bad that I felt I couldn't put the family through it, and that was assuming the ferry was actually operating. This was when I discovered God did have a greater plan – as well as a weird sense of humour and my faith became even stronger. One of our group, Debbie, said she would make a phone call to her husband, as he used to be coxswain of the Blyth volunteer rescue boat and he knew the current coxswain.
By the end of the week I had the phone number of the current skipper, and arrangements had been made for Paul’s ashes to be scattered at the mouth of the Tyne the following month.
There are a few funny connections in this story. The money collected at Paul’s funeral had gone to the Blyth volunteer lifeboat which I’d sent to Ronnie Campbell MP not knowing anything about the lifeboat or where it was based. Then on the anniversary on Paul’s death, HMRC Longbenton Contact Centre (where we’d both worked) had a fundraising event to give to Paul's chosen charity - again Blyth volunteer lifeboat.
So on March 15 we had a presentation of £800 at the boathouse followed by a ride around Blyth harbour for our daughter, grandchildren and the people from work. I handed over Paul's ashes that evening, and as the tide was going out we went to the North Pier at Tynemouth to watch the lifeboat crew scatter the ashes at sunset. I couldn't believe the events leading up to that day when the stormy days had stopped and the sun shone on a warm balmy sunset – it had all come from the Faith and Life group.
Last November 12 was the second anniversary of my husband’s death and I feel as though I am at the same crossroad as last year when I hadn't a clue which path my life would take. But that was when I joined the Faith and Life group. The one thing I have gained from the path that God showed me then was the knowledge that I have to trust him totally, and that if I do, he will guide me on whatever path my life may take. I only have to ask Jesus for help. I have often wondered what God wanted out of me, and throughout my whole life I have prayed for help and direction to obtain my hopes, wishes and dreams - many of them never achieved. Yet still I walk his path.
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The Big Read: What’s the vision?
Alastair Macnaughton, Developing Discipleship Director for Newcastle and Durham, reports on the progress of an ambitious Lent plan for both dioceses
The vision of The Big Read is to get lots of people reading St. Luke’s gospel in a modern, accessible translation, for themselves.
These will be ecumenical reading groups, not in the form of a traditional Lent study group, but a conversation about the readings. We’ll be asking: ‘what does this story tell us about God?’ ‘Is God, in our experience, what he seems to be in Luke?’
At least a third of our church-going population in the diocese are planning to attend one of the three talks to be given by Bishop Tom Wright – the idea being to promote daily Bible reading for real, even for the busiest of us (there’s a fast-track in the accompanying book!)
On December 17 the booklet ‘Luke for Lent’ becomes available in Christian bookshops. The price will be around £5 for multiples of 25 copies. It will be possible by early January to order direct from SPCK for a lower price for 100 or more copies. The Resource Centre at Percy Main will have two copies for inspection or borrowing.
I wonder if we realise how much we owe to Luke and his gospel? The power of the stories there?
Bishop Tom Wright, himself a Morpeth boy, writes against the background of his native north east. His talks in our diocese are: February 4 at St Paul’s RC church Prudhoe Street Alnwick 7pm. ‘What to look for in Luke’; March 4 at St Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle 7pm ‘the Passion in Luke’; May 15 at 9.30 a.m. in West End Methodist Church, Hexham.
Why not make a bit of a parish trip of one of these? The talks are free, so it’ll only cost you the transport! Many churches will be sharing ecumenically in Big Read Groups. Notes for the guidance of Group facilitators can be found on the Lindisfarne website. www.lindisfarnertp.org Details are there about the training sessions in Alnwick, Wooler, Gateshead Civic Centre and Hexham.
The groups are for exploring together the readings which individuals have been following. So, for example, in week one of Lent individuals and groups will look at the week one readings. Groups will not seek to ‘cover’ all the readings for a given
week because that is for individuals to do. Group time will be best spent helping people relate just some of the passages or stories to their experience. Sister Patsy from Ushaw College points us to at least 19 stories in Luke, which we at times might identify with: here are just three: the eccentric old woman who is always to be found in church (Anna); the business people whose business seems to be about to go under (Simon and his partners); the people terrified they have got it all wrong (John the Baptist asking of Jesus ‘are you the one….’
Seldom do we get the chance to hear a world-class speaker on the gospels, to read for ourselves in a small booklet and then to discuss at leisure with others who are interested. It should prove very rewarding.
Further information from Alastair on 0191 2340371.
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Celebrating another five years of our Botswana link
Last month Bishop Trevor Mwamba and Canon Professor James Amanze from our Companion Diocese of Botswana visited Newcastle. The Revd. Geoff Lowson, chair of the Botswana Link Group in Newcastle, recalls the highlights of their visit
We all have memories that we treasure for a variety of reasons; two memories that I have added to my treasury concern a trip to Holy Island with our two visitors from Botswana. There was a confirmation there during their visit and so we went to join in the service with Bishop Martin and Br Damien. It was a beautiful service and all the more so in the atmosphere of that special place. Memory number one concerns Bishop Trevor Mwamba; when he was made bishop a friend gave him his pectoral cross which is a St Cuthbert’s Cross. The realisation of the connection between his cross and Holy Island thrilled him – reinforced by a trip to St Cuthbert’s tomb in Durham Cathedral a few days later. The next church to be built in Botswana will, I think, be dedicated to Cuthbert (and I have my mind set on Bede for the one after that”!)
Memory number two is less “churchy” ! Botswana is, of course, a land-locked country and so our other visitor, Fr James Amanze (the Revd Canon Prof Amanze) was absolutely fascinated by the notion that as we were staying on Holy Island overnight we would be cut off by the tide. At 10pm, after absorbing a bit of local culture in the pub, he wanted to drive down to see the incoming tide. It was, of course, pitch black. So with headlights on full we reversed very slowly up the empty road with the tide obligingly chasing us!
The visit was a great success and we managed to introduce our visitors to as wide a spectrum of diocesan life as possible in the time available; we also tried to spread them geographically from Whitley Bay to Hexham; from Willington to Kirkwhelpington; from Scotwood to Amble; from central Newcastle to Alnwick and, of course, Holy Island.
We were very pleased with the way the visit went, on several counts. Firstly, all the plans worked smoothly and there were no real hitches.. Secondly, there seemed to be very positive and useful exchanges throughout the time, whether it was the conversations about training with Lindisfarne or climbing St. Mary’s lighthouse. Finally, I think that from my perspective - along with the committee - there was an opportunity to build friendships and a good degree of openness which will stand us in good stead in the future. The next step is to build on the exchanges we had, but more of that over the next weeks and months.
One final treasured memory: four clergy in clericals, two from Africa and one in purple walking into a (very good) Bangladeshi Restaurant in Cowgate. The manager was thrilled – the customers were bemused!
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