The man shook as he told us his story of persecution: we could see the scars on his head and his hands. Another man in the group flinched as someone he didn’t know came into the room. I promised him “You will always be safe here.”  A woman cried as she told me how, as an out and proud Christian lesbian, she had been told she could not become a member of the church that she had been attending for months. “I am so glad to be back here” she said. A charity that works with children hired a room in the building we use, to run an event for LGBT people interested in adoption – “Because we saw you at Pride and thought this would be a good space to hold our event.” These three things all happened in the past month at MCC Newcastle. They are part of what we do, week in, week out. We offer hope and light to our community and beyond. Often it is in small, unseen ways – small gestures of kindness and compassion, such as the regular donations of clothing that people give to the West End Refugee Service. Sometimes we are able to bring hope at big events like Pride and World AIDS Day. People who may never worship with us follow us online and through social media. We are observed at a distance by many individuals, who may turn to us when life changes for them and they need a safe place to be.

A good while ago Mikee preached on Micah 6:8: What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. He suggested that at MCC Newcastle we are good at walking humbly with God – our worship is excellent and we offer many ways to go deeper in our spiritual life. He challenged us to really step up and step out in acting justly and loving mercy. This message has stayed with me and has continued to challenge me ever since. How do we move out beyond our church walls and how do we make it easier for groups to see us as a resource to support them in what they do?

This year’s Annual Congregational Meeting marks a key moment in our response to the challenge to love mercy and to act justly. The Board is proposing only two aims, which will help us to put our faith into action. Firstly, we are now ready to start looking for our own building, choosing a venue that is better suited to our needs and that will give us the flexibility to develop our ministries more fully. Secondly, we are going to focus on developing activities that intentionally reach out and serve those beyond our church walls.  We are called to bring hope and light. This is our time.

God bless

Cecilia    

 This month’s worship theme “The Gospel according to Cuthbert” is fascinating. In fact, the Christian history of the North East is amazing. It is also generally a well kept secret. I have been quite taken aback by the number of folk who have lived in the NE all their lives and know very little about what is around them. 

Aidan, Cuthbert, Hilda, Bede, Wilfrid…. There is quite a list of saints whose lives strongly influenced the development of the Christian faith in this region and way beyond. The Venerable Bede, famous resident of Jarrow, did much to influence thinking about nature and science, as well as theology and history. 

What is stunning about Bede is that he barely travelled at all. He was moved between the monasteries at Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, depending on the needs of the community. He never got to Rome or to visit any of the great seats of academic learning. He was content to be where he was and do what he was called to do in that place. Bede’s World is definitely worth a visit if you would like to know more…. 

Recently, I led a workshop called ”Bible Basics”. It was aimed at those of us who don’t know our bibles well at all, and may even find scripture quite intimidating. We started the day playing “Bible Snap”, just to get our heads around the names of the many different names of the books in the Bible. 

By the end of the afternoon, people who had been nervous about the Bible at the beginning of the day were finding their way around concordances, commentaries and dictionaries to help them to understand and interpret a passage of scripture. It was fabulous! 

The famous saints of the North East, and around the world were ordinary people who did extraordinary things. None of them were born knowing all there is to know about God, or prayer, or scripture. Every single one of them had to spend time learning, studying, questioning and listening to God. 

We are no different. We are not going to go deeper in prayer, or become more knowledgeable about the Bible unless we put the time and effort in. God is always there, waiting to touch us, guide us, love us. We just need to be willing to give God some time in our lives. Bible Snap anyone? 

God bless 

As many  of you know, I am passionate about giftedness. I believe that the Holy Spirit  works through every single person and every person has particular spiritual  gifts. These are often the things that we do so easily and intuitively that we  don’t even consider them to be gifts, or even to be
particularly special. They  are so normal for us, we assume everyone else must be able to do the same things  we do and respond to the world in the same way.
  
The vote  at the Anglican Synod which narrowly rejected the proposal to allow women to  become bishops has angered and dismayed folk both inside and outside the Church  of England. It also plays to the notion that God calls by gender, rather than by  giftedness. In the same way, some of us have been told that God saves by  sexuality, rather than by grace. We know that the God we serve is beyond human  ways of dividing up people into “worthy” and “unworthy”. Jesus chose the most  unlikely group of people to share in his ministry and went out of his way to  spend time with individuals that society had placed on the margins.
  
Whenever we meet prejudice and ignorance, we need to challenge it. This might be by specific actions, such as signing the petition against the proposed anti LGBT legislation in Uganda (click here to sign). It may  be by how we promote other ways of doing and being. I wear a red ribbon every  day, as a gentle reminder to anyone who notices it that AIDS has not gone away.  
  
World AIDS Day is on Saturday 1st December. More than 90,000 people are currently living with HIV in the UK and globally an estimated 33.3 million people have HIV. More than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007 have died from the virus,  making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history.
  
At MCC  Newcastle, we join in the WAD events each year and also have our own WAD service. Having a vibrant Christian presence at these events reminds people that  God does not punish people through illness, any more than God saves by sexuality  or calls by gender.

 Wear your red ribbon this week – it makes a difference.

 God bless,
  
Cecilia

It looks like we might have had our summer already in the North East, doesn’t it? :-)
 
Most people feel better when the sun is out and the ordinary around us becomes beautiful. Then, the rain appears, skies are grey and we can quickly forget the warmth of the sun.

We have just celebrated Pentecost, a moment of high drama in the story of the disciples and the event that many see as the beginning of the Christian church. For a while afterwards, everything went really well. The church grew and the community lived in harmony, sharing all they had in common. Then human nature, the need for structure, not to
mention persecution and imprisonment, started to take their toll on the utopian vision that the early followers of Christ had for the church. Paul and the other apostles kept having to remind the disciples of the new life that they were called to in Christ and the difference that the Holy Spirit was making in their lives.

In our own faith journeys too, we have moments of great fire and passion - God seems close enough to touch. These are the moments that we need to remember and cherish, when our life is more challenging and difficult.

Deep under the city of Newcastle runs the Victoria Tunnel. In
some point in its history, in the midst of the darkness and damp, someone made a small crucifix and placed it on the wall in the tunnel. It is an amazingly beautiful and touching symbol of faith to find in such an extraordinary setting.
The tunnel curators do not who put it there or why, but it offers a lasting tribute to the faith of someone who wanted to have something to remind themselves and others of the presence of God, even 85 feet below ground.

May you feel the warmth of God’s love, just like the sun, this
week.

God bless,

Cecilia

Yesterday we explored the last of our Bedrock Beliefs:

At MCC Newcastle, we believe:

The Holy Spirit moves in different ways, such as
inspiring, challenging and healing us, and deepening our relationship with God.

The Holy Spirit seems to be the most mysterious aspect of God as Trinity. We understand God as Creator – the BIG God – perhaps taught to us as sitting on a cloud somewhere, looking down on us. We can picture Jesus, read the stories of his life, feel connected to him through his humanity. 

But the Holy Spirit? Some of us were brought up saying “the Holy Ghost” – that confused matters even more.

Our Bedrock belief discussions focussed on the diverse ways that we try to describe the Holy Spirit – the God within; the still small voice of God; God working through us. Paul describes what we experience when the Holy Spirit is at work –  the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (Galatians 5:22)

Another way of experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit is to notice how we behave in certain situations. Many times, someone will be recounting something that has happened to them, and will say “I don’t know why, but I said…” or “I never usually do that but it just seemed like the right thing
to do.” For me, this is the Holy Spirit at work, nudging us in our day to day lives, when we listen with our souls, rather than just our hearts and minds.

The Holy Spirit is present in the beautiful, powerful silence of
our worship and when the music takes us to a deeper place. She is God in each breath we take. May you feel the power of the Holy Spirit today.

God
bless,

Cecilia